Abstract
Social media is a dynamic tool capable of helping music teachers in various capacities. This article will explore two levels of involvement, including the personal learning network and the social classroom. When teachers use social media to its fullest potential in the music classroom, it allows for many new possibilities for the classroom, including higher levels of engagement, increased relevancy, and improved differentiated instruction levels. This article will also showcase specific ways to engage in both a personal learning network and a social classroom by providing an overview to the major social media platforms currently helpful in music education.
Keywords
If I think back to my first year of teaching, I am now stunned by the lack of technology use. The technology was available, but I did not know how to use it nor did I have many local examples of technology use in secondary general music. (Frankly, I did not have many examples of secondary general music.) To be sure, technology examples existed—I was just ignorant. After that first year, however, I became curious about incorporating technology in my classroom. How were other secondary general music teachers using technology in their classroom? How could I find those teachers and make networking connections? Thus, began my love affair with Google.
During the early 2000s, social media did not have the strong presence that currently exists, though it was on the horizon. Finding answers was possible, though messy. Answers were available, but required numerous trial-and-error strategies to decide what was logical for my music classroom. When social media moved to the forefront between 2006 and 2008, I immediately became connected to a collection of music teachers—individuals in various teaching scenarios with teaching strategies in technology and beyond—and acquired a filter system for ideas. Teachers would respond with “likes” or “favorites” for a well-received comment. I became connected to music teachers at national and international levels. The world, physically the same size, now felt more accessible and connected.
Over the years, I have made decisions about new ideas and new technology based on the advice of seasoned teachers that I have met virtually. That being said, I was able to enter this virtual learning network during its development and at a time when it was much smaller. For the current digital beginner, the world of social media may appear large and overwhelming. To better understand these digital interfaces, consider the following two levels of involvement: the personal learning network (PLN) and the social classroom.
The Personal Learning Network
In 2006, Facebook and MySpace engaged in an epic battle for “top dog” in the personal social media world, but Facebook’s ability to incorporate business and educational networking allowed it to flourish and become the current staple of social networking (Hartung, 2011). Facebook’s ability to connect personal and professional lives organically grew PLNs for interested parties. Richardson and Mancabelli (2011) stated, “Assuming we have an Internet connection, we can start to create a personal learning network - a set of connections to people and resources both offline and online who enrich our learning - at a moment’s notice” (pp. 1-2). Although these connections are helpful for those displaced from relevant colleagues in their physical location, personal learning environments remain beneficial for educators searching for new and different ideas.
Facebook is easily the most widely used social media platform with 1.32 billion users. Although not every user is active on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, it provides an ample network for engaging with specific target communities. One can easily search for names of individuals to connect with, but searching Facebook groups may be a better option for finding targeted users with similar interests. Facebook groups are used to connect like-minded individuals to showcase and share ideas. The “liking” system of Facebook adds a level of peer review for ideas that particularly resonate with the community. Facebook groups range from international music factions, state music educators groups, and local chapters of music organizations, to school groups with closed membership. See Figure 1 to view the group organized for the University of New Mexico (UNM) NAfME chapter executive board. You will note the group is considered “secret,” as membership is restricted to those elected to the executive officer board. See Table 1 for recommended Facebook groups.
University of New Mexico NAfME e-board Facebook group.
Recommended Facebook Groups.
On YouTube, 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute (YouTube, 2014). When seeking technical answers on various new software and hardware, YouTube provides a plethora of user-created videos that are more updated and concrete than official manuals. Users can search the web to find step-by-step “how-to” videos,but YouTube allows users to follow directions and see it in action. When learning new technology, YouTube provides the most straightforward way to engage and learn while hearing and seeing instructions simultaneously.
YouTube is not limited to “how-to” videos. Conductors can quickly search the YouTube database to locate various versions of particular repertoire. They can listen for style and expression and observe conducting gestures from experienced maestros. Music teacher workshops can be viewed on YouTube. For example, if you did not know about a workshop or you could not attend when it was initially offered, you can view and learn right now! By subscribing to a channel (see Table 2), you will receive updated notifications as new videos are posted.
Recommended YouTube Channels.
