Soundtrap for Education: Unleashing Creative Sound Recording in the Classroom
Soundtrap for Education is a cloud-based, audio-creating platform that empowers students and teachers to explore creative sound recording across various subjects, ages, and ability levels. It enables teachers to follow the latest STEAM curricula and meet learning standards through music, podcasts, language, literacy training, and other sound recordings. With its intuitive platform and versatile features, Soundtrap for Education is a valuable tool for fostering creativity, collaboration, and engagement in the classroom.
Key Features and Benefits
Soundtrap for Education offers a range of features and benefits designed to enhance the learning experience for both students and teachers.
Empowering Creativity Through Sound
Soundtrap for Education empowers students and teachers to explore creative sound recording in all subjects, for all ages and ability levels. The platform allows students to express themselves through music creation, podcasting, and audio storytelling. According to one educator, Soundtrap is a "game-changer" that helps students learn that music is a tool that can spark the imagination and bring people together.
Collaborative Recording, Composition, and Audio Editing
Soundtrap for Education offers a range of music editing capabilities, including the ability to record and import audio, mix and manipulate audio tracks, apply effects and processing, and arrange and edit musical arrangements. The platform also supports collaborative projects, allowing multiple students to work together in real-time on the same project.
Podcasting and Audio Storytelling
Soundtrap for Education helps students create and edit compelling podcasts, transcribing their voices to text with the interactive transcript feature. This feature is a game-changing tool for podcasting and audio story creation, allowing students to transform spoken word into text and edit their recording as they would a text document. Students can record their own ideas, as well as conduct remote or in-person interviews to capture a variety of perspectives.
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Accessibility and Inclusivity
Accessibility features also make Soundtrap a great fit for learners with special needs. The platform's intuitive interface and collaborative features can help students with disabilities participate fully in classroom activities.
Safe and Secure Online Environment
Soundtrap for Education provides students with a safe and secure online environment to learn and play in. The platform is designed to comply with COPPA, GDPR, FERPA standards and supports CIPA certification. All users are initially placed in a safe, protected environment where they can collaborate. Their profiles are not visible to the outside world, and they cannot contact or be contacted by people outside of their group. A minimal profile allows only for the first name and last name to be stored in the profile. Only administrators or teachers can add users, and students may only collaborate with peers and teachers within their groups.
Integration with Learning Management Systems
Soundtrap for Education integrates seamlessly with Noteflight, Flat.io, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Schoology, and MusicFirst. This integration makes it easy for teachers to incorporate Soundtrap into their existing curriculum and workflow. Projects and assessments are easy to monitor and evaluate.
Extensive Library of Loops and Instruments
Users have access to an extensive collection of quality loops, effects, and software instruments. This includes 20000+ high-quality beats and presets, synths, basslines, percussion, and drum beats. Students can also make their own beats in an easy and intuitive way.
Cross-Platform Compatibility
Soundtrap works seamlessly across all Wi-Fi-connected devices and all operating systems. Since the Studio is completely cloud-powered, students can continue working on their music or podcasts from home. It is especially suited for today’s mobile-intense generation because students and teachers can access their works-in-progress from any device.
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Soundtrap EDU Portal: A Hub for Resources and Support
When using an education technology product, it can be challenging to get the support and training you need. By using Soundtrap, you’ll have access to the Soundtrap EDU portal with lesson plans, 200+ teacher snapshot ideas for ALL subjects, user stories, and free online learning events.
Journal
The EDU Portal has easy-to-use tabs and opens with the Journal, a space to find success stories and inspiration. Teachers from all over the world share their best practices, lessons, and student work.
Events
Once you’ve seen what your students can do with Soundtrap in the Journal, it is recommended exploring the Events tab. A wide variety of learning events are offered every month, including mic checks to pop in and ask questions in real-time. There are also timely webinars about topics like Virtual Ensembles or advanced music-making with Soundtrap. The best monthly event is the Heart-to-Heart where educators share inspiration and student work in a supportive community space.
Resources
The Resources section is separated by role: teacher, student, and administrator. The teacher resources include pre-made lesson plans, which you can filter by subject or age. Idea boards focus on topics such as music education, SEL, and culturally responsive teaching. The community is an incredible Professional Learning Community. The student resources section houses a FREE Student Course for students to become Soundtrap pros!
Podcast
The Podcast tab shows the podcast series, “Education Today,” as well as the newest series: RecordEd Arts. RecordEd Arts, a Spotify Original podcast series presented by Soundtrap, covers the vast landscape of the recording arts in education. Episodes feature stories from current classrooms where the recording arts play an important role in core content learning, identity formation, healing, and culturally sustaining teaching practices.
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Soundtrap Summits
The Soundtrap Summits tab features FREE online learning events that feature incredible speakers with practical ideas.
Implementation and Support
Soundtrap also has a dedicated team of Education Specialists ― all former educators themselves ― who work closely with schools on implementation and support long-term success with creative sound-making. All educators deserve high-quality resources and ongoing support. The Soundtrap team is always here to collaborate with you in your teaching and learning journey.
Pricing and Availability
The base package is $249 per year for 50 users (flexible licenses). Soundtrap for Education offers subscriptions for individual classrooms, schoolwide, and districtwide usage. Fifty seats is the minimum package, with other options available for schools and districts interested in integrating Soundtrap for Education into their curriculum. Any educator can create a trial for 30 days with any plan.
Real-World Applications
Soundtrap has been used in all subject areas, including music, math, history, science, and more. Podcasting projects bring presentations to life across the curriculum.
One teacher shared the story of a five-year-old student who was able to express herself more effectively through audio recording than through written language. In just two minutes, the student spoke 183 words, more than 13 times what she was able to express in written language. The teacher was then able to use Soundtrap's transcription tool to show the student what she had said as a written text.
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