Music in the Classroom
Teachers often have questions about what is allowed regarding listening to music in the classroom. Is it good for students? What do our policies say?
When to use music:
Be Purposeful
Music is a great way to energize or calm students to set the mood at certain points throughout the school day.
Use it to help students transition between activities.
Introduce students to global arts and culture.
Provide audio based perspective / historical context.
Use music files to help students manage special needs and exceptionalities.
When to avoid using music:
Research indicates that listening to music can slow student learning when students are studying or performing other academic tasks. Listening to music can negatively impact their recall of information and impede their understanding of reading texts (Cutler par. 4).
Be Aware:
"Of all the forms of copyright protected works, music is perhaps the most restricted and licensed. "
Washington State University Libraries
Playing Music in the Classroom
What's Not Legal?
Playing entire works from CDs or personal digital music collections (mp3, wav, etc):
Fair use allows a portion of entire work to be played. Therefore, teachers can play music in class for the purpose of education or research, only if a small portion is played. Experts recommend a maximum 10% of the work or 30 seconds whichever is less (Stanford Libraries).
Using Subscription Streaming Sites:
Streaming services such as iHeartRadio, Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, and Pandora are offered for personal, non-commercial use. This agreement prevents teachers from using these tools to broadcast music to their classrooms. Fair Use for Education under Copyright Law does not allow for an exception to this agreement.
What's Legal?
It is legal to stream RADIO broadcasts to the classroom. Consider some from the library recommended radio streaming sites.
Using music provided for classrooms specifically or in the public domain
Teachers who own a CD or other physical/digital legal copy of a work, may play for curricular purposes an entire work in face-to-face classroom teaching. (See National Association of Music Education)
USD 465 Relevant Policies
The USD 465 Acceptable Use Policy allows streaming within legal guidelines for educational use in the classroom.
Conditions in which streaming can be allowed (the teacher is responsible to check):
There is an educational or behavioral benefit to the student.
It is honoring the software User Agreement. Usually allowing only one user at a time by the registered user.
You can verify that the music being streamed is appropriate content for access using our network.
Can students listen to music for entertainment purposes on their personal device during class?
The use of cell phones/communication devices are not to be used in the classroom unless they are being utilized with teacher permission (which must be pre-approved by Admin) for learning purposes.
Can students or staff download and store music on their school-issued Google Account/Chromebook for entertainment purposes?
USD 465 must be in compliance with copyright laws. USD 465 includes all staff and students. Any music stored on the district managed cloud (Google Drive), network drives, or computing devices (Chromebooks) must be obtained legally and used in compliance with the copyright agreement for that work (ie. shared legally).
Music, legally obtained, may be stored for educational use only. Students may not store and listen to copyrighted music on their school issued device for entertainment purposes, as the district cannot verify copyright compliance. Students/staff may not distribute copyrighted music files over the network or cloud unless the music is their own intellectual property or falls in the public domain.
Can students stream music from YouTube or other streaming service for entertainment purposes during classtime from their school issued Chromebook?
YouTube Terms of Service 5 B. states,"Content is provided to you AS IS. You may access Content for your information and personal use solely as intended through the provided functionality of the Service and as permitted under these Terms of Service."
The usage of "personal use" statement indicates that students may access the content on their own, but they could not distribute to the rest of the class. However, it should be carefully considered whether streaming this content is a quality usage of class time and district network resources.