A "Tempo Marking" for the Adoption of Online Music Education

By Mark T. Burke

All new ideas take time to flourish.  Regardless if a new idea is a product or service, time is required to develop the idea, get the word out and connect the idea with folks who can really benefit from it.  In education "Largo" seems a fitting tempo marking to describe the integration of new ideas.  In musical terms, music performed Largo can be incredibly beautiful.  However, even beautiful music can be made more interesting by varying the tempo through a well placed accelerando.

To perform an affective tempo change, performers must play in sync.  Having a great conductor to lead the players also helps.  In the case of online music education, the players include schools, teachers, program developers, education support agencies, virtual schools, parents and probably a 1000 others. The conductor is easy to identify...the Students!

So how are the students "conducting" the needed accelerando?  There is a saying in business "People vote with their dollars."  Sounds logical enough.  When companies produce a product or service, if we think that product or service is best, we vote on the product by spending our money to acquire that product or service.  When companies do bad things (enter your choice of company), we express our views by changing our spending to another product or service.  Essentially, we cast our vote with every penny we spend.

In education, we can translate "voting with dollars" into "voting by enrollments."  There are few days that I don't share the statistic that enrollment in online K-12 courses is growing by 30% annually (I took the high of 40% and low of 20% estimates and split the difference).  Folks, students ARE voting.  Online education providers are also making bold moves to meet the demand.  Just a few days ago, 2 of the largest K-12 providers merged when K12 Inc. purchased KC Distance Learning Inc. Both organizations provide services to 100's of thousands of students in the US and they have realized that meeting the demand will take a collaborative effort.  This is just one example of how organizations are responding to the voting by enrollment trends in online learning.  Accelerando -- YOU BET!

So back to the tempo analogy.  Those of us who are players in the ensemble also have a role in ensuring the accelerando is effective.  Just a few days ago, I started a conversation on the MusicPLN around developing standards for online music education. Within a day of starting the conversation, and stating our mission to build program standards (not benchmark educational standards) for online music programs, the group was formed consisting of Elementary through Higher Education and private sector professionals.  Over the next few months, we will be working to document a set of beliefs around online music education as well as a set of characteristics for quality programs.  This activity will begin to get us in sync so that we can serve the needs of the students who are voting on how they want and need to be educated.  The case for online music education is certainly being made clear.

So how can we create a well orchestrated accelerando into online music education? Let's look at the role of the players and what they can do.

Schools

• Provide professional development for teachers and administrators on the value of online learning.
• Adopt best practices in online course development (no more "class notes online" courses)
• Recognize online education as a complement to a brick and mortar environment, a way to educate a diverse student population.
• Mandate levels of technical proficiency in teachers to help ensure openness toward educational technology (we can no longer have professional educations 10 years behind students).
• Partner with local educational support agencies and take advantage of the programs they provide.
• When faced with tough times, look at online program integration as a way to keep teachers teaching and students learning.

Virtual Schools 

• Adopt a whole-mind instructional model (to ensure student achievement comes from rounded educational, performance and evaluation opportunities) 
• Partner with established virtual academies to provide high quality arts opportunities (those that focus on arts education, development and instruction).
• Ensure minimum educational requirements for graduation (K-12) include the Arts.

Support Agencies

• Adopt the understanding that online courses and online schools are two different things.  Online courses are often lifeless, leading to heavy drop rates from students.  Online schools provide all services and opportunities for students including counseling, study support, social activities and of course Artistic experiences.
• Create programs including professional development and community outreach efforts that put both parties in the same room, to discuss educational challenges and to develop solutions.  
• Take what appear to be risks.  Schools often are normally averse to new ideas.  Help them shed the shackles and recognize the risks of adopting online programs may be only a perception.  

With everyone playing their part, we will accelerando beautifully from our Largo tempo of integration and adoption.  I am energized by the current level of collaborating happening now a future where we can make our conductor very happy.

Committment to Online Music Education Standards

By Mark T. Burke

Many groups have produced standards for online learning that have served us well (Like the SREB and iNACOL). Standards provide indicators of quality within key organizational education and business practices.  I believe standards are the key to ensuring students are successful and help assure families, schools and communities spend their educational dollars wisely.

Ensuring quality online music education presents some interesting challenges.  We can certainly adopt the iNACOL standards within our school, but that only gets us so far. As a performance art, music requires a level of mentor-to-student interaction and guided practice well above most subjects. In addition, music can easily suffer from a lack of structure as it's easy to simply teach "in the moment." The technology to truly ensure quality interaction between students, the teacher, the school and a potential audience can add complexity like no other to the educational environment.

