Support Music

I am pleased to announce that the MusicPLN.org was SPOTLIGHTED on the Support Music Site. You can see this in the graphic here (click it for a bigger picture!) and for a short time by visiting their site directly: http://musicpln.org

From SupportMusic.com:

“Music and the arts are vital to every child’s education. SupportMusic provides tools and resources to advance community support for music education. You CAN make a difference!”

I encourage you to take advantage of the myriad of resources there. They are doing a wonderful job for the advancement of Music Education both here in the U.S. and across the globe!

Also I recently performed a joint Webinar with Dr. Frankel. The transcript/audio/webinar itself can be found directly here: http://soundtree.com/webinar.

I also made a large document for use in conjunction with this Webinar. This document include some of what I talked about on the Webinar and much more. I am copying this document directly below:

Handout SoundTree Webinar 9/2/1010 ~Drs. Frankel and Pisano

1. The State of the MusicPLN.org (MPLN):

Statistics:

  • 710 members since July 19th
  • 966 Personal Informative Updates
  • 150 Topics
  • 1300 Posts
  • Averaging 100-200 visits Per Day

2. Implemented Uses of the MPLN:

  • Social Networking Specifically for Teachers
  • Groups Currently Include:
    • Music Technology
    • Early Childhood Music
    • Strings
    • Performing Ensembles
    • Secondary Education
    • Conducting/Score_Study
    • Middle School Music
    • Higher Education
    • Teaching Methodologies
    • New Members
    • Primary Music Education
    • Music Advocacy
    • Percussion Discussion
    • Vocal Discussion
    • Private Lessons/studio
    • Musical Theatre
    • Woodwind Discussion
    • Brass Discussion
    • Each Group can have an unlimited number of forum topics
    • Announcement Blog
    • Global Event Calendar
    • FAQ section
    • Expanding Link Library
    • Twitter Integration
    • Goodreads Integration (Beta)
    • Badges
    • Facebook Group Integration
    • MusicEdNews Post Integration
    • Chat Integration
    • RSS FEEDS
    • Massive E-mail Updating options
    • Private Messaging
    • Many options for individual to post (or not) personal information

What is coming in Version 1.5 (Currently at ver 1.4 ~Goal Date: Soon):

  • A large number of “fixes” for site behavior
  • Better Search Behavior
  • Indexing Via Google –yet still require registration
  • This upgrade will set the stage for Version 2.0
  • Removal of the e-mail validation and implementation of better Spam/Splog techniques
  • Better Guidelines for Sponsors and Music Industry Entities –Including pathways for them to offer approved discounts and special offers for members

What is coming for Version 2.0 (Goal Date Early January 2011):

  • Integration with Linkedin, Google Buzz, and Yahoo buzz
  • Enhanced Integration with Facebook
  • A completely new layout that is even more easy to navigate
  • The ability for Group Hierarchies – The current Groups will be able to have Sub-Groups
  • The ability for any user to input Events into a secondary Event System
  • Information Integration from Specific Blog/Websites
  • User-postable WIKIS for every group
  • Better Integration for users to upload/Share Photos/Videos
  • Enhanced Speed using better caching techniques

Version 3.0 (Goal June 2011)

  • Move to a Cloud-Based Server (Extreme Speed Increase over the dedicated Server now)
  • The ability for users to have their own Pages and request an integrated Blog
  • The ability for any approved WordPress User to Integrate their Blog into the activity stream
  • Online courseware for use with the MusicPLN.org
  • Integrated Professional Learning Opportunities and courses available

Version 4.0 (Unknown Date)

  • The sky is the limit… and the money dictates how the Sky is (more sponsor opportunities)!
  • The MusicPLN.org will REMAIN a free-to-use site for Music Educators -we don’t need any more things to pay for!

I’ve been talking about setting up a steering committee for a while now on the MPLN. As it stands, I’ve asked a number of people to serve on the committee and all that I have asked have agreed. The steering committee will help all of us to have better experiences on the MPLN. This will become increasingly important as the membership numbers increase. Expect the formal announcement of these great educators this month.

