Michael Bishop August 29, 2012 Prof.

Becksfort

Using Web 2.0 in the Music Classroom

The article of choice pertained to the use of podcasts within a high school music class in Portugal. There were several ways in which podcasts were incorporated into the teaching of curriculum. The first activity the students did was lead by the instructor. He took a piece that they had studied during the previous semester, and had the students create and play their own interpretation of the main melody. Once that was recorded he and the students sequenced everyones melodies into one coherent stream. The second activity was called Secret Composer. This was a type of audio game that was published on the class web page once a month. It had a blurred photo of the composer, a recording of a prominent work, and a few facts. The students were expected to determine who the composer was and leave their answer in a comment section. Every 10 days, the picture would become less blurred and more facts were added. The third activity involved either a single student or a group of students. The activity My Song had students record them playing, singing or producing the melody of their favorite song with no lyrics. Once the students created these clips, they were loaded onto the site and other students had to guess the song and the composer. The article continues to detail all 5 activities that were carried out using the podcast and web hosting technology. I personally feel that this is an excellent use of free, web based tools within the classroom. As the article mentions, too often do we find teachers which either view technology as nothing more than a hindrance or distraction within the classroom, or use abuse technology and use it inappropriately. They

fail to see the wonderful uses and applications. This use is great for a variety of other reasons. It allows the students to become familiar with new technologies by providing an environment to experiment. I assume that the instructor is familiar with the podcast technology and thus is able to clear up and problems that arise during the use and experimentation. The podcasts used within this classroom served as an alternative to the monotony of rote-based learning. Not all students learn the same way, and thus need to be provided with multiple approaches to learning. The fifth activity in the series required students to research a musical time period and present their findings in a podcast for the class to watch/listen to. The podcast incorporated pictures, music, and the recorded voices of the students that did the research. This approach not only taught students how to use and be more comfortable with technology across the board, but also presented outlets for several different learning styles. The visual students were able to see pictures and information from the periods in question. Auditory students were able to hear music from the time periods and better understand the typical stylistic approaches of each. Kinesthetic students were able to exercise their learning by actually making the presentation, as well as recording their voices. So many different approaches are presented and covered by one podcast activity. In short, I am very happy that these podcasts were able to be successfully incorporated into the classroom. I have personally been in classrooms where technology has not served as a tool, but rather an alternative to teaching. Not feeling up to it today? Why not let the students just play games and call it educational? They students within the Portuguese class were able to learn a great skill (podcasting) while reinforcing knowledge and having a great time all the while. Student s are very receptive to this type of approach, which is evident in the student response questionnaires. 100% of the students in this article stated that want to continue these types of projects and education. Through the proper use of technology, we can make our own students as fervent and excited about their education as these are.