Teaching music online is a relatively new segment of education. Growing needs to ensure the field of music education adapts to the world around us means more music educators are looking for solutions.  Certainly, quality online music education is not found in one computer application alone. The answers lie in our goals for online music education, the purpose and the key program inclusions that will guide what software we use, how we use it, why we use it, when to use it, what quality content to include, how to build content and how we assess student progress (among others).

To move forward, I have started the "Online Music Teacher Collaborative" within the MusicPLN (www.musicpln.org). We already have 10+ members on our committee to start the Online Music Education Standards writing process. Our goal is to provide a framework for quality online music instruction that can serve as the basis for program development and integration.  Our goal is not to set the limits on what we can accomplish but rather to get the conversation going on how music education has evolved and must continue to evolve in order to ensure the continuance of our art.  Representatives on the committee include online educational leaders and teachers, development specialists, Elementary teachers, Jr. High and High School teachers as well as Higher Education instructors. 

For more information, please post here and join the MusicPLN.org.  This is just the beginning of what lies ahead.

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viaAcademies is committed to providing quality online music instruction and the promotion of developing standards for online music instruction.  For more information on our programs, please visit us online at www.MakeMusicClick.com. We are always seeking new partners, teachers and course developers to help expand our network.

Scalpel...Retractor...Folder...Save File....Faster Nurse, we're loosing them.

By Mark T. Burke

Imagine your Doctor attending a conference. Would you be utterly shocked, even a little frightened if you found out your Doctor had attended the "Scalpel Basics for Doctors" seminar? The scalpel is a standard tool of the trade in the medical world and we expect all Doctors to fully understand and use one with professional expertise.

Would a parent be shocked, maybe even frightened if they found out their child's teacher had attended a session at a conference to learn how to create folders and manage files on a computer? They should be if they're not. But based on my attendance at several music, education and technology conference over the last 12 years, I would say that more often than not, the sessions most attended are those sessions that deal with the basic tools of education, like the scalpel session to the Doctor. This scares me, frightens me even.

I had a great time at the PMEA Summer Conference. For those not part of the PA Musical Education world, PMEA (The Pennsylvania Music Educators Association) holds an annual summer conference to bring together educators, discuss the latest and greatest as well as share indicators on the state of our profession. This conference was the latest conference pointing to a real issue in the teaching profession. The issue is there are many, MANY teachers still learning to use the common technology tools of our trade such as the computer.

My hours of driving gave me time to think about how we've gotten to this point in educational history. Can we really have teachers in 2010 that do not demonstrate the essential skills of computing? Yes, we can and do. As I thought about the reasons, many came to mind. Some will no-doubt make people angry. That's ok to me. I make no apologies for wanting our kids to get top shelf education. As I heard at the conference, we must first and foremost do what's best for the kids, it is not about us. Well, it is about us really...we deliver the education. But the point is, we must at times be dispassionately introspective so that we can grow and do what's best.

So why do we have teachers unable to demonstrate the basics of technology application in the classroom?

1. Indifference -- Teachers who work in an environment where skill progression is neither rewarded, recognized, encouraged, or offered.  Therefore, teachers can either take an interest or not based on personal motivation or lack there of.  Either way is ok to them and their school system.  Ultimately indifference creeps in and can win.  
2. Personal Interest -- Teachers who aren't intrigued by what technology can do for music and music education choose to ignore it.  If it doesn't have meaning to teachers, they have no need and therefore students have no need.  
3. Unwillingness to Fail -- Teachers who are afraid of looking weak if they try a new tool and are not successful immediately.  Some have a really high level of fear over failure.  To often, failure is viewed as "I don't get it -- within 10 seconds of hearing how." 
4. WIIFM -- "What's In It For Me?"  If using technology simply adds responsibility on to my role as a teacher, if it adds on time and effort and I get NOTHING for it, then WHY?  
5. Peer Pressure -- I've heard this before -- "Why go to that training, come play golf with us."  The pressure to not really enjoy what we do often comes from our fellow teachers.  The faculty room VORTEX keeps people feeling as though attending training and learning new things is a waste of time, something only new, novice teachers do.
6. Lack of Support at Home -- Teacher need professional time outside the classroom. I remember a wise person telling me -- you can't learn while you are working...you must dedicate time to personal growth away from what you pick up on a day to day basis.  While I do believe you can learn while you work, I believe we must not confuse learning and development for what we learn while doing.  Teacher must make time during their PERSONAL time to grow and learn and that means making sure support comes from home as well.

