The Texas Music Educators Association started its annual music education conference today with the Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) National Conference. TI:ME was started in 1995 and was founded by John Dunphy, Tom Rudolph, and Floyd Richmond. The organization received funding from NAMM to provide assistance to music educators with integrating technology into their classrooms. The early years involved music notation. Nowadays, it includes everything from digital audio workstations to the integration of technology into the current music curriculum.

The TI:ME National Conference is a subset of the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Annual Conference, which focuses specifically on the use of technology in music education. This conference provides music educators with an opportunity to explore new technologies, software, and hardware that can enhance music education in the classroom and beyond.

At the Technology in Music Education National Conference, attendees can participate in sessions and workshops led by experts in the field of music education technology. These sessions cover a range of topics, including the use of digital audio workstations, music notation software, and mobile devices for music education. Attendees can also see demonstrations of new and innovative technology products and services and learn about the latest trends and developments in the field.

Since I arrived later in the day, I wanted to highlight two sessions.

Using Social Media to Recruit and Advocate for Your Program

Brady McNeil did a great job showcasing tools to help music educators use social media effectively to advocate for their program. The five tips he gave were:

1. Let philosophy drive the content.

   1. More engagement = stronger opportunity for influence.

2. Photo Composition

   1. Rule of Thirds - eyes are driven to images divided into three.

3. Cropping

   1. There are different sizes for cropping in various social media and that should be taken into consideration when you crop a photo to post.

4. Pixel sizes

   1. Similar to cropping as different platforms require different pixel recommendations.

   2. png files are better in pixelation than jpg files.

5. Establish (follow) your brand.

   1. Create a brand or use the school colors so that your posts have consistency.

A couple of suggested tools to help you with this:

• Chrome Color Picker Tool - gives you the eye dropper to select the color and hex code of anything on the screen.

• Planoly shows what your picture will look like on a social media platform.

How Can I Create Play-Along Videos with Mostly Free Tools?

This was my session where I showed how to create a play-along video with free tools in two ways:

1. Using Canva, Katie Wardrobe’s Big Free Music Notation File, a song, a presentation tool like Keynote or Powerpoint, and a screen recording tool like Loom.

2. Using Canva, Katie Wardrobe’s Big Free Music Notation File, a song, a presentation tool like Keynote or Powerpoint, and a free video editing tool like Microsoft’s Clipchamp.

I showed them how to create this play-along video for Valentine’s Day from the song, That Thing You Do by Adam Schlesinger.

Go to https://wakelet.com/wake/CXbugb01E9PCIEeJlYEXc to find the resources used in this session!