Project Description Entry

Educational Need: The national standards of music include 2 areas that are essential to a well-rounded music education:

• 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
• 7. Evaluating music and music performances.

This task is often overlooked in a performing ensemble class such as band or orchestra. There simply is not enough time for us to expose the large amount of music that is out there in the world today. This activity of listening to new music not only addresses these standards, but also provides students with exemplars and a clear target of what they are trying to achieve on their own instruments and performances.

Technology: I believe Internet radios, such as Pandora and lastfm.com, provide an answer. Students can listen to music streamed through their computers online. This is not only free but also legal. Teachers can create their own ‘stations’ that students can then go home to listen to.

Online forms/surveys, such as those created through google docs, can help to hold students accountable for their listening activities. These forms can also be used to help guide students through the listening process and focus them what’s important.

Research: The following article talks about research regarding listening and how it affects brain development (http://128.200.122.84/weinberger/publications/Weinberger,%201998e.pdf). Of course when I talk about listening I am talking about listening at a higher level, rather than just casual in the background listening. This blog outlines the importance of deep listening and pointers when teaching it students (http://musiciansway.com/blog/?p=2636)

I had a difficult time finding currently existing applications of this technology. I think in part because it is pretty brand new. I did find a few teachers from other subjects that talked about their uses/benefits of using Internet radio in the classroom:
http://scottangle23ed4766.blogspot.com/2006/02/internet-radio-and-classroom.html

http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/using-pandora-radio-in-the

The Plan: To implement it over the summer, I am going to create a radio station that relates to our marching bands field show. I will share this station with a group of my student leaders along with a short online survey for them to take. In that survey I will ask about how they felt listening affected them and if it helped to improve their understanding of the music, etc.

Once I get their feedback, I will continue with this implementation in the school year. I hope to create several stations that I will share with my students throughout the year. During down times, away from performances, I will also create surveys for them to fill out about their listening. During the year I hope to use blackboard to create these online quizzes/surveys.

Common Places in Education:
Teacher – The teacher’s role in all of this is facilitation. They are the sage the guides students through and to listening experiences. The Internet frees up valuable class time and allows for teachers to focus on what’s important. It is easy to set-up and monitor.

Student – The students will be exposed to new music and gain deeper understanding through listening. This will hopefully improve students’ appreciation of music as well as performance. They should have a very easy time with the technology since it is something that most of them are familiar with. For those without Internet access, school computers will be made available.

Subject Matter – Listening is an essential skill in the music classroom and thus incredibly important. It can also help to develop deeper listening abilities that will cross all subject matters.

Setting/Context – This plan/technology opens up the music classroom to the home. Students are already plugged into their listening technology, like iPods, so this helps for us to bridge that gap.