Learning a musical instrument as a child gives the brain a boost that lasts long into adult life, say scientists. Adults who used to play an instrument, even if they have not done so in decades, have a faster brain response to speech sounds, research suggests. The more years of practice during childhood, the faster the brain response was, the small study found....

Spreaker is a free online cloud-based web audio platform. With this tool, you can create your own podcasts and live Internet radio shows. You can either pre-record or broadcast live, if you prefer. The magic of Spreaker happens on their unique interactive DJ Console. The tool gives you total control over your project, and allows you to spice things up using a wide range of preloaded music and sound effects. You can also upload your own media files to incorporate into your own unique Spreaker projects. Spreaker's basic account is free and gives 10 hours of audio storage, and a maximum of a 30 min. live broadcast, though the number of times you can broadcast is unlimited. How Can You Use Spreaker in a Classroom? As a classroom tool, Spreaker offers the perfect introductory platform for students to learn about broadcasting design and delivery. They can share their thoughts and opinions about subjects they love or are learning about in their own podcasts. For those more ambitious students, a group can design and develop a full regular live radio show for keeping fellow students informed about school events and news, and also news around the community, or even the world. Spreaker also lets you share content on social media sites like Facebook using a unique "player widget", along with embedding options for student blogs and websites. How Does Spreaker Develop the 21st Century Fluencies? Solution Fluency-When delivering a solution to a problem, how would students get a message across to a wide audience? Podcasting or a live radio show is a great way to do it. Spreaker not only provides a perfect audio tool for these kinds of projects, but also lets projects be shared with ease. Information Fluency-Podcast and radio show development requires that certain considerations be made with its structuring, and certainly with its content. When developing projects for Spreaker, students will be researching how such shows are created and revised, and how content for

Teach Music and Programming at the Same time! EarSketch engages students in computing principles through collaborative computational music composition and remixing. It consists of an integrated curriculum, software toolset, and social media website. The EarSketch curriculum targets introductory high school and college computing education. The software toolset enables students to create music by manipulating loops, composing beats, and applying effects with Python code. The social media website invites students to upload their music and source code, view other students' work, and create derivative musical remixes from other students' code. EarSketch is built on top of Reaper, an intuitive digital audio workstation (DAW) program comparable to those used in professional recording studios.

An article about the use of this program in schools and its positive impact: http://www.eschoolnews.com/2013/05/20/pilot-hopes-to-draw-students-to-computer-programming-through-music/?

Two musicians in two cities -- a violinist in Philadelphia (Marjorie Bagley, associate professor of violin from the University of North Carolina Greensboro) and a cellist in Dekalb, Illinois (Cheng-Hou Lee, assistant professor at Northern Illinois University Music School) -- played a duet together in real time, connected via a live audio/video stream on Internet2. They played "Passacaglia" by Handel-Halvorsen, a piece filled with complex interplay of violin and cello. The timing has to be perfect or it falls apart. "It is what we call a showpiece," said Bagley. "It's the sort of thing you show off with." Small delay can make a huge difference in sound For this venue, they were showing off Internet2's low latency capability, or LOLA. Normally, a live stream over the traditional Internet has a delay of about 300 milliseconds (about a third of a second), even before buffering.

The Resource for Education Technology Leaders focusing on K-12 Engineering and physics teacher Nelson Nunalee of Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, North Carolina, was the high school winner of Vernier Software & Technology's 2013 Engineering Contest, which showcased creative uses of Vernier sensors with NI LabVIEW software in the classroom. Nunalee's class created virtual instruments as part of their digital music study. In this video, the students explain the process of devising the virtual trombone and demonstrate its use. Watch below or on YouTube.

This interactive site is filled with music, a music dictionary, music history, and even review of a multitude of music concepts. In addition there are quizzes and practice tests to assess your understanding. The musical topics cover Scottish music, jazz, American music, different periods of classical music, vocal music, world music, and 20th century music. The more advanced sections go into greater detail of each period of music. Listen to audio files that provide examples of everything that is discussed.

This revolution is still young. As neat as some of this stuff is, innovation in music education is just beginning to heat up, and a handful of recent apps point to a future where learning music is easier, more accessible and even fun.......