Future Music Educators

iSchoolBand is an amazing online tool geared towards music teachers. Offering a format similar to Facebook, this program allows teachers to keep track of much of the administrative aspects of teaching all in one program. I briefly mentioned this software in a previous article I wrote for MusicEdMajor.Net entitled ,” Join the Web 2.0 Music Classroom” This was an appropriate place for iSchoolBand because it makes many of the administrative tasks completed by music teachers on a daily basis easier, and adds the collaborative nature found in social media. But because of everything involved in iSchoolBand, I thought that a more in-depth article might be appropriate. Below are just some of the many features offered by iSchoolBand. For additional information and to sign up for iSchoolBand, head over to the iSchoolBand website!

User Accounts

Four main groups of users can create accounts within each school account including directors, students, parents, and boosters. Each individual who creates an account within the school group (who must use a school-specific code given by the director) is connected to other members of that school’s account.

Each user is given a personal page within the school’s iSchoolBand account. This page has a very similar layout and functionality as that of Facebook, complete with status updates that appear in the school’s news feed, the ability to send private messages, and the ability to include basic personal information.

The director, or initial administrator of the school account has the ability to add other directors, parents, student leaders or boosters as administrators on the account. Administrators have the ability to manage many different aspects of the iSchoolBand community including: editing the homepage for the school, managing groups, managing inventories, and managing virtually all aspects of student accounts.

Inventory

One of the most practical features in iSchoolBand is the ability to track inventories, specifically instrument and uniform inventories. When adding instruments, users can input virtually every fact about the instrument including the make/model, amount paid, condition, locker number, etc. This allows the teacher to be able to track all of the instruments in their inventory easily, and aggregates all of the information about every instrument into one simple program. The same detail is available for adding uniforms with prompts for uniform number, hem, sleeve length, size, and even the date when it was last cleaned!

Assigning Items

Another very useful feature of iSchoolBand is the ease with which you can assign instruments and uniforms to students. After the inventories are added, and students activate their student accounts, managing the sign in/sign out process of items is as easy as one click. Any items in the inventory can be assigned to any of the students who have accounts on iSchoolBand. After these items are assigned, the names of the students who are responsible for the items appear beside the items in the inventory lists. This allows the director to easily see not only the instruments and uniforms he has, but also the students who are responsible for them.

Communication

iSchoolBand completely revolutionizes the communication of the teacher with band management, parents and students. With many options for communication offered, directors can easily notify everybody involved with a particular music program instantly. This has awesome implications when thinking about the practical use of iSchoolBand in music education.

As a director or account administrator, you have the ability to communicate with ANY of the groups in your iSchoolBand account quickly and easily. Through announcements, you can notify everybody in your program instantly, which could be useful for urgent communication, whether it be cancelling a rehearsal or reminding students of due dates. In addition to announcements, users can send personal messages to any person within the network. These messages are not seen by everybody, just the person you send it to. They are similar to Facebook messages in this respect. iSchoolBand also allows you to post on other profiles, similar to Facebook wall posts. These messages can be seen by everyone, and show up in news feeds.

Uploading

In addition to all of the above, site administrators can upload a variety of resources to help their students and parents.

iSchoolBand allows uploading of  many different media-type files. For music teachers, these could include resources like drill charts or sheet music, or music files and images. Through iSchoolBand, marching band directors could easily upload entire half-time shows without ever handing out parts or copying CDs. Students could easily log on to their iSchoolBand, view their parts, and play along with the audio file – all from their home computers.

iSchoolBand also allows directors to upload documents. That’s right – the days of lost medical forms and late permission slips are over. With this convenient option, parents and students can easily have access to every important document from their home computers.

What Are You Waiting For?

iSchoolBand is easily one of the most revolutionary tools ever for music teachers. With countless options for organization and a very easy-to-use interface, iSchoolBand has the potential to simplify any music teachers’ life. Through simplifying the administrative aspects of teaching, iSchoolBand allows teachers to focus on what they do best – teaching music. In addition, this also helps teachers to connect to their students in a new way, using the medium in which they already use to communicate with each other. In short, iSchoolBand gives teachers the power to harness modern technology to complete administrative tasks, and communicate with students using their language. With reasonable pricing and the implementation of funding options like the Goodwill Program and the Referral Program, iSchoolBand is certainly in the realm of possibility for you and your school. If you haven’t already, I would strongly recommend checking out iSchoolBand. Simply click the “Sign Up” button at the upper right corner of the iSchoolBand homepage to get started!