Noteflight (www.noteflight.com) is a widely used online musical notation program, designed to give you and your students the tools needed to compose music where there is a computer with an internet connection. Noteflight has a free plan for individual users that offeres the notation editor with limited features: 25 scores per account, 10+ basic instrument sounds, any number of staves, 20 levels of undo history, and the ability to print and import MusicXML and MIDI. The premium version is called Crescendo ($49/year) which offers an upgraded version of Noteflight's features, making it more like a high dollar music notation program. Some of the premium features include: 250 scores per account, 50+ instruments, individual part printing, guitar/bass tab editor, a mixer, score templates, ability to change the color of notes and symbols, and the ability to create learning activities for groups. For K-12 use classroom use, Noteflight Classroom ($295/year) supports up to 250 users per site, and the ability to administer one private site for your classes. Noteflight Classroom contains all the features of Crescendo, and needs no IT setup (so you are in control!). There is also a Noteflight District plan that is custom priced based on the size of the enrollment.
A cool feature available to all users is the Browse feature which allows you to check out what other people have written, favorite it, or comment on it. This is great especially for younger students, or amateurs. Your students would be able to benefit from feedback on their compositions, leave feedback on other's music, or even collaborate with someone in another school (or country!). Like your own Noteflight notation, you can change certain aspects of the score such as the tempo, or the mixer (paid only). However, while listening to some user compositions, the playback would often stop, only to sustain whatever note it stopped on. The playback sounds are a bit obnoxious for most of the instruments, so this event turns an already poor sound into an unbearable one. Also, because the program functions through the internet, the speed that pieces load is entirely dependent on the internet connection.
Using the notation feature feels comfortable from the start. You can insert text, expression marks, various pitches and rhythms, key signatures, etc., everything a student would need. These are available in a small popup window that can be moved. There are a few little things that bother me about the way notes are input into the score, but overall the process is easy, and it is easy to create something in a short amount of time, save it for later, or share it with your students (or to their teacher). Noteflight keeps track of the compositional process, so teachers can observe how their students got to their destination. Most of the notation features are fairly basic compared to expensive software, and aren't really designed to create a major work. It would be necessary to upgrade to Crescendo to more detailed works.
The benefits to having affordable notation software in the classroom and at home are enormous. Never before was it possible for every student to have access to such software. Many of the National Standards for Music Education (http://www.menc.org/resources/view/national-standards-for-music-education) can be achieved through the use of Noteflight/Crescendo. Students of all levels can compose and arrange music according to your specified guidelines (Standard 4); they can notate music that they hear or apply concepts learned from aural training software (Standard 5); they can read the music that their peers write (Standard 5); they can sing or play music that is created by you, your students, or their peers (Standards 1 and 2); they can easily listen to or playback music in the software, analyze that written music, and describe the music they see and hear (Standard 6); they can evaluate their peers' or other Noteflight users' music (Standard 7).
I would use this Noteflight in my classroom because it opens a whole new creative world to many students who otherwise would not be able to be apart of that world. It also allows the teacher to participate in the creative process. Noteflight can be easily integrated into any music classroom. I do highly recommend this software for its ease of use, its affordability, and its accessibility to anyone with a computer. It will take some time for someone who has never used notation software, so I give it a 7/10 learning curve, and a 10/10 as a teaching tool.
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