 Do any of these issue sound familiar?  They should.  These come straight from the "teacher's handbook" of why kids struggle to demonstrate mastery in our classrooms.  We as teachers are not immune.  Notice I didn't say anything about money, or time, or access to tools.  Those are excuses, not reasons why we can't master the tools of our trade.  We can work around excuses but we must work to overcome issues.

I am advocating that for all conference from here on out, that we assume everyone has the basics of educational computing down pat.  I believe we should enter every session knowing that all teachers know how to use computer to a level where file creation, management and application use is understood so that we can move right into the more important integration and creative applications in our classrooms.  I am actually tired of attending conferences where the bulk of time is wasted on how to do the most basics of things.  I believe we can increase attendance and change the level of performance within our profession if we all take a look at the issues above and address them within our own careers.

How would you assess your own basic technology skills and those of your fellow teachers?  Are you ready for more advance topics regarding educational technology benefits and use within schools?   

Reed Prep 101: This is a good reed.

By Mark T. Burke

A few weeks ago, a student asked me how she should be prepping her reeds before playing them.  This is a question I've gotten frequently over the years so I thought it high time to start building some content on the subject.

This should get the ball rolling.  I sat in front of the camera today, built a few slides and talked about my reed prep process.  I could have spent a bit more time on "play testing" so below the video I included a bit more on that topic.



Play Testing:  Play testing is a key component of the entire reed prep process.  The goal of play testing is to play each of the reeds that you've prepped BUT play them only for a small amount of time.  Here's the process overview.

After you've prepped all the reeds as demonstrated in the video, and waited for them to dry for 24 hours after the last rubbing, start the following.

• Wet the reeds using a bowl of water.
• Lay them out onto the glass after 1-3 minutes of soaking.
• Choose a reed and place it onto your mouthpiece.
• Play a semi long tone and a simple scale or solo passage so you can determine if you like the overall sound of the reed.  
• Next try some articulated tones such as repeated eight notes.  Listed to the responsiveness of the reed.  
• Assess the sound.  Is the reed responsive or does it seem too hard and non-responsive?  Does the reed sound clear or is it muffled?  You want to ensure the reed sounds good and feels good.
• If the reed sounds good and feels good, it's a keeper.  Place it into an area on the glass for "good" reeds.  
• If the reed has a fuzzy tone, seem hard and non-responsive or is overly bright and thin sounding, place it in an area on the glass for "not so good" reeds.
• Repeat this process until all reeds have been played. 
• Go back to the good reeds and play each one again for about 5-10 minutes.  Pick your current literature, solo, etude etc.  
• After playing the good reeds, put them on the glass to dry.
• The next day, play them again.  I also like to try the "not so good" reeds again as well.  

In the end, this process should ensure you have a great set of reeds, ready to play when you need to play and a set that you know will work for you.  Happy prepping!

Music Cuts Continue...Let's Talk Solutions

By Mark T. Burke

Reading our local newspaper yesterday, I came across a small article placed at the bottom corner of a page.  The content of the article can be found here. Easton school district gets OK to cut 72 jobs | PoconoRecord.com.  As you can see, another music program in PA is at risk of being cut.  

A few days ago, while reviewing Facebook posts, I came across a link to a survey conducted by the American Association of School Administrators.  The survey shows how 275,000 jobs could be lost this coming school year.  How many of those jobs include music positions?  While I don't know the answer, I believe it is fair to say, if these positions are eliminated, 100's or even 1000's of music programs in the US could be at risk. You can read the article here:  New AASA Survey Finds 275,000 Education Jobs in Peril.

At times like this we benefit from forming new strategies around our profession to ensure music lives on.  We will have to think "outside the box" and be introspective.  We will have to investigate our norms and standards as we know them.  We will for sure have to be open and appreciate this process as a necessary activity to ensure continuance.  The answers to how to ensure music education remains a priority for schools is not as simple as a blog post with a few ideas.  But, it is a start.  Read on.   


Initiatives to help ensure music's place within schools.

Year-Round School
The recent push to consider the value of year-round school has to be particularly interesting for most music teachers.  For generations, the one educational program that has embraced year-round educational programs has been music.  Active summer programs create year-round education for involved students.  Isn't it ironic that as schools consider moving to year-round schooling, that one of the few programs that has already embraced the practice is one of the first programs to get cut from schools when times get tough?  What should be happening is that music programs should serve as MODELS for how schools can build successful educational programs and thus, provide the highest quality instruction for their students.