Short-term goal: 2,000 members and 10,000 conversations by January of 2011. Please HELP us make this goal! WE must build the community and be active in the community for the community to thrive!

Professional Development Challenge:

I’m challenging you and all of your music colleagues to take just ten minutes of every work-day and become involved in “our” online personal and professional discussions about music education… This year, take just ten minutes of every day and:

  • READ something new about music and your field…
  • SHARE something either online with your learning network and/or your working
    colleagues…
  • COLLABORATE about an idea, class, or project and/or DISCUSS something about our field with others
  • ASK yourself: “How can I be the best teacher, musician, etc. and make myself even
    better for tomorrow?”

GET OUT, GET MOVING, GET EXCITED, GET READY… Today just may the best day of your life…

https://mustech.net/2010/09/02/music-development

METOS ~ Music, Education & Technology Online Summit:

The first of its kind – a FREE online music conference! This will be held on Monday, October 11th.

METOS is your unique opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and insight from a panel of expert presenters located across the country, all in a single interactive afternoon. SoundTree has teamed up with a select group of technology partners to produce this concentrated and effective online event.

The METOS conference will be divided into 16 separate sessions. While each will focus on a specific topic, together they will all address ways to effectively integrate the latest technologies into the music classroom.

Don’t miss your chance to be a part of this history-making event. Admission is FREE for all music educators, but enrollment is limited. Conference details, online registration, and additional information are all available at www.metosonline.com.

Professional Learning Environments:

These are environments that allow students do/set their own learning goals or set up environments to help them learn a particular curriculum. Indeed, it is something that can include both formal and informal learning processes.

The environment will allow them to manage their own learning or help them with learning of both content and process.

The environment should also allow them to communicate and share with others.

Below is just one great example of a Personal Learning Environment for Music Education using Symbaloo. Your students could easily make these as well! Combine this with a WIKI (or into a WIKI) and it would be perfect…

http://singimagination.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/symbaloo-webmix-for-music-classes/

Keeping “up” with the Latest Online Music Education Information:

The PO-EM Project :
Project Opml – Educators of Music (PO-EM)

By harnessing and utilizing the power of the OPML file people are able to easily integrate dozens (or hundreds) of RSS Feeds into a RSS Reader without having to find and add the individual RSS feeds of each site that they would like to track.

https://mustech.net/projects/poem

An online implementation of the PO-EM project: Music Ed News ~ http://musicednews.com

Other implementations include pulling this into Google Reader, BlogBridge, or the Daily Journal on iPad:

Twitter and Music Education:

Twitter is an invaluable PLN all of its own. In particular, when you combine a hashtag with a particular thought-stream the true power of the Twitter Medium can be harnessed. There are a number of hash-tags currently being used on Twitter for Music Education Purposes:

#MusEdChat – The Hashtag for a large group of Music Educators talking about Music Education and the funnel for the #MusEdChat every Monday Night at 8 PM EDT.

http://musicedmajor.net/musedchat

#MusicEd, #MusEd , #Music – Simple hashtags for pulling up or indicated Tweets about Music Ed or Music

#SMusC – A new hashtagcontaining recent information about the Support Music Education Teleconference that happens once a month:

http://supportmusic.com

A lengthy article that I wrote about the importance of 21st Century Online Collaborative Tools, Networks and skills that are re-invigorating the field of music education:

http://blog.ischoolband.com/blog/how-21st-century-online-collaborative-tools-networks-and-ski.html

Twitter Style Reading lists:

Brian Wis’ Real-time Magazine for Music Educators:
http://twitter.com/teaching_music/reading-music

MusicEdNews.Com TwitterBot (Based on PO-EM):
http://twitter.com/pisanojm/music-feeds-for-flipboard

Both of these twitter accounts can easily be used for creating “Live Journals” – For Instance on the iPad you can import these into Flip Board (http://www.flipboard.com/)

In addition, you can check-out my “Instant Twitter Music PLN” here. I highly recommend following the people on this list:

https://mustech.net/projects/musictwitter

You may download a printable version of this document here:
Download the PDF of the Webinar [PDF]

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