While social medias require some sort of profile page, Pinterest’s profile page offers the collection of “pinned” websites helpful to the user. It is often advertised as a better way than bookmarking websites in the browser. The content truly helpful to the user is not hosted on Pinterest; rather, Pinterest allows users to organize the websites where the content is hosted. While a user often has a collection of “pins” relating to personal endeavors outside of music or teaching, a user can create or follow specific boards to view websites that assist in creating a PLN (see Table 3).
Recommended Pinterest Boards.
Twitter has capitalized on the market of micro blogging in which the user writes short-form posts but with higher frequency than a typical blogging platform. Specifically, users’ posts are limited to items with less than 140 characters. Although this kind of posting can seem limiting, when paired with the used of hashtags (denoted by the # symbol), it allows for concise communication to fellow hashtag community members. The idea behind a hashtag is to add a label to your post that generalizes the genre to which it belongs (#musiced, #mused, #musedchat). Some hashtags have organized times when a question is presented and discussed by always using the specific hashtag. Others can view the specific hashtag group by clicking on it or searching for it. The most popular hashtag education groups tend to focus on science and technology (teachthought.com, n.d.), though the #musedchat group has a strong presence during its allocated time (see Figure 2). See Table 4 for recommended twitter hashtag communities.
#musedchat group.
Recommended Twitter Hashtags.
Many other sites have a music education PLN presence, though with less impact. One can search for music education groups on reddit, music education pages on Instagram, and the music education tag (hashtag) on Tumblr and find many music education communities on Google Plus. YouTube, Wordpress, and reddit, and several other sites do not require logging on to view. For instance, reddit—which has 114.5 million visitors—has 3 million logged-on users for a total of over 5 billion page hits. See Table 5 for the full list of statistics on various social media platforms. Depending on interest levels, one can view the community without actively engaging. My mentor calls this type of activity “lurking.” The ability to view a community serves as a beta test and assists in deciding whether this community resonates with you. Lurking allows one to decide whether to step up into the next level of involvement. Whether lurking or fully involved in a social media–based personal learning network, you engage in “just-in-time learning”—a skill set that teachers and students need in this age of technology (Collins & Halverson, 2009).
Social Media User Statistics.
Many users/pages/channels are owned by the same user.
The Social Classroom
The next step would move you beyond “just-in-time learning” and turn you into a content creator. Social media can be a used music classroom component in addition to being a tool for a PLN. When social media is used within the music classroom, it extends the time during which learning can occur. In 2014, the Harvard’s Institute of Politics revealed that 84% of teenagers use Facebook, with other social medias accounting for 45% or below (Institute of Politics, Harvard University, 2014). Although users must agree that they are at least 13 years old to be allowed to sign up for a Facebook account, more than 7.5 million children younger than 13 are known to have accounts (Magid, 2012). Technology is ubiquitous in today’s youth.
Beyond groups, another useful Facebook platform is the Facebook page. The Facebook group is meant to be a place where the community all shares and collaborates on an idea. The Facebook page is intended for communication from one source to the people who are interested in that community. The UNM NAfME executive board has a Facebook group as we all chat to organize our events. The UNM NAfME page (see Figure 3) allows the e-board to communicate to the chapter members about events and to share good news about UNM music education at large. Many music teachers have successfully used similar pages to convey information to their music students. A Facebook page is useful for informing parents about events and activities, as information can be received by anyone who “likes” the page. The Facebook page and group, with various permission levels, allow the page or group administrator to control the way others are allowed to post or reply to posts. Spammers and trolls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)) can be banned if necessary.
University of New Mexico NAfME Facebook page.
Moving beyond Facebook—Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, and Wordpress are places used by teachers to extend the time students engage with music ideas and allow parents to have virtual access to the music classroom through text, photography, audio, and video sharing. Perhaps one of the most exciting places to allow parents and students to connect with your musical content is through SoundCloud and YouTube. These two websites allow streaming media, sound and video, respectively, allowing students and parents to directly engage with the music you wish them to listen and respond to, practice, and perhaps even create.