As music educators, this "new" initiative provides an opportunity to voice our expertise and secure a place on school planning committees.  I believe we are closer to year-round school than many think.  Year-round school is not about simply creating more school days on the calendar.  As music teachers, we know that summer can be an incredibly influential educational experience.  We take this opportunity to change the pace of our teaching, we change the venue (often moving to outside activities) and work in a more relaxed environment.  Those teaching techniques can be applied to a broader definition of year-round school.  I believe music instructors can solidify their educational expertise and help schools design great programs.  This is an opportunity to ensure music programs serve as models to educational system rather than being immediately placed at the top of this list for cuts.

Local Standards

State and national standards for music education have accomplished little to secure the subject's place as a priority curriculum in schools.  It they had, then state testing exams would include sections on music.  In PA, the PSSA tests have dictated what schools teach.  If the PSSA tests a specific subject, schools must find ways to teach that topic or risk the negative consequences of their students not demonstrating mastery. 

Every music team within schools should gather themselves up and develop local music standards for their students.  The standards need to demonstrate WHY music is important.  They can't focus on "every student will play a major scale" type of standards.  Let's face it, in real life, that skill has little benefit to the majority of citizens. The standards need to demonstrate how music provides students the experiences of thinking, problem solving, creating, analyzing, collaborating, etc.  The process of developing these standards must also involve the educational leaders in the school system.  Principals and Curriculum Directors must be brought into the process.  Simply put, if a school at large doesn't know the value of the music program, it risks being cut.

Over the next few post, I'll talk about:   

• Reaching the Masses
• Teach Innovative Music (Leadership Through Music, Creativity Through Music, Problem Solving Through Music) 
• Professional Development Beyond Click here! (Leadership, Advocacy, PLN's) 
• Embracing Innovation

How have you ensured your music program continues to thrive within your school?  What topics do you think we should be discussing? 

Too Busy to BLOG...We're One Busy Music Academy

By Mark T. Burke

Oops!  We've been bad.  We've been so busy that we put blog posting on the back burner....something we don't like to do.  We know what we've been doing is important though...so please forgive us while we keep a lot of different projects moving forward.  We're becoming great jugglers! 

So, what's going on around our shop?

Exploring Music Course

Our goal to provide a broad set of courses to meet the needs of students everywhere has been our goal since day 1.  We know there are tons of students who want to make music but don't play a band instrument.  We think the solution is...well, right under our fingers...right now in fact.  Making music with a computer is a great way for students to express themselves. 

Our "Exploring Music with GarageBand" and "Exploring Music with MixCraft" *** courses will provide instruction on the elements of music.  Application of those elements provides students the tools needed to create music using software like GarageBand and MixCraft.  Becky and Bill Ciabattari have been nose to the grindstone writing the content, mapping the assessments and designing the projects.  Joe Runciman, our programming and graphics guru worked hard to give the course a fresh new design.  We're pretty darn proud of this new course. 

Summer Camp for Saxophones 

We know, we're a "CYBER" school.  We're supposed to just focus on online instruction - right?.  Well, our goal from the day we created viaAcademies has been to be first and foremost a music academy for all students.  The team has deep connections in our local musical community and through those connections, we provide musical opportunities every chance we get.

This summer, viaAcademies is teaming up with the Keystone Sax Quartet and Central Oaks Heights, a local music retreat and arts center, to host the Summer Saxophone Quartet Workshop 2010.  One of the students chosen for the workshop is Kate Anderson (Graduating Senior from Hughesville HS).  For students who enroll in our Saxophone course, you will see and hear Kate in action in the Practice Partner Videos.  Other members include Jake Russo (Montoursville HS), Ben Titman (Graduating Senior from Danville HS) and Rob Bingaman (Graduating Senior from Selinsrove HS).

Our concert will by July 16th.  If you're in the area, join us.  We even have a guest soloist, Mr. Jason Laczkoski, doctoral student at the University of Iowa.

Gaming 

Yep, we've been playing games. Well, really we've been designing our Exploring Music educational simulation.  Some would call it a GAME.  The game will be embedded in the Exploring Music course.  Why 3D?  Well, game play combined with engaging environments are extremely affected educational tools.  We're cutting edge for a reason though.  We don't just want to look pretty.  We use educational strategies that work and gaming WORKS!  The game will help students master the topics throughout the course because the game is PART of the instruction, not just an add on.  We've teamed up with the great folks at Bloomsburg University to build the game.  We've learned a ton and we're continuing to learn more each day.  We'll be demonstrating the game soon....let us know if you would like a tour.

