Well, it’s been long and hard but we’re seeing light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. I can’ t believe how many music educators are now blogging. When I first started this campaign in January, you could barely find a music education blogger using Google, now they’re everywhere -which is a very good thing!
There are so many good things that are coming from the ME bloggers, the global conversations that have been started are so good for moving forward the discussion about what we do and how we do it. Personally, I’ve learned quite a bit, not only from the posts of the Music Education Bloggers, but from the process itself.
The blogging process allows avenues for expression that may be hard for people to access in any other way. In particular, writing or blogging, allows times fore reflection, introspection, and in particular, clarity of thought about a particular idea, condundrum, or thought.
I’ve always written about blogging as a means to share knowledge with the your peers, students, or even the world. This type of action is readily apparent after reading hundreds of blog posts by music educators about what they do best. In addition, I’ve read from the ME Bloggers many posts where the idea of digital mentoring and helping guide others and not only seen, but the process is clearly visible. As ME Bloggers we are putting forth “good” information onto the web to begin to fill the very visible “gaps” of knowledge about our subject on the web AND clarify and add to the knowledge base that is all ready there. We’re begining to “cut through the junk” that was and continues to be found when searhing for related subject matter about our field.
The very act of writing about our subject and personal clarification of our thoughts puts us in good position to begin to write for peer-reviewed journals and hopefully texts and books about our subject. You never know what you can do until you are all ready doing it! Blogging provides a much needed creative outlet for Music Educators, with it we can compose with words and talk about our field in ways in addition to daily, speaking through music. By working and collaborating with our peers and colleagues online, we open up our minds to bigger and larger “picture” items about our daily grind, weekly trudge, and monthly obligations. I’ve not found an active music education blogger that has not been impacted positively by the blogging experience in many ways… even (or I guess, especially) if their blog is purely cathartic in nature!
I’m constantly amazed by the ability and platform and POWER that blogging provided the educator with by having a centralized public relations machine available to them to broadcast their endeavors 24/7. The music education bloggers that are using a blog (many now have more than one) to discuss their coursework, assignments, projects, concerts, and anything they want people to know about or have immediate access to, is growing by leaps and bound -and for obvious reasons -it works!
I encourage anyone to try blogging as a means to accomplish any of the goals I’ve mentioned in this article. I think you will be amazed at just how easy, effective, and ultimately fun and efficient it is. I’ve always recommend getting a free blog at http://wordpress.com or if you are, specifically, music educaton oriented there is a great WordPress multi-user music educator community set up by Evan Tobias at http://musiced.net -it’s free as well. Here is a recap of some of my suggested reasons to blog:
- Reflection, Introspect, & Thought Crystallization
- Sharing knowledge with their students, peers or the world (global conversations)
- Contributing to a larger database of information (active research)
- Writing Practice (There is a tree-ware book in all of us!)
- Creative Outlet
- Digital Mentoring
- Active Sharing of Media (Pictures/Photos/Webcasts/Podcasts/Vidcasts)
- Create a network of peers and colleagues
- Advertise your concerts, clinics, yourself, or whatever (publicity)
I’m also very please do ANNOUNCE the new ME Bloggers for November that have stepped up to our challenge:
88. Derek Polischuk – Michigan State Piano Pedagogy
http://michiganstatepianopedagogy.blogspot.com
89. Elizabeth McDonald -From the Voice of…
http://fromthevoiceof.blogspot.com
90. Sarah Johnston -Urban Music Education
http://urbanmusiceducation.org
Please stop by right now and say hello to them, I’m sure they will appreaciate it!
Only 60 days to go and 10 spots left, let’s see if we can complete this campaign on time! If you are interested in becoming a ME Blogger please see our Music Education blogger page here:
https://mustech.net/100-me-bloggers and you may contact us here with any questions or if you would like to join this seminal music education campaign: https://mustech.net/contact-us
I’m going to put this campaign back into the driver’s seat and begin to push it hard throughout the month of November. I’ve checked a number of potential music education blogger sites this month and many folks would like me to consider their “website” as a candidate for the ME Bloggers which I can not do. The focus on this campaign is purely BLOGS and Music Education Bloggers! My advice to all of them is to simply stat a blog and start posting! :) It’s as easy as I say it is.
ATTENTION MUSIC EDUCATION BLOGGERS: If you’ve been in a slump, check out and become active in the Music Education Blog Carnival, Travis Weller just hosted the 5th edition and it is becoming a very strong music education repository of information in its own right. I encourage all Music Education bloggersto join in this month’s carnival as it is a vehicle for getting the word out about your works and again, takes very little time to participate. You can find the 5th edition of the Music Education Blog Carnival at Composing Like Mad.
Cherish your Music Education Bloggers, they’re working like hard to get information out about your field AND they’re ready and willing to start a dialog withyou about it, so take the time to say hello and comment about their articles if you get chance and join the global conversation about music and education!
