Technology and Music Lessons

I didn't grow up in the age of computers and the internet.  Believe it or not, growing up my television would flash "in color" at the beginning of a show instead of "in HD"!  I was first introduced to a computer at my job...after college...when "floppy discs" were common!  So, all of this technology that is rapidly evolving was never part of my pedagogy training.  I have had to learn most of it on my own!

 

I recently picked up the book, YouTube in Music Education by Thomas Rudolph & James Frankel and found this to be an extremely helpful and informative book.  Now, lest you think that I'm entirely ignorant, I have used YouTube many times, but I wanted to make sure that I was "getting it all". I also have this great need to be completely informed.  I think it's really important that I stay on top of what my students are interacting with daily.  I also want to offer them the best music education I can with the most current technology and training.  It can be overwhelming at times, but it's also really exciting at how much opportunity students have today.

I thought I would share thoughts on this book from my perspective.  The book touches on topics like how to create a YouTube account, how to creat playlists, participate in groups, subscribe to channels, playback, sound quality and display, copyright laws, how to produce your own videos (a great chapter!) and has over 100 teaching strategy ideas for using YouTube in Music Education.   The teaching strategy ideas alone are worth the price of the book!  For me, it was a wealth of great information.  In those areas that I was unclear on, I now have a resource that will save me loads of time!  I also now feel confident to integrate simple productions with my students and basically use YouTube in ways the rest of you probably are already doing!

So, if like me, any of you may be a bit intimidated by the whole thing or you just want to have a great resource, I would highly recommend the book.  And just to show that I have some knowledge...here's a fun video I love...