Composer Study

Using Aurasma in the Music classroom Since the beginning of this year, Aurasma has been a big hit with my students; it’s easy to set up and it’s way cooler than last year’s QR codes. I’ve been using Aurasma in the Music Classroom to create opportunities for exploring those who write and perform music and to bring those musicians into my classroom in a very futuristic way. However, I’m most excited about how Aurasma will allow my students to creatively share their demonstrations of understanding and their musical compositions. Aurasma is extremely exciting!! It all started when I first saw this bulletin board on Mrs King’s Blog and decided to take a different twist on the idea. Mrs. King is the Queen of Cute… I can’t come anywhere close to her crafty ideas – my attempts always look so academic – but thanks to Mrs. King for the inspiration to use Aurasma in the music classroom! I mustache you a question… Do you REALLLLLY know these musicians? Last year, we mastered creating QR codes to bring student work to life, to provide  links  to websites, and to distribute various files for download, etc. The students get it and most of our teachers get it by now. The EdTech conference at Harvard this past June was my first introduction to Aurasma (AR). In year two of our 1:1 iPad school, exploring augmented reality (AR) as a creative way to provide enrichment experiences for our students is a challenge that just had to be accepted.  Aurasma, a free app for mobile devices, is also an online creation site. Aurasma is cool in the music classroom, and as my teacher friends are discovering, cool in the regular classroom as well. Aurasma takes links to a whole new level! More than just a QR code Last year I created QR codes to link to MadLip composer bios and to an mp3 example of the composer’s work. With Aurasma, I am now able to: Link those (QR) composers to modern-day musicians who perform their works Create engaging opportunities for my students to discover a few interesting facts about modern-day musicians Introduce my students to amazing young children who enjoy performing great classical music Help my students make the connection that many musicians fell in love with music when they were the same age as my students Provide listening prompts and questions that appear during the viewing of the performance Have almost an instant interaction with the Aurasma Aura and move seamlessly from one Aura to another with very little load-time. Share student work (Recorder Karate performances, musical creations and compositions, recording of examples, etc.) How the children use Aurasma in the music classroom. Each student has the Aurasma app installed on their iPad. I displayed a QR code that automatically subscribes devices to my channel. The link for that magical QR code is provided when a channel is created. As you can see in the picture to the right, once students scan the image using the Aurasma app, a blue spinning circle appears and then the AURA is present! Tadaaaa!! On some of the images, the Aura disappears as soon as the iPad is moved away from the image, but on many, if the student double-taps the iPad screen, the Aura goes full-screen and the student can move away from the image and still watch the video. That setting made during the creation of the Aura. Students scan the trigger image and watch the video and/ or read the prompts as they are listening. That is all the children have to do to use the app and  experience augmented reality. There are many advanced features that can make the (AR) an actual interactive experience… I haven’t gotten that far with it just yet! It is very easy to use, very engaging, and über cool! Aurasma in the Music Classroom video Here is a video of students scanning the trigger images and the Auras appearing. Sometimes it’s just easier to see it in action than to describe it. Download my Aurasma in the Music Classroom trigger images and Auras. If you are interested in using the Trigger images and Auras I have created, you may download them at the end of this post. Directions and the QR code for subscribing are included in the PDF. If you would like to try one out: Download Aurasma on your phone or iPad, Scan the red QR code shown above which will automatically subscribe you to my channel. When you scan the picture below, you will see the Dizzy Aurasma AURA.   Posts you might find interesting: Here are a few blog posts that inspired me to explore Aurasma. Kleinspireation Music with Mrs. Dennis Education ambassador.com Coming soon… In my next post, I’ll give details about how to create the Auras and give a few time-saving tips to get you going. There are just so many possibilities for using Aurasma in the classroom, I can’t wait to share very creative and specific ways we are using Aurasma in other classrooms. If you are using Aurasma with your 1:1 students, are you having them create their own on their individual iPads? What about their channels? I still have a few kinks in the process I’m trying to figure out. If you haven’t tried Aurasma yet, dive on in and let’s figure it out together!! Game on!