Random access: Web 2.0: how the new world wide Web is connecting music teachers and students.(Professional Resources)

The term "Web 2.0" is a bit of a buzzword that is thrown around these days to describe a perceived second generation of the World Wide Web. However, the technical specifications of the web have not changed. Instead, web programmers and end-users are discovering exciting new ways to utilize the web as a platform to truly connect information and people with one another.

In this column, I am going to discuss various Web 2.0 technologies, such as blogs and social-networking sites, and also some older Internet technologies, such as discussion forums and electronic mailing lists. If you have not participated in any of these already, you will discover that through this medium you will gain valuable information from other teachers from around the world. It also gives you a platform to share your expertise with students and other teachers, too.

Discussion Forums and E-mail Lists

Discussion forums are an excellent way to keep in touch with ongoing issues in music performance and instruction. I participate regularly in a forum at Pianoworld.com (http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/ubb /ultimatebb.php). They have managed to establish a virtual community of pianists ranging from absolute beginners to seasoned concert pianists. What I like most about this forum is that it has different forums and threads to accommodate any user regardless of his or her musical background or interests. For example, one forum is focused for piano teachers where users can share lesson plans, teaching tips or post up a question for other teachers to answer. Another forum is dedicated to adult beginners, where I have been known to contribute my two-cents. It is intriguing to see how other members of the forums encourage one another to practice harder. Some users even share recordings of themselves on the forums for feedback from people they have never even met.

One interesting aspect about the discussion forums is that users can choose to stay as anonymous as they would like. Many users choose not have to make their real names or e-mail addresses public to others. On the other hand, I have no qualms about revealing my identity on this particular forum.

Other discussion forums take the shape of e-mail lists. Two of the e-mail lists that I actively participate in are The Piano Pedagogy Discussion List (http://listserver.colstate.edu/ mailman/listinfo/pno-ped-l) and Yahoo Piano Teacher Support Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/piano _teacher_support). These discussions are unique because all the posts are sent directly to the e-mail address that you use to sign up when you subscribe to the list. This can be either a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it. On one hand, you do not have to keep going back to a website to see if any new posts were made. However, depending on how much discussion is going on, you might find your inbox full of dozens of e-mail coming from that list. One way to prevent yourself from being a victim of one of these "email avalanches" is to set your preferences to receive a digest of the most recent discussions within one e-mail message.

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