About isbmusic.org 

What is it? 
This website is a unique virtual project which enables students of the International School of Busan to upload audio or video recordings to their own web environment and then to add their own text comments and photos. They can also add other documents such as Powerpoint presentations or PDF files. In addition, all materials can made downloadable so that students can use this space to share files. The benefit of this is that, if they wish, they can then put their own recordings onto a CD or an mp3 player. 

Of course younger students will not be able to do all that themselves, but their work can easily be added to the site so that others can see it. As they progress through the school they will acquire more of the skills necessary to update their own areas of the site.   

Teaching, Learning and Assessment: 
The aim of the site is to help in the processes of teaching, learning and assessment. It is an online portfolio of student work.
The theory behind such a web environment is that by having easy access to performances recorded over an extended period of time, students will be able to assess their own progress by reviewing their contributions to the site. It is also well known that musicians learn a great deal by listening to themselves play, so the self-assessment process should lead to further progress in the future. Teachers and parents will also be able use the site to assess the student’s learning and when reports are written, the work on the website can be referenced. 

Because of the nature of the subject, most of the work done in music classes is usually lost, so by regularly capturing either works in rehearsal or polished performances it is then possible for everyone to have a clearer understanding of what has taken place. Many music departments have a shelf somewhere with assorted dusty tapes and CDs of student recordings which are rarely, if ever referred to. One of the unique benefits of using a website is that it makes classifying and storing an archive of student work so easy and at the same time access to it is entirely open. 

In order to make he site grow students will have to make recordings far more frequently than they have before, which may or may not prove beneficial. The ‘pressure of the microphone’ is something that usually motivates performers to give their best. However, it is necessary to be aware of how counter-productive it could be for students to develop ‘microphobia’, so this aspect of the project will be closely monitored. We are hoping that students will see the recording process as simply a record of what one has done, perhaps equivalent to an artist’s sketch book or the contents of one’s exercise book in any other subject. 

Another important aspect of this project is the potential of the site to teach something about technology as well as about music. Students are already learning about the recording and editing process, the creation of mp3s and they will also learn more about web technologies through learning how to use the site’s content management system.    


Site Management 

Admin 

The site can contain an almost unlimited number of articles, recordings, videos, in fact anything that we have the time to produce. It has been  designed so that any number of students can be given their own access to log in and start adding content.
Students will be given different privileges: 

• Writers will be able to add content to specific articles, but the site administrator (Mr Jackson) will need to approve it before it gets published. 
• Trusted Writers can publish their own articles.

There are also two further levels of site management which will be reserved for staff:

Editors, who can publish articles and change the content in other people’s articles, and  Administrators who can change anything including the layout of the site.

Progression through the Grades

When a student moves up, for example from Grade 3 to 4,  the work that they produced during Grade 3 will remain in that section. Over several years this would mean that each Grade section would contain a large body of work at that level enabling useful comparisons of achievement at different levels. 

Depth

Sub-sections can be easily added to the site if necessary so that, for example, it would be possible for the Instrumental section to be divided into sections for each instrument: Clarinet, Saxophone, Violin, Cello, etc.

Project Development

Mr Jackson has wanted to build an 'assessment' site for some time prior to coming to ISB having built, or consulted on a number of educational sites in the past, but never one quite like this. Since leaving full-time web development he has been slowly developing the plans. Fortunately ISB has a progressive approach to teaching and learning and has been very supportive in helping establish such an experimental project. (This is not the only educational site connected to the school, there is also shinjy.com which supports the Korean for Foreigners programme.)  

Before getting started on isbmusic.org we needed to invest in some technology. Four high-specification desktops and one laptop have been bought for the music room. Each computer can import video and burn DVDs as well as easily manage the stresses of audio editing. The laptop will be a portable recording studio, enabling us to capture concerts, instrumental lessons and other events around and beyond the school. We have also bought a suitable microphone and audio interphase, necessary for capturing high quality sounds.      

Many types of web management model have been explored and two t est sites were built using open source content management systems (Mambo and Siteframe), but neither is capable of managing both a large number of site contributors and uploads of any file type, not without serious re-development anyway. Because of this we decided to invest in a copy of Article Manager which is a commercial site development tool which seemed perfectly suited to the task. So far it is performing well and has a number of capabilities that have not yet been utilised, such as video sharing and photo galleries. It may at some point also be appropriate to add a forum in which structured music related discussions could take place. (In fact, another model that was explored was to use a discussion forum as the music assessment site so that students would share their work through uploads to the forum.)

What happens in future is really an open-ended question. The site needs to be run for at least 6 months to begin to see if it does have real educational benefits. After that point we can review the situation and then chose to continue, change it or bring it to an orderly close. It is hoped that it will achieve its aims and continue to develop successfully for many years, but experience has shown that one should always be cautious about making grand predictions for experimental websites.   

MJ - April 2007