In 2012, I taught preschool to eighth-grade general music. During an absence from school, my timing was often inconvenient. With many substitute teachers lacking musical training, I was concerned about writing sub plans for someone without musical training and who would be filling in for a teacher “on a cart.” Additionally, the students were preparing for their traditional Christmas program and needed to rehearse their music.
To ensure that music was made and was meaningful, I created a series of YouTube videos for all grade levels and all music content. In the videos I sang through the music, played recorder and showed a visual aide, played mallet instruments, and played ukulele; I even sang a little two- and three-part harmony. This method of writing sub plans certainly was not faster than traditional sub plans, but I felt more comfortable knowing that the students’ music class time would not be wasted. The substitute playlist is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=silOsbJJFSo&list=PLqAhxr1AWDDtFvpyaP_pflbLxoFBas8f
The videos were incredibly popular with the substitute teachers, the classroom teachers, and the students. They wanted me in the room, but if they couldn’t have that, this was the next best thing. Seeing the popularity of the sub videos, I began creating a video blog to talk about music teaching ideas that I wanted to share with practicing and preservice music teachers. These videos can be found on my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/robingiebes). In addition to video streaming, on occasion, I simply want to share the audio from music class. In these cases SoundCloud is a great option. I have made music playlists of myself singing songs that are for students to listen and rehearse. It is also exciting to showcase student compositions or arrangements this way. SoundCloud is a wonderful way to show parents the creative work that students can achieve by sharing their work online. A collection of students work is available at https://soundcloud.com/msgiebes.
Wordpress and other blogging websites (Blogger, Weebly, Squarespace, Wix, Tumblr) allow individuals to connect all social media accounts in one space so student or parent users can choose the platform that works for their life. The UNM NAfME Wordpress page (see Figure 4) hosts the blog that features student writings on music education in their life plus a feed for the Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter page. While Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are similar, Wordpress gives the parent and student one place to find it all.
University of New Mexico NAfME Wordpress page.
Managing all these social media platforms can seem overwhelming, and it is at first! This is exactly why you should never feel pressured to do it all at once. I first connected to Facebook in 2006, Twitter in 2008, Wordpress in 2010, YouTube in 2011, Instagram in 2012, and Tumblr in 2013. I did not create my first Facebook group until 2010. I took time with each platform, became comfortable in using the platform, and then looked for new ways to expand my social media understanding. To quote a cliché, “Do not eat the whole elephant at once!”
There are ways to minimize workload when connecting your school accounts. Posts from one platform can be “pushed” to another account. For instance, my Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube accounts all automatically send to Twitter. I have programed Twitter to always send to Facebook. So with one post I can send updates to three or four different accounts without extra time or effort.
Why Use Social Media in the Music Classroom?
The big question at the end of the day is “why?” Why should I become involved professionally in a virtual place used largely for personal interactions? Why would this be a good use of my time and energy? To answer these questions, one must consider the following three components: engagement, relevance, and differentiated learning.
Beginning with engagement, many students are hooked into social media and see it as an integral part of their lives. Becoming part of the picture as the music teacher allows students to connect their home life to the music classroom. Teachers constantly look for ways to encourage music practice at home, and one of the easiest ways to encourage this is to establish an educative presence where the students already exist.
One of the biggest challenges, with respect to educational curriculum, is the need to make the content relevant. Bauer (2014) asserts that few music teachers use music technology of any variety. This resistance to technological incorporation threatens the relevancy of the music classroom. By making “baby steps” into the technological world, music educators can showcase music education’s relevancy. Once acquiring an Internet connection, social media is free and allows for increased understanding and improved access to the music program for both students and parents.
But most important, we are responsible for reaching the needs of all students in our classroom and potentially enticing new learners. If we are only delivering music instruction in one-size-fits all music “packages,” then we are making second-class citizens of those who engage with music in a much more technological fashion. In my own teaching, I am always amazed at my students’ reactions when I teach a previous lesson but in a new way—in a techie way.
Technology in music teaching can be a powerful tool. Social media in the music classroom allows for many new possibilities for the classroom, including higher levels of engagement, increased relevancy, and improved differentiated instruction levels. Although I don’t recommend “eating the whole elephant in one sitting,” I do suggest taking a small bite and exploring a new direction for your music teaching.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.