It is often difficult getting students to understand that learning can extend beyond the classroom and the 50 minutes or so any given course physically meets. Too often, students view in-class and out-of-class as two completely separate identities … one that is academic and one that is not. The idea that their "non-academic" life can be at least as educationally rich as the classroom is a concept that few students seem to consider.

In an effort to continue classroom learning beyond the standard fifty-minute class period, two related programs have been implemented into the music education program at the University of South Florida. Both involve students using the internet for class purposes. While neither of these student tasks are terribly original in concept, they not only extend learning beyond the classroom and encourage students to link class material with their out-of-class experiences, but they also add important communal aspects to the learning environment.

First, a music education listserve forum was begun. The forum is open to all music education students and faculty, and subjects discussed in the forum cut across all aspects of music education and can be related to content from almost any music education course.

The main purpose of the music education listserve is to promote discussion between students and faculty related to issues important in the music education profession. The listserve is not meant to duplicate class material. Instead, it is devised to supplement and go beyond the scope of class discussions. The listserve is not tied directly to any one class, but instead is intended to involve any music education student or faculty member that has interest in contributing to an ongoing discussion of items important to the profession.

To begin the forum, music education faculty post a topic statement or question for students to read and post their responses. While all students are free to post responses at any time, forum participation is a requirement for those students enrolled in music education methods courses during any given semester. During the startup of the forum, this requirement provided assurance that the listserve would have a successful beginning. Afterward, it affirmed participation would continue.

Students and faculty are encouraged to post their thoughts about any aspect of the topic under discussion or to comment further on any previous postings. While the topic for discussion does not change often, there are frequently broad swings in the direction of discussions. For instance, in postings regarding a question about the most important role of music education in K-12 schools, discussion went from the national standards, to competition, to discipline, to the importance of performance, and to alternate types of performance opportunities.

The directions and guidelines for using the music education listserve are actually very simple and they are posted on a music education web page (www.arts.usf.edu/~dwilliam/listserve.html) so that students can access them at anytime. Because this particular forum is in the form of a listserve, some of the directions are particular to that method. Besides instructions for joining the list, the directions include:

Some recent forum topics include issues related to the National Standards: "Given the amounts of time that are normally devoted to music learning in schools, rank order the nine National Standards for performance ensembles and for general music classes;" issues related to classroom management: "What are among the most important aspects of creating an atmosphere for good discipline within the classroom?;" and, themes related to music curriculum issues: "Describe the ideal K-12 music curriculum."

The second program implemented at the University of South Florida, that has helped extend learning beyond the classroom, involves the use of electronic journal writing. Making students responsible for maintaining journals for courses in education has been a widespread practice for a number of years. Usually an important goal for this type of activity is to provide students an opportunity to connect course materials with other aspects of their lives, including experiences with K-12 schools. Typically, journal requirements might include having students write entries a minimum of every day a given course meets, and have them reflect on how they see class material as relevant to their past, present, and possible future.

While the use of course journals has become a fairly standard method for having students synthesize course material, there are generally two timeliness concerns with standard paper and pencil journals. First, so that class material will still be fresh in their minds, students are usually encouraged to write in their journals as soon as possible after classes. While many students take a serious approach to their work with journals, there is always suspicion that some students will not keep their journals up-to-date, but instead complete them just before they need to be turned in for faculty review. This creates concern that the process of journaling will not have the desired effect as memory of class material can diminish over time.

Second, the collection and review of journals by faculty adds additional time to the entire process. This potentially creates dramatic intervals between when students write in their journals and when they receive feedback from faculty. For instance, if a student expresses concerns about an aspect of class, or poses questions about class material in a journal entry, it could potentially be weeks before the class journals are collected and then perhaps another week before they are returned to the students. By the time the student receives faculty feedback it is likely that the student doesn't even remember the original concern, and at the very least the student has probably lost some interest in the topic.

