Teaching in the Online Age
Anthony Olson
The information age has created wonderful new technologies that been applied to education. The Internet is perhaps the greatest of these technologies and provides unique opportunities for educators. The Internet has greatly enhanced education and is even used for course delivery. Other academic areas (e.g. Business) have led the way, going as far as offering graduate degrees that can be completed through online coursework. Music study has been behind the “learning curve” in the application of Internet resources. This is unfortunate because teaching online allows instructors to do nearly everything that can be done in the traditional classroom plus much more. In the “virtual” classroom, one can deliver lectures, assign reading and research, administer timed examinations and assign projects and reports. Additionally, discussion boards and chat rooms provide opportunities for interactive discussion of course material and concepts.
Being freed from the limitations of physical location, instructors and students can interact from a distance of hundreds or even thousands of miles. Students from large and small institutions (students with very different perspectives and learning experiences) have the opportunity to study together. This provides a wonderful forum in which students gain a broader understanding of the higher education experience.
Online course deliver tools can also supplement the traditional classroom. Requiring students to watch recorded lectures (streamed over the Internet) outside the classroom, allows instructors to focus class time on in-depth discussion and the application of concepts rather than presentation and explanation. This presentation demonstrates the unique advantages and disadvantages of the Internet and its application in the area of course delivery and classroom enhancement.
This program
has been presented at:
* Music Teachers’
National Association, national conference, April 5, 2005.
* The College Music Society, national conference, November 4, 2004.
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