Really? An Online Music Class??

I have had many fellow music educators express concern over the future of our career because of the world of technology. Could all classes be taught online? Could face to face instruction become obsolete? I feel that it is a real concern, but not a reality. There are too many nuances to education that can't be portrayed over a computer screen. Could some learners benefit from online instruction? Certainly! Would many, many learners get left in the cracks if there was not a face-to-face teacher to help with varying levels of abilities and learning styles? YES!

I strongly believe that music classes should mainly be taught face-to-face. There are so many aspects of playing an instrument that can't be seen or heard unless sitting side by side. I do, however, think that learners could greatly benefit by having playing examples and help videos accessible from home. My not designed to take the place of face-to-face instruction, to be that extra help and to expose learners to other musical performances and examples from history that we may not have time to focus on in the constraints of our normal music class.

I am organizing my course as sessions instead of weeks. My learners are given the ability to work at their own pace, within guidelines we set in class. By creating sessions, the kids can still go in order, but not be stifled or discouraged by the assigned week. Deadline could and probably will be added to motivate learners and keep them moving towards their goals.

After the first couple sessions, each session will have a teaching video and a link to submit a video performance in our class Flipgrid. This will allow me to see each learner's individual playing skills and allow my learners to comment and help each other. I debated quite a bit on whether I would have the kids submit the videos with FlipGrid, Schoology discussions, or assignments. I ultimately chose Flipgrid because I wanted the learners to be able to see ALL of their classmates videos and easily give and receive feedback. It creates a little more work for me because I'll have to view their assignments in one program and keep track of them in another, but the benefits outweighed the extra work.

In designing this course, I have struggled a bit with the simplicity of Schoology. It is an easy program to use once you figure out where things are, but I like lots of visuals, bright colors, and backgrounds when I create materials for my learners. The visual look of a page is what catches learners' attention when they first open the page. Schoology limits this quite a bit. I feel like it was created for more of a higher education setting, but I chose to make it work.

I discovered that adding materials to Pages allows for a little more creativity with images and embedded content. I also played around with creating the class materials within a google slideshow. I created pages for each session in my course and then linked them to an icon on the home screen. This way looked nice, but with the information in my class, I felt like my learners would have to click on too many outside links and find their way back to the slideshow. I ultimately decided to stick with Schoology pages and keep things as simple as possible for my kids.

I am excited to see how my learners and their parents react to this online course. My school is unique and I never know what the reaction to change will be. Homework is frowned upon and adding an online/at home part of music could be a challenge. I am hoping the excitement of having a safe place to get a little extra help and the ability record videos and test from home where nobody is listening will be motivation to work at home.