Using music on the Web.

Within classroom environments I have noticed that when music is incorporated into students’ learning experiences, their engagement level rises and they enjoy completing their tasks. Therefore, I feel that the majority of their learning would be effective and lead to learning retention occurring in future learning experiences when music is used to hook the majority of students into their tasks (Active Online Learning Team, 2000). After reading through the courseware in the Delivery Technologies topic, I was introduced to a service on the internet called Incompetech. Incompetech, is a form of royalty free music, and is pieces of music that you can legally download to your computer and use (Central Queensland University, 2009). Personally, I love music and listen to it on a daily basis, and it is interesting how my mood changes depending upon the music that I have listened to. Usually I listen to music that I have bought on a CD or by watching the film clip on YouTube, however, I look forward to spending more time browsing the Incompetech site in the future.

After briefly looking at the site I came across various pieces of music, and found one that would suit my prac experiences. I chose a piece of music called Thunderhead which is based upon Native American drumming that is reminiscent of thunder. The instruments used in the music are made up of rattles, shakers and drums, and the tempo picks up approximately half way through the piece of music (MacLeod, 2009).

I feel that this music could be incorporated into a learning experience with my year one students, as it is an appropriate resource to use as they are currently focusing on the lives of Native Americans. Therefore, the students could listen to the type of music which is similar to what the Native Americans produced and take on the role of a Native American and create their own music piece. As the piece of music that I downloaded is related to Thunder, the music could also be used throughout other learning experiences that focus on the weather and different seasons. However, this is just one example of how the music from Incompetech could be included within my teaching as there are a variety of activities that students could complete in relation to the music available on the site.

Reference List:
Active Learning Online Team. (2000). Why use active learning? Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whyuseal2.htm

Central Queensland University (CQU). (2009). FAHE11001- Managing E-Learning: Moodle site. Rockhampton, QLD, Australia: Scot Aldred.

MacLeod, K. (2009). Genre: world- thunderhead. Retrieved August 17, 2009, from
http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?genre=World