August 26, 2008-Question 10:
After seeing a variety of websites that were created by students (podcasts, wikispaces, social networking), created for students (sfskids.org, dsokids.org, musictheory.net), and created by teachers (teachers creating podcasts for students, teachers creating wikispaces, and teachers posting their class lectures on iTunes for students to download), what do you think the future role of the Internet will be for music education?
Answer the following question on the course blog site by 11:00 am on Wednesday.
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I think that the Internet is going to become a vital extended teaching tool for music education. It already has many capabilities, but I feel that there will be a vast assortment of shared teaching techniques between worldwide schools that will occur more frequently. I think that concerts might go global. School music programs will become an internet classroom, and I think students will start creating complex compositions and accompaniment parts to use that you never would have thought of before. Music is an instant communication tool that everyone can understand anywhere, so it will become vital for communicating with different cultures, and maybe future generations will have more respect for each other.
Comment by Andrew Lyman — August 26, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
Well said Andrew!
Comment by awillis2 — August 26, 2008 @ 5:35 pm
I think technology is going to play an important role in education, but at the same time it could divide poorer and less poor school districts. I think technology is going to continue to be an emphasis, but from my personal experience, our schools have computers, but they are old and need to be reproduced. We have the oppurtunity to create more projects on the computer, but unless it’s a state requirement some buildings can not afford to print the materials due to lack of paper or ink for the printer. Another problem is that not all of the buildings have internet access and many times the server is down.
Technology has a lot of uses and can be very beneficial to the students, the only con is that we can’t get the same quality to all students.
Comment by Samuel Constant — August 26, 2008 @ 9:25 pm
This question is a hard one to answer! I think that there will be more interactions between music programs of many schools, providing that all schools will have up-to-date technology…like concerts, sharing ideas between teachers, etc. Internet might become a source for students to share their creations, not only with their parents but with students from different parts of the country or even the world.
Comment by HaNa Chang — August 26, 2008 @ 9:29 pm
I am wondering what percentage of teachers use the tools that foster sharing whether it is a blog or podcast, etc.. I find that I don’t have the time to keep up with all the on-line and computer time activities. Email takes up a lot of time allready. But I like, no, love that resources are so readily on line. I seldom have to buy a reference book or go to a library any more. I have mixed feelings about that…..
My other thoughts concern who is using the technology and how and why it is being used. I like intranet because I have allways been very protective of myself and family’s identity. Likewise, I am very protective of my students. That is paramount.
Like Amy said, she spends about 10% of her time on technology related learning. That really comes down to about 2-3 class sessions per year per grade, or, 3 minutes per class. When I look at it that way. It seems very do-able.
Comment by Mickey — August 26, 2008 @ 11:27 pm
I think that more Internet interfacing between students, teachers, and classroom assignments will increase. As more educators come into the classroom growing up with the Internet resources easily at the tip of the fingers then more Internet access will probably occur. Just as online classes have flourished where students do not have to be in a building, this trend will probably continue, not only in colleges but down through high school and grade schools. Webinars and the like are examples of this. I like the idea of quickly accessing information that you may not have known otherwise. I also like that students can have a greater involvement with their learning, but there is a downside. Personally it seems to take up too much time if required in addition to everything else. If use of Internet activities can replace something else instead of adding on to it, that would be ideal. It certainly will not and should not go away but I hope it will not become a burden either.
Comment by Debra Bono — August 27, 2008 @ 10:16 am
The internet really helps people to share and explore. I have already viewed many YouTube videos of concerts and other performances and I can see that being a big thing in the future. Students can send footage of their concerts to relatives that do not live locally and can create web resumes for potential gigs. Searching for information allows kids to easily go on webquests and delve into their niche musical interests. The only negative I could see is that as information and internet connections become ubiquitous, students could start to devalue knowledge, thinking that they can always “look it up later” if they need the information.
Comment by Dave Stasiak — August 27, 2008 @ 10:48 am