METER Program | The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage

Musicopia brings music education to students throughout the Delaware Valley, often where there has been a lack of such programming, forming proactive partnerships with school administrations and serving over 40,000 children each year. The organization has taken its education residencies to the next level with the METER (Mobile Equipment for Technology-Enhanced Residencies) initiative, which incorporates multimedia learning with instruction and performance. Building on the results of a 2011 Discovery Grant, the program helps to bridge the divide between low-income and high-income schools, offering the same technology across the board, even to those schools currently lacking up-to-date resources. It also improves upon communication with young people who are already technologically proficient. Each METER kit equips a Musicopia teaching artist with tools such as a laptop, projector, audio recorder, microphones, speakers, and video camera. An updated curriculum developed by Musicopia staff integrates this technology into lesson plans. Students use the METER kits to track and share their progress through YouTube and Facebook, and to connect with artists from around the world with video conferencing platforms such as Skype. For the first time, Musicopia is also able to oversee residencies directly through video conferencing. [fn]Management grants, through the Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative, were awarded from 2009 through 2013.[/fn]