Quality control.(American Music Teacher provides quality unlike online information)(Editorial)

As we all know, daily life is changing rapidly and in countless ways. I'd like to focus for a moment on technology, and on the astonishingly easy and quick availability of information online--on virtually any subject the curious Web surfer can think of. My reason for dwelling on this is that the Editorial Committee of American Music Teacher was asked at our recent meeting in Austin, Texas, to consider the implications of life in a "Google world" for a journal such as ours.

Traditionally, MTNA has seen one of its main missions as providing good professional information to its members, on a wide spectrum of artistic and pedagogical topics. The hope was that members would rely on MTNA for this service and would thus turn regularly to AMT. But if one of us 21st-century teachers should find that a question has suddenly popped up about pedaling in Beethoven--or income-tax deductions--or teaching a dyslexic student, our need for a quick answer might very likely lead us to an Internet search. And why not? Searches are fun, fascinating, instantaneous and very often bring us exactly the results we need. Don't you wonder sometimes how we ever muddled through without Google, e-mail and (much as we complain about them) cell phones?

It's always good to remember, though, that there is no quality control of online information. It may be inaccurate, ...