The convergence of technology and educational pedagogy enables us to discuss, plan, create and implement new courses, unique approaches to old courses, and entirely different strategies in teaching and learning simply by using the Internet. No longer are we tied to time and place for what we do as teachers: we and our students can be anywhere, at any time, and still participate in the teaching/learning process. We can teach our courses to busy professionals who would otherwise be unavailable for regular classes, to students who reside a distance from campus, and to resident students who like the flexibility of scheduling their participation in unique ways. In addition, content of these courses now can be multimedia based, immediate, and evolutionary--information has the potential to be dynamic, with knowledge being generated and shared by experts from all over the world.

Teachers who wish to teach courses over the Internet have to decide first how much of each course should be taught using the Internet, what content is covered best by the Internet, and how that content changes as a result of using the Internet. Assuming that each teacher has answered those questions, the teacher must then decide how best to use the Internet to teach the course. While basic web pages and plugins do offer some potential for teaching, most experienced teachers will find a number of limitations: testing, keeping track of student involvement, discussion, and incompatible platforms and programs. It is these limitations that can hinder student learning and cause teachers to look for something simple and flexible, or at least something as good as the existing teaching methods. I find the following axioms to be evident:

While these statements might be obvious, in practice the solutions are sometimes difficult to find.

Course management systems (CMS) is the term used to describe electronic approaches to teaching over the Internet, usually offering a suite of software programs that meet the pedagogical needs of teachers (i.e., e-mail, chat, web activity). TopClass is one such CMS that has the potential to exert an increasing influence over the ways in which teachers and learners participate in the college and university experience. Featuring remote authoring, class announcements, e-mail, discussion forum, testing with either automated grading or teacher-generated comments, and batch registration, TopClass is an intuitive, simple CMS. It is accessed via any web browser, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, on any platform; if a student or faculty member can "surf the net," he or she can use TopClass.

For the past two semesters, I have taught several courses or parts of courses using TopClass with both undergraduate and graduate music students. The simplicity of the program, the ease of student use, and the powerful tools for authoring and administration make TopClass a logical choice for distance education using the Internet. The purpose of this demonstration is not to justify distance education in music, but to show the possibilities and potential of TopClass for teaching over the Internet, as well as simple web pages designed for limited class assignments. What I think will be particularly evident is that this approach will change the nature of teaching/learning and the specific content of each of the courses. Certainly, the concept of a "class" is greatly expanded to include students and teachers in remote sites, class content that is multimedia oriented and based on sites around the world, and an evolutionary immediacy of knowledge. While these courses are a beginning attempt at utilizing this medium, it is only through continued use of this approach in a variety of places, with a variety of teachers, that the full potential can be achieved.

What follows is the URL and description of the courses that were demonstrated at the conference:

All Music Education students at Fredonia take required courses in psychological and philosophical foundations of music. This first course deals with child development and music development, introduction to the profession at the state and national levels, and basic methods for teaching music to children.

Senior Music Therapy students and graduate Music Education students take this course to study research in general and psychological research in music specifically, including study of basic statistics, experimental and descriptive techniques, and applications of research to music education and therapy.

Senior Music Therapy students and graduate Music Education students take this course to study the physical and musical responses to music and applications of research to their fields.

• http://www.fredonia.edu/mayo/psymus–This web page serves as a gateway page to the TopClass server and classwork. The class is taught using 50% class interaction and 50% Internet. Instructors, guest lecturers, labs, videos, and specific topics are dealt with in the "real" class. The Internet is used to study the textbook, to discuss specific topics, to take tests, to explore related Internet sites, and to research a chosen topic.