Skypecasts

Did you ever dream to be in your home and on the same time to have a discussion with all of your learners? Your dream came true with the difference that you can also see them live!!! You can (video)conference call up to 100 people at a time for free. Your dream is called Skypecasts.

The only thing that you need is to install in your PC/MAC a free piece of software called SKYPE and a web camera. The real-time learning was not so easy before.

Book module

If you believe that a power point presentation does not provide your students with multi-page resources or you and your students prefer the book format, probably it is the time to introduce your self on Book module.

Only for Moodlers, the Book Module is an easy way to create multi-page resources with a book-like format. The main advantage of the book format is that you can easily print out the whole book or individual chapters using the print icons near the top of the page. Carefully it is not an interactive module but you can easily link to choices, forum and other interactive course materials. Created by Petr Skoda is a useful tool for teachers and learners.

The Moodle Philosophy

Moodle is designed based on a learning style which is called Social Constructionist Pedagogy.

With simply words, that means that people learn best by interacting with each other, student to instructor, instructor to student(s), student to student(s) etc. General speaking we can say that the difference between a traditional class and the social constructionist philosophy is the difference between a lecture and a discussion. Also, this was the teaching method/style that Socrates has introduced in the ancient greek education best known as dialectic method. Furthermore, Moodle offers eleven kinds of interactive course material. The first six refer to the interaction between student and teacher,

1. Assignment,
2. Choice (a single question),
3. Journal,
4. Lesson (branching activity),
5. Quiz,
6. Survey (only available to the teacher, student),

and the last five refer to the interaction between student(s)

1. Chat
2. Forum
3. Glossary (students contribute terms to site-wide glossaries
4. Wiki
5. Workshop

The Moodle

Moodle is an Course Management System (CMS), a free, Open Source software package based on Social Constructionist Pedagogy. It has a significant user base with 18,204 registered sites with 7,270,260 users in 712,531 courses (as of November 15, 2006), speaking over 70 languages in 196 countries.

This short video is an introduction to Moodle and an interview with it's creator Martin Dougiamas

eLearning and Ear Training

"Ear training or aural skills is a process by which musicians learn to identify intervals, chords, rhythms, and other basic elements of music".

One decade ago music teachers had to know how to play the piano, and that because piano was the appropriate tool for a music teacher that he/she wants to teach ear training. Moreover learners had to attend in ear training courses loosing time on transportation and without be able to retake a course that didn't attend/understand.

Nowadays with the help of technology music teacher does not need to learn how to play the piano and learners can retake a course that didn't understand. The only thinks that are needed is the appropriate software and access to the modules that created.

These were the first thoughts when I visit this website
http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/music/benward7/index.htm