Music and Learner-Centeredness

For Thomas educators, this is an easy answer, but do you have any idea who's singing?

Well, he's a very talented, multifaceted educator at CTJ. A funny and smiley guy. Victor Botelho is one of the participants of this course. As I was reading Gilmar's comments to Victor about music, I remembered that there was this video I recorded of Victor's powerful performance in 2006 at our Students' graduation ceremony.



How lucky we are to have so many special talents where we work at.

Then, what strikes me is that most of the times we don't even know people's drives, hobbies, talents...People that we chat, interact and share lesson plans. And I'm not even mentioning our learners...Just our fellow teachers! So, here's the catch. Can you see that blogging and all these wonderful web2.0 tools can be totally transformational in the way we teach, learn and SEE others? How enabling and encouraging it is to give a true voice to everyone, isn't?

Just as I was writing here, I saw Lueli's last blog post. We're totally in synch, for she's just posted something related to music. When I listened to it, I could see another aspect we share, the passion for music and the same taste! How could I ever know Lueli's music selection? Even if I visited her, how could I listen to such a fantastic mix?

I asked a question to Gilmar about music and learners.

Work in Progress: The Power of Music via kwout

He answered

Work in Progress: The Power of Music via kwout

How could we, then, think of ways to shift our practices in a way that learners are co-creators of content instead of being the recipients? How could we learn about their music tastes? How would you incorporate music in the classroom à la Web2.0?

Here are some cool music resources that could give you some hints:

SeeqPod - Your Dynamic Playlist at The Journey via kwout

Lueli's Mixwit

Carla inspired me (again...) - Lueli's posterous via kwout

Larry Ferlazzo's blog is a total chest of treasures. He makes "The best of..." lists, which are just incredibly rich of web tools. This brand new is just on music creation:
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/10/01/the-best-online-sites-for-creating-music/

I'd love to hear your fantastic classroom ideas. I'm sure they will be "music" to my ears!


Caution: Music is addictive. Don't try ALL these tools! It would take you a lifetime!