Music, Education, and Technology

Interesting article in the New York Times.

It’s true, especially in online learning. An engaged instructor can be the difference between a thriving online course and one that falls victim to attrition and failing grades. We see how effective online faculty can be every day with Berkleemusic.

I just read an excellent article on keeping online learners engaged and recommend it to anyone involved in teaching and learning online. The article is entitled “Distant, Not Absent,” by Ann McClure from universitybusiness.com.

“I don’t think there is anything that
can help retention as much as an
engaged faculty member.”
-Ken Udas, Penn State World Campus

Because online students are not receiving visual clues from the instructor, they can feel isolated. An engaged faculty member can help students overcome those feelings. “Teacher presence is a cornerstone of online learning, along with social presence and cognitive presence,” says George Saltsman, the director of Educational Technology for the Adams Center for Teaching and Learning at Abilene Christian University.

For more information, please check out the full article.

And, thank you Berkleemusic faculty, for all that you do to help our continuing education students feel part of our educational community!

Chat can provide an excellent environment for education, especially when used in conjunction with other forms of communication including asynchronous discussion forums. For many of us, text-based chat is a very different way to communicate. Read any chat archive and, at first glance, it looks like a bunch of random thoughts without rhyme or reason. As you take a closer look, however, the threads and themes begin to emerge and you can see a number of productive exchanges taking place at the same time.

Crowd Control
For those of you involved in chat as part of an educational experience, there are a number of ways to reign in the randomness and engage a class in a more focused exchange. Here are some tactile approaches that can be used.

“h” can signify that someone would like to “speak.” The instructor can go back and invite that person to participate when the current discussion topic is complete.

“d” can indicate that you are finished saying what you wanted to say.

“…” an ellipsis is a good way to indicate that you are in the middle of what you are saying and currently typing more information to contribute.

Planning Ahead
Set the meeting time and the agenda a week in advance. If you give folks enough time to plan, they might be able to attend. Knowing the topic of discussion ahead of time will help to make the exchange more informed and productive.

Say it with Symbols
Chat symbols are short abbreviations, (think shorthand) for chatting online.

Say it with Emoticons
Emoticons are a good way to clarify the feeling attached to a message. If you are going to joke with the other party, a smiley is a good way to clarify humor rather than sarcasm. Think of emoticons as facial cues that you would make for clarification while talking.

Of course, the best use of technology in education is when the tools of technology are invisible to the experience. For more good tips on how to use chat as an instructional tool, please review this article by Ruth Reynard.

Happy Chatting!

Rick Peckham, Berkleemusic Online Guitar Instructor

“You can’t teach music online!” That’s what we heard time and again back in 2002, when we first began making plans for Berkleemusic.com, the online continuing education division of Berklee College of Music. And now 16,000 students, 75 countries, 85 courses, 30 certificate programs, and three National Awards later, “You can’t teach music online” has changed to a rousing affirmation that you CAN, in fact, teach music online; quite effectively, indeed! All you need is strong leadership, the best staff, and the finest faculty all working together to make it happen. These are the ingredients of Berkleemusic.com!

Online learning, also known as distance learning, has the attention of every major university in the world, most offering online degrees, certificates, and individual courses. Distance learning draws upon hundreds of years of established pedagogical principles and offers a student-centric approach to education. Berkleemusic is an example of a distance learning program founded in tradition. It all started in the early 1950s with Berklee’s original Correspondence Course, a 25-week “Berklee-by-mail” course in music theory and arranging. That early distance-learning initiative had the very same primary goal as the online school does today—to expand Berklee’s reach and provide educational opportunities by bringing Berklee to those who simply could not get to Boston.

What is it like to teach and learn music online? In this two-part series, we will look at online music education from the teacher’s side of the desk. Stay tuned!