During the fall semester of 1996, a World Wide Web course in concert band literature was initiated. Course activities focused on the construction of a "Concert Band Literature" web site whose purpose was to provide: (a) an information repository (i.e., an annotated Multimedia bibliography of concert band music, an annotated discography of concert band music, and recommendations for quality concert band literature); (b) a search and retrieval resource (i.e., publisher and distributor addresses, links to other concert band sites on the World Wide Web, and a bibliography of traditional references); and (c) a forum for discussion among students, teachers, and devotees of concert band music.
    There were six undergraduate and three graduate students enrolled in the class. The graduate students had from one to four years experience as public school band directors and the undergraduates were senior music education students. The class met as a whole for one hour, twice weekly, over a period of 17 weeks. The graduate students met with the instructor for an additional hour each week.
    Cooperative small group effort is one effective way of addressing the needs of students with varying levels of ability and/or experience. Accordingly, the 9 students were divided into three teams, each team consisting of two undergraduates and one graduate "team leader." The major project for the undergraduates was to make an annotated bibliography of concert band repertoire. These annotated bibliographies were pooled and the composite bibliography was consulted in the creation of concert program lists suitable for seventh- through twelfth-grade bands. Markup was accomplished primarily through the use of instructor-designed HTML templates accessed by dragging to "Document Source" in Netscape Navigator's "View" menu. (See Figure 1.)
    The graduate student's responsibilities as team leader included: (a) assisting the undergraduates with the collection and review of concert band literature (in sound and print), (b) collating and categorizing the information, and (c) transferring the group's HTML documents to the WWW site. All team members studied one composition in detail, reviewed a concert band recording, and collected repertoire that might be useful in addressing the National Standards for Arts Education (MENC, 1994). The graduate students independently investigated the topic of "new" music for concert band.
    Students were required to become familiar with web navigation in order to find materials relating to concert band literature. The sheer amount of material available and the lack of organization proved to be a stumbling block.
    Cyberspace means 'control place,' and if there is one thing lacking in this jungle, it is control! If I were to choose a term for the world wide web, I would call it an "electronic haystack" through which one must look for great lengths of time to find the correct needle. How does one separate the useful information from the useless? (Student paper)

To help students with this problem, they were asked to consider the following five questions when evaluating the content of a web site:

• Who are the authors?
• Do the authors have any commercial interest in promoting the web site? 
• On what authority has the information been published?
• What safeguards are there for the accuracy of information? 
• Can the information be verified through other sources?

    Once a site has been discovered and found to be useful, it is possible to direct students to the site and then have them explore it in a guided fashion. For example, the assignment relating to the National Standards (MENC, 1994) relied on the contest and festival lists posted on the J. W. Pepper Company web site. The instructions for this assignment are included in Figure 2.
    In general, assignments were designed to enable students to interact with the web in a meaningful way without having the acquisition of course content impeded by technological barriers. Technical terms (e.g., link, URL, FTP, basic HTML structure and tags) were introduced on a "need-to-know" basis. The graduate students took complete responsibility for the markup of the "new music" page and one of the undergraduates with a keen interest in HTML did the markup for the "standards" portion of the site. The remaining site design and markup of linking pages was done by the instructor. By the end of the semester, the site contained 350 text and graphics files. (See Figure 3 for a flow chart of site organization.) The posting of sound files will be completed this semester.

    One of the most exciting promises of the web is the potential for interaction. (See Figure 4.) The "Concert Band Literature" site includes fill-in forms and e-mail links for visitors to complete. Visitors are asked to recommend band literature, recorded band literature, and ideas for concert programming. The targeted audience for this interaction is public school band directors. Full-scale promotion of the site to this target audience has been delayed until the sound files are operable. However, advertisement has already been carried out within the state. Recommendations for "quality" literature were sought through a mail survey to North Dakota band directors. Preliminary results of the survey were discussed at the North Dakota Music Educators' Association convention (October, 1996), the site URL was circulated, and a summary of the results have been posted on the site. Anecdotal evidence indicates that band directors are favorably impressed with the site, but at this point it is too early to determine the degree to which these initiatives have been successful in spawning interaction.
    During the course of this project in web pedagogy, several issues surfaced. They included:

• To what degree are copyright and security issues a concern?
• To what degree does the lack of standard cataloging practices on the web negatively impact its use as a tool for instruction?
• Are we contributing to the "debris" by publishing student work?

• Is it unrealistic to think that public school teachers will take the time to interact with a student site?

    The World Wide Web is a constantly evolving resource. Consequently, the "Concert Band Literature" web site is not completed. Students in subsequent instrumental literature courses will maintain and make additions to the site. The pedagogy developed in this course could be applied to other aspects and grade levels of music instruction. At the University of North Dakota, two other instructors are planning web components in their theory and composition courses this semester. Although there are issues that need to be resolved before its full potential can be realized, the World Wide Web can become a powerful tool for music instruction. Further study and discussion are fundamental to the full exploitation of this valuable resource.

References
Music Educators National Conference. (1994). National Standards for Arts Education. (1994). Reston, VA: Author.