With the prospect of improving on timeliness concerns, class journals for certain music education courses at the University of South Florida are now submitted electronically via email. Students are required to submit their journal entries no later than 8:00 a.m. the day after a class meets. The faculty member responsible for the class then reads the entry and usually responds on email the same day. There is some assurance with this approach that the entry was written when class material was still fresh in mind, and faculty can provide feedback in a timely manner.

Details for the electronic journal assignments are also maintained on the web (www.arts.usf/~dwilliam/journal.html). In their journal entries, students are encouraged not to simply explain what occurred in a given class. Instead, they are asked to deal with the concepts introduced in the course and to provide examples, applications, analyses, and evaluations. As an illustration, after a lecture on behaviorism, it is suggested that students propose environments in which it could be employed successfully, and to describe how an understanding of these concepts further illuminates their perceptions of the workings of rehearsal techniques, etc. Additionally students are encouraged to speculate on the significance of new concepts as important to themselves as developing teachers.

For format, all journal entries are emailed, however students are encouraged to maintain a copy on disk or a printed version. All entries must be dated and titled. The first entry for any given course usually would say something about the student's expectations for the course and how they were generated. Often the final entry would identify two or three concepts which were central to the course for the student, and be treated at some length and depth.

Students are told that while the length of daily entries will vary, the overall semester journal should represent work equivalent to a major course paper. Students are required to journal a minimum of each day their course meets, but they are encouraged to submit entries more often. In some cases the instructor will ask a student to submit a follow-up journal posting in order to answer questions or explain comments more fully.

Concerning evaluation, it is expected that each student's journal will be unique and there is no set formula. However, students should show awareness and thoughtfulness in dealing with class topics. In general, a "good" journal demonstrates personal and intellectual growth in areas relevant to music teaching. They are detailed and vivid rather than general and unfocused; they distinguish the significant from the trivial and they show subtlety and imagination.

While the use of the internet for group forums (in the form of ListServes and Bulletin Boards), or for communication between students and faculty is nothing new, together these applications of the internet have provided important benefits for the teaching/learning environment within the music education program at the University of South Florida.

The listserve forum has become a popular sounding board for both students and faculty. Discussions at times are lively, often with a variety of different opinions expressed.

Several program benefits have resulted from the forum. First of all, since the forum is not tied to a single course, discussions are not limited to students taking a particular class at a particular time. This has allowed younger students to be exposed to materials related to upper level courses well before they enter those courses. By the time they enroll in these classes they already have an understanding of course content and they bring with them a better level of awareness for class discussions. Furthermore, the forum allows for students that have already taken certain classes to add yet additional thoughts to the on-line discussions.

Additionally, the forum provides an opportunity for discussion of topics related to music education that there is not time in classes to adequately cover. For instance, even though students take a course related to music education philosophy, there never seems to be time in class to exhaust certain topics. The forum provides time for students and faculty to continue discussions past class time.

Another important advantage the listserve forum provides is a communal aspect to the learning environment. Even though students and faculty never physically meet, the forum furnishes an environment where participants do scholarship together. This allows for a virtual "community of scholars" concept to be an ongoing part of the music education program.

Similar benefits have resulted from the use of electronic class journals. The use of the electronic means of journaling has solved the timeliness problems of making sure students journal when material is still fresh on their minds, and for getting feedback to students regarding their entries so that the feedback is meaningful for them. In addition, because response time is so much better than with the use of paper and pencil journals, it is possible to establish on-going dialogues with journals. Both students and faculty can pose questions to each other and the resulting exchange can be both lengthy and valuable.

Lastly, as with the listserve, electronic journals provide a communal aspect to the learning environment. Again, even though students and faculty never physically meet, the on-going dialogues that are possible with electronic communication provide an environment where the teacher and individual student can work together in small group learning settings.

Together, the use of electronic journals and the music education listserve have improved the overall educational setting for both students and faculty. Future plans include the expansion of the listserve to involve students and faculty from other colleges and universities.