AI & Music Education: Meet the MusicFirst Assistant
Last week, after months of development and careful thought, we launched the first ever integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the MusicFirst Classroom and we are absolutely thrilled with the possibilities that it brings to our customers. And no, this isn’t an April Fools Day joke. The MusicFirst Assistant is an optional feature that allows teachers to enlist the aid of AI when coming up with ideas for lesson plans. The first of its kind integration in the music education sector, the MusicFirst Assistant has been seamlessly integrated into the lesson planning workflow of the MusicFirst Classroom. All existing MusicFirst Classroom customers can access this incredible feature right now. Here is how it works…
In the User Settings menu, you will find the option to enable the MusicFirst Assistant at the very bottom of the window. Because we know that AI is still a somewhat controversial and slightly unknown concept, we decided to disable the feature as the default setting. After doing your own research on the subject, if you decide to use the MusicFirst Assistant, all you need to do is click on the Enabled button, click Save and you’ll be ready to utilize this amazing feature.
Next, click on Create > Lesson Plan from the side navigation menu.
You will see the MusicFirst Assistant, along with the + Open Assistant button right in the Teacher View Only section of the Lesson Plan template. It should be noted here that this feature is only available to teachers, and only appears if you Enable it.
If you click on + Open Assistant, you’ll see a new window that allows you to enter any topic that you would like to write a lesson plan about. All you need to do is enter a topic and click the See Results button.
For the purposes of this example, I have chosen to search for lesson ideas about John Philip Sousa. After I typed in his name into the search window and clicked See Results, after a few seconds of “thinking”, this is what the MusicFirst Assistant generated for me…
At this point, I can either click Regenerate if I’m not happy with the results or I can click the Use This Lesson button, and the MusicFirst Assistant will fill in all of the Lesson Plan template with the Objective, Materials, and Procedure. That is REALLY cool in my opinion. You can then edit any of the content to suit the needs of your specific curriculum and students.
We will be rolling out this same functionality for creating Tasks and Assessments in the coming months. These functions will be linked to the various software options that the MusicFirst Classroom offers, so that if you have something like Flat, PracticeFirst, Sight Reading Factory or Soundtrap, the MusicFirst Assistant will be able to give you some suggestions as to how you might be able to use those tools for your tasks. This is a HUGE leap forward in terms of technology and as an aid for teachers. Does it write the best lesson plans? Absolutely not. Can you write better lesson plans? I would certainly hope so. The purpose of the MusicFirst Assistant is to quickly generate some ideas for teaching any given topic if you need some ideas. As an optional feature, you can leave it disabled and never use it, or you can try it out for yourself and see just how useful it can be.
I am quite certain that some of my competitors will read this post and quickly try to figure out a strategy to integrate AI into their products (you know who you are). We integrated AI into our product after LOTS of discussions with teachers, administrators, and professors, and we know that this first step is a great start. While AI will never replace quality teachers and instruction, especially in music education, it can be a useful tool - especially when there is never enough time to get to everything required by a typical school music program.
If you would like to try the MusicFirst Assistant for yourself, just sign up for a FREE 30-day trial, and follow the instructions above to enable the MusicFirst Assistant. Let me know your thoughts! I hope you find it as exciting a feature as I do.