Video Conferencing in the Music Room - Article Read

• Report rights infringement
• published: 05 Feb 2012
• views: 340

Get Andrew's VIDEO GUIDE TO AUDACITY at... http://www.MakeAndBreakEducation.com http://www.youtube.com/user/buckydurddle http://www.andrewmercer.ca Videoconferencing is here at last! This much anticipated technology has been discussed for decades. During the 1950's we were told that soon every kitchen would be equipped with a 'video telephone' appliance. Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner predicted videoconferencing as commonplace as today's telephones. Today, while not yet packaged in an Art Deco toaster, videoconferencing is quickly becoming commonplace. This is not the first time we have seen this medium. Videoconferencing has been around for some time, but until recently high levels of complexity and low multimedia quality has kept videoconferencing out of the mainstream. Technology advances have finally made videoconferencing available to anyone with average computer skills, a relatively modern computer, a webcam and high speed Internet access. Now that this technology has arrived, we must ask, "How can we best use it to enhance music education?" There are numerous companies providing videoconferencing software, hardware and services. The ubiquitous Skype is probably the most well known consumer-level videoconferencing application available today. Users can 'skype' each other using a webcam and an average computer with high speed Internet. There is no charge for Skype's basic videoconferencing service and most users will find this service more than adequate. Companies such as Polycom and Tandberg provide commercial videoconferencing solutions. These products usually include proprietary hardware and software and can provide High Definition video and CD-quality audio between many locations simultaneously. Most high schools in Newfoundland and Labrador are connected with a network of these high quality commercial videoconferencing products. As an online music teacher in Newfoundland and Labrador, I use these systems daily with my high school music students. A typical music class has students from multiple schools interacting via videoconferencing while separated by hundreds of kilometers. The learning environment created by these video conferencing systems is so effective that in many cases students quickly forget they are on a camera and interact as if they are in the same room. The educational uses for videoconferencing are not limited to 'distance music education.' There are countless educational uses for this new medium in all virtually learning environments. The following are some suggestions of how videoconferencing could be used in your music room: - Invite a colleague from another school to 'virtually' sit in our your class and do the same for your colleague's class. How often do we have time to physically visit our peers to see alternative ways to teach? - Invite a fellow educator to teach your class through videoconferencing. - Have a colleague assist in facilitating a rehearsal via videoconferencing and vice-versa. - Use videoconferencing to connect with an expert in a specific field for professional development. - Invite musicians to perform for your class via videoconferencing. Most professional musicians are happy to 'give back' to our youth. Videoconferencing allows them to perform for students from their homes reducing travel and time commitments. - Encourage friends traveling abroad to videoconference with your class from an exotic location. Students would love to talk with someone in an Italian café just outside an opera house. - Allow students who are absent from a rehearsal to attend through videoconferencing. A computer, camera and microphone can be placed in the rehearsal space to allow students to attend from home. - Invite a guest musician to work with your students in a master class setting via videoconferencing. - As a form of enrichment, have your advanced students take a lesson once a month with an appropriate master musician from another country. - Establish a collaborative partnership with a distant school (across town or across the world) and design activities to have your students interact with their distant peers. o Have your ensemble perform (especially works in progress) for their distant peers and vice-versa. o Create opportunities for peer tutoring between schools via videoconferencing. o Invite the distant school ensemble to perform via videoconferencing at a function in your school. By connecting your computer to a speaker system and a computer projector a distance performance can be seen and heard by the largest of groups. o Have students create duets with a partner from a distant school and have these students perform their works. There are latency issues with all videoconferencing system. Students quickly learn to make accommodations for the medium. Videoconferencing WILL remove the barrier of distance. What does this mean for education? Are we ready to knock down the walls of our music rooms to let students out?