James P. O'Brien, The University of Arizona
Over the past three years, I have attempted to
make learning in my music classes more student-centered. Rather than
being the sole provider of information and knowledge, I have
incorporated technology within the instructional cycle to enable
students to work at their own pace and be more responsible for the
outcomes of their learning.
Recently, I developed interactive web pages on the
Internet for each of my classes. This presentation focuses on the
different type of instruction each course involves and the resulting
varied solution to creating a home page in each.
Music 100 (Basic Musicianship) is a music theory
course which involves learning to read music, play the recorder and
keyboard, and understand the structure of music as far as pitch and
rhythmic notation, scales, harmony, and the like. The web page has
links to material which enhances these goals.
Music 444 (Arab and Asian Music) is a course which
develops understanding of the culture, religion, social strata, and
music of India, the Arab world, Japan, China, and Indonesia. The
links in this course are much richer, including sites which develop
understanding of each region's religions, political structure,
history, and arts.
Music 107 (Understanding Music through Listening)
is a basic music appreciation course, including jazz, classical
music, folk, and musicals, as well as of other world cultures. This
page is more oriented to composers and styles.
Although none of these web pages yet has sound, I
will, as soon as funding becomes available, link each page with
appropriate audio and video examples, using a seven-CD-ROM tower in
the server in my college.