Music Ed Tech 4U Podcast: Recent Episodes
Music Ed Tech Researchers
Hi, we're a group of music educators, teachers, musicians, and tech-heads, who want to share our thoughts and simple ideas for using music to enhance learning in an online setting. These podcasts cover a range of areas, such as setting up equipment, creating video and sound files for recording and teaching, sharing your ideas online, and creating different approaches to teaching in a world that we haven't experienced before. These are meant to be informative and helpful with your music-making, learning, and teaching. Enjoy!
In this episode, Brad and Carol share some reflections about the ways they have had to think about organizing and planning their online lessons, classes, lectures, and resources for students. The important factors underlying the emergence of COVID-19 are discussed, with reference to the way that teachers need to use similar communication approaches on a weekly basis, to provide both forecasting and predictability to the students, while also ensuring they get material out to their students early, so they can then follow up with other needs of the learners as they inevitably arise during the week. A request for other teachers to share their insights is also mentioned. @musicedtech4u and www.musicedtech4u.com
In this podcast, Carol and Brad reflect on the recent TMOHE virtual conference hosted in Melbourne, and share a range of different reflections and takeaways from the event, discussing how the experience enabled a range of global perspectives and research initiatives, combined with authentic teaching practices to be shared. They highlight how the virtual space allowed for rich, engaging interaction across different time zones, experiences, for both music educators and non-musicians. They talk about the way that by being forced to transfer their proposed in-person conference to an online experience, the authenticity and reality of the keynotes, workshops, Q and A's, and papers were all enhanced.
In this episode, Carol and Brad talk about the development of the original idea for a realtime conference about Teaching Music Online in Melbourne last year, and then how the advent of the COVID-19 scenario saw it move to a fully flipped, online - virtual experience for many delegates around the world using ZOOM as a format. In this interesting chat, they talk about the design, purpose and thinking, and how they looked to realize the online event successfully through the integration of various types of activities for the delegates. In particular, they talk about the way the conference created a momentum of its own, seeing people joining continuously over two days as researchers, teachers, and musicians shared different views and perspectives.
One week out from the inaugural http://www.teachingmusiconlineinhighered.com/ conference, the conveners, Dr. Carol Johnson and Dr. Brad Merrick talk about the event and share some of the things that will be happening. Have a listen and try to get along to the inaugural online conference for Teaching Music next weekend, wherever you are around the world. #TMOHE. Make sure you register and join in, wherever you are, teachers, musicians, everyone is welcome.
In this discussion, the two creators of the MusicEdtech4u podcasts and series, discuss some of the simple 'Aha' moments that have resonated with them, as they have been constantly working in the 'Online' teaching space. Using a series of reflections, they share some simple strategies and approaches they have taken note of, and even at times, had to remind themselves about. Teaching online is not perfect in any way, but it also means you need to be a risk-taker and try new things continuously as you try to meet the needs of the students. Enjoy this chat.
Carol highlights the importance of predictability in learning. For example, as you shift to the online classroom, predictability can help decrease student anxiety. Listen to this episode as Carol explores how to use video announcements and Thursday/Sunday discussion postings to help students experience predictability in their weekly learning.
Starting with the question “How can I provide my students with more effective means of feedback for their performance assessment?" Carol outlines how she has shifted to implementing the use of video feedback. With video feedback, students can now see and hear feedback ideas which can promote better student understanding of assessment comments to inform their progress and purpose as they move forward.
In this episode, the two creators of this series, Brad Merrick and Carol Johnson chat across the city (online) about the way that teaching online in the virtual space has made them reposition their thinking and practice. This is the first of a series of weekly discussions where they chat about and reflect on, some of the many issues related to shifting their teaching and some of the strategies and challenges involved. Worth a listen, particularly if you are thinking of how to reposition your own teaching approach during COVID-19. We look forward to your feedback and hope you enjoy the episode via @musicedtech4u
In response to questions from a number of teachers and students, this episode talks about some important, yet often forgotten areas in your performance, such as the way you set up in the room, the location of the device, the time of the day, amount of storage and height of the technology can impact the outcome of the performance. Here, we want to help you get the best sound you can, using the available equipment that you have access to at the time. In this podcast, there are some basic tips and strategies about preparing for the recital-performance process (whether doing a live-stream, or recording for upload), which includes things like testing dynamics, expression, loud and soft sections, as well as doing a trial recording and listening back to sections of the program on the best sound system you have. This podcast tries to share a range of tips, drawing on experience from many years, in order to get the best from the recording device you use. We hope these simple tips help you, whether using a mobile phone, a tablet, your computer, or an external mic-camera for our performance. Again, a little bit of preparation can make a lot of difference to the final product.
This Podcast explores the importance of having audio devices connected before using sound and also discusses the differences between using a local (on your computer- Audacity/Garage Band) or virtual (online-Soundtrap) software, and the differences that are experienced as you try to monitor your performance while creating backing tracks. Suggestions around using the metronome, turning headphones, on and off to assist you and ensure you stay in time are mentioned in this episode. Issues with Latency in the online recording experience are referenced in relation to approaches to monitoring sound in an effective way to assist you with your instrumental-vocal instruction.
One of the easiest things to do as a teacher is to slow down, give clear directions and also ensure that communication is effective both ways, as part of the online lesson. You can also think about the way you confirm understanding, while also considering different ways to engage and assist the student. Here, some simple ideas related to organizing and pre-recording tracks to assist your students are discussed, including ideas about tempo, count ins, and the development of materials that can be prepared and shared with several students.
In this episode, the idea of screencasting and using the image of your main computer screen, accompanied by your own voice, or a combination of other sound sources is discussed. This podcast highlights the value of using your powerpoints, keynote presentations, pdf's, combined with webpage links or realtime software demonstrations, to create a range of easy to access, screencasts for teachers and music educators to access and develop online learning. Here the easy to use software Screencast-o-Matic is highlighted, while also discussing how the use of screencasts assist learning as you can flip content before or after a class, and allow students to access and review material multiple times to consolidate their learning. Students who are unable to attend can catch up as needed, or review the material multiple times. In an online world, when teaching music or other subjects across a range of settings, and devices, this is a really useful tool to become familiar with and use in your preparation of teaching resources and online material. The best thing is that screencasts are not too big in file sile, making them easy to upload or share.
If you are looking at how to plan your semester for teaching music online, this is the episode for you. We get down to the basic step-by-step outline of what you should be considering to not only get you started, but how to finish, that new online music course!
Can you teach choir class online? Listen to this episode to discover some of the effective online activities you can use for your online choir class or online ensemble performance groups.
In this first episode, we give a very general overview of some key considerations with sound and sight when developing online learning with reference to different teaching approaches, talking about different types of microphones, camera angles and also the way you can adapt these to assist with your online teaching.
Looking for some asynchronous activities to try in your online music classroom? In this episode, we highlight we basic to advanced activities that you can try out with your students.