Article Summary

1. Citation of the Article

Riley, Patricia, (Sep. 2013), Teaching, Learning, and Living with iPads, Music Educators
Journal, Vol. 100, (Issue 1), p81-86

2. Analyze the Logic of the Article
Identify the key issue or question
In the article Teaching, Learning, and Living with iPads, Patricia Riley attempts to discover
the usefulness of iPads in K-12 music classrooms.
Identify the logical structure of the argument
a. Identify the conclusion iPads can be extremely useful tools for music making, personal
organization, and instruments for teaching music.
b. Identify the premises iPads are highly portable and have apps that enhances instruction and
fits the specialized needs of music education.
c. Identify the evidence Riley lists multiple series of apps that help to teach ear training, music
creation, instruments, notation and recording. She also quotes her students reflection papers on
how the iPad aided them in rehearsal/performance, creating music, teaching instruments,
providing virtual instruments, audio/video recording, providing listening resources, and
organization.

3. Evaluation of the Authors Reasoning
a. Rileys article begins with a personal anecdote of her uses of the iPad and how it had aided her
in her daily life as a teacher. She writes about particular apps and their functions as well as how
they could be implemented in the classroom. Because of those premises, she concludes that iPads
could be useful tools that could aid preservice teachers in the classroom.
b. The evidence presented directly supports the premises. Riley categorizes the areas in which
her students were supposed to reflect upon. These categories were areas that the iPad was able to
aid the teachers with in their classrooms as well as provide personal organization. This
information is directly supporting to Rileys conclusion that iPads have the ability to ease the
daily lives of teachers in terms of instruction, music making and personal organization. Riley
states that she has been unable to locate research regarding the use of iPads in music education
settings but was able to find research that showed how iPads aided students and teachers in other
classrooms. Rileys supporting evidence is completely based on how her students had responded
in their reflections so the evidence may be accurate, but we cannot be totally sure because there
was no formal study on the use of iPads in music education classrooms.

4. Focus on Implications
I am a firm believer that technology, especially iPads, can be of huge aid to teachers in their
personal organization as well as to aid them in teaching. For one, the children of this generation
are growing up with this technology so they will want to work with it and be excited to use it.
Just from personal experience I know that the use of modern technology in the classroom draws
me towards wanting to interact with it and be more engaged in the lesson. I am interested in the
topic of technology in the music education classroom because I do not think that it is
implemented enough. I feel that technology could change the way we all perceive and play music
and that although we have been using technology as another mean to get old points across, we
could be using technology to teach music in an entirely different way. As a future educator, I
know that I will be very conscious that my students are engaged in my lessons and technology is
just one method in order to ensure that my students are engaged. I will also use technology in
order to aid my teaching as much as possible because I personally know and can attest to the
power of computers and pad technology and that it could aid education in marvelous ways. To
learn more about this topic I can subscribe to electronic music organizations such as SEAMUS,
and stay updated with the Music Educators Journal as well as the Teaching Music journal offered
by NAfME. For more info regarding music technology I can also look into the Association for
Technology in Music Instruction(ATMI) as well as the Technology Institute for Music
Educators(TI:ME).