Module 5- Spotify, Music Software, and Social Bookmarking

Spotify, Music Software, and Social Bookmarking

I have been a paid member of Spotify for a little over a year now and have really enjoyed all of the music that I have been able to hear and enjoy since I started using it.  It was interesting this week to be able to share a playlist from my Spotify that I have been expanding and building on for the past year with my classmates.  I would like to continue to build upon that playlist, and I am sure that it will change from year to year as I get the opportunity to experience new and different types of music.  I have also found that not only is Spotify a place where I can find almost any music that I would like to listen to, it is also a tool that I am able to use in the classroom.  Having my students listen to quality concert band literature, even as they are entering the room, is a great way to build their listening skills and help them understand what good balance and blend sound like.  Below is one of my favorite pieces from this playlist, as well as a great example of good ensemble sound. 

 

Something else that I had a lot of inexperience with was social bookmarking.  Until this course I had never heard of such a thing even occurring.  After going through the project and searching around the internet to share resources with other educators I have learned to really like this concept.  Bauer stated, “Social bookmarking not only helps users track, and later retrieve, online resources they discover, but it is also a way for people to work together to share and learn about valuable information, tools, and services on the Internet” (2014. p. 42).  The amount of wonderful resources that are available through the Internet that other educators have already found or created is astounding.  With social bookmarking it just makes it that much easier to share available ideas and like they say “not reinvent the wheel”.  Diigo was a wonderful source to learn about this week in relation to sharing wonderful websites and ideas with other music educators.

Diigo©

Another thing that was a big hitting point for me in this week’s module was the discussion about responding to music.  There were so many activities to get students really involved in listening to and responding to music that I had not tried in my class.  While I thought that I was doing a good job having my students respond to music, I was missing out on many of these great opportunities.  I would love to take the opportunity to use more of these ideas with my students.