Hello everyone. My first blog - Woohoo!!!!
First off, let me tell a little about myself. I teach at Hook Junior High School in Victorville, CA. My content area is Music, with a little Social Studies thrown into the mix (not by choice).
I think blogs can serve an educational purpose in both content areas. Both music and history are taught all over the world. The perspectives are different everywhere. It would be a great way for students from different cultures/backgrounds to get together and discuss their views, or their likes and dislikes. Music Technology students would be able to describe their latest composition, then upload a mp3 file for everybody to listen to and comment on. History students can discuss current events such as the Iraq War, from their own perspective.
I love the idea of uploading music files to share. My only concern would be regarding copyright. Do you know of any free sites to upload files? I would love to be able to attach music to my webpage for students, but I am not sure of the legality of it. Any thoughts? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhen I talk about uploading music files, I am referring to ONLY the music they have created. I don't want it to sound like I am advocating music sharing in ANY way. That is theft. I have a Music Production class, where the students create their own music. The students could upload music onto their blog, have other people listen to it, and comment on it.
ReplyDeleteThe computer teacher is having her classes create a PowerPoint project for their final exam. She borrowed a CD of my students first project, in order to allow her students to have background music for their presentations.
I don't think there is a problem with attaching a song to a webpage that you have built, as long as the students would not be able to copy it. But, I am not 100% certain. I have a webpage built for my music program at school, and I uploaded a mp3 as background music for the home page. I built my page on www.freewebs.com Check them out.
That sounds wonderful. It is important for students to have a real audience for everything they produce. I didn't mean to imply that you advocating uploading copyrighted music. Sorry if that came across the wrong way. I just wondered if you knew whether it was permissible to upload for students to listen. Often there are songs that relate well to items we read in literature class, and it would be great to have the ability to allow them access to those songs.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of discussing current events in a blog site is intriguing and it would be interesting to see what your students had to say. I think you would have to be careful of people who are not in your class adding to the discussion with inappropriate comments since they would be unaware of your blog rules. However one good outcome of discussing current events on line is that someone involved in that event might post on your blog and add to the interest of your students.
ReplyDeleteWow....this avenue allows for such discussion. One concern that I may have is for the students to be able to state a thought and others to be open to it. That can be a challenge and may take some modeling.
ReplyDeleteHave a great day!
Mark
I didn't take what you said about copyright infringment the wrong way. Not a problem. In this day and age, you have to be VERY careful that you do not give the wrong impression. Big Brother is always watching. hehehe
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don't know if it is permissible to upload songs for your students to listen to. I think the best and easiest way is to play the music in class. Copyright laws are weird and very difficult to understand.
I agree that any blog related to current event discussion needs to be monitored very closely. There are a lot of people out there in cyberspace who are bad. Protection of minors is and always will be the key.
Yes, being open to new thoughts and ideas would be a challenge. Take our recent presidential election. I teach at a middle school with approximately 85% minorities. We had a school-wide "mock" election, and Obama won in a landslide. Most students couldn't articulate why they voted for him, except to say that their parents were for him, or they just wouldn't vote for the "old white guy".