Professional Development

We're not too proud to say we're getting a bit of reputation. We're working closely with the BLaST Intermediate Unit in Williamsport PA to bring area schools innovative music in-service programs.  Music often gets left out of in-service programs throughout the year and we want to change that.  We don't think music teachers should have to wait for the annual state conference to learn about new tools, instructional methods and creative instructional programs.  We will be talking about this more in the future, but until then, we would love to learn more about your in-service needs. 

A friend of mine says, "If you want something done, give it to a busy person."  There's a ton more to say, but I actually need to get back to work.  It's almost 7am and I am running behind...:-) 

Stay in touch, stay in tune! 

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*** GarageBand is a TM of Apple Inc. (www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/)
*** MixCraft is a TM of Acoustica. (www.acoustica.com/)

For more information on viaAcademies, visit us online at viaAcademies.com or write to us at info@viaacademies.com.  Join us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date with all the latest news and information. 

viaAcademies is a division of viaEdTechnologies, LLC, Bloomsburg PA. 

  

SKYPE: Part 1....A tool every music teacher needs in their toolbox.

By Mark T. Burke

Everyone once in a while, a tool comes along that changes our lives.  For me, SKYPE is that tool.  For those that have been living in their instrument cases for the last few years, SKYPE is a small, but incredibly powerful PC based application used for communicating with others.  Since music centers around communication, I think every music teacher needs to know about SKYPE.  For technical information and download, visit their site at www.SKYPE.com.

I won't be shy, this is going to sound like an advertisement for SKYPE.  But, let's be honest.  We all use tools that work and eventually, SKYPE will be replaced with some other wiz-bang application that proves itself better. So the real message here is to look at ways SKYPE can benefit the music education process.   So back to SKYPE for a minute, let's look at the features.

First, two people with SKYPE installed on their PC's can:

• IM
• Talk
• Screen Share
• Video Call
• Share links
• Send files
• Play games

Oh, did I mention you can do all of this for free?  I should have said that earlier.

Now, if you extend SKYPE just a bit, you can do all of the things above...AND...

• Call Phones and Cell Phones
• Hold Conference calls (with other SKYPErs and phones or cell phones)

What do I mean by "extend"?  I mean pay as little as $2.95 per month to call other phones AND do all of those other things?  Yes in-deedy!

Now, if you extend it just a bit more...you can...

• Receive calls (just like any phone) through your own number. 
• Get voice mail
• Get voice mail notices sent to your email.

Here's the catch, you have to pay a a bit under $15.00 a year to get those additional services.  That's right, pull out the big bucket of cash for this one...under $15.00 a YEAR! I think the folks at SKYPE have done a great job of providing an extendable tool with a base price of $0.00 and the extensions won't break your bank. 

Now how can all of this help you, the music educator?   I thought this would be a great opportunity to produce a series of posts on how to harness the power of SKYPE. You can determine the value, but my guess is I won't have to twist your arm to admit SKYPE is a must have tool.

Connecting Students with other Professionals
In December, a local private student of mine was starting to work on a new solo. Just a few weeks prior, I had heard a graduate student perform the piece at a conference. I connected with the grad student and arranged a SKYPE session between her, my student and myself. I set the tone for the session so that everyone understood.  The goal was for this to be a mini master class.  The grad student talked about the piece and her preparation process. She even talked about articulation, difficult spots and ... go figure, THE MUSIC.

My student actually came to my studio so that after the session we could work on the piece. Overall, the session was about 30 minutes and proved to be incredibly valuable.

The take away: We all can't be everything to our students. We must look for ways to connect them to others. Using SKYPE creates a truly personal experience with voice, video, sharing of documents and all in real time.  Imagine if each month, you connected your students to another professional, a local or nationally recognized performer. What would the impact be?  With a little organization and the power of SKYPE you get a very powerful tool with quantifiable benefits to students.

In the next Part, we will take a look at a few of the calling features.

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viaAcademies uses SKYPE to connect viaAcademies students with viaAcademies teachers. Added to the LiveLessons are our accessible music content, online practice guides, quizzes and interactive learning management system. Our "systems approach" ensures tight integration of all educational components in a flexible learning environment. Learn more today by arranging a demonstration. Email us at info@viaacademies.com