Translation: Have fun.
Design a site which has the student in mind. As an online student
myself, I know what online students want and need. For
example, this means a site which downloads in a flash and is small enough
for crucial, non-dynamic material to be downloaded
to local disks for times when modem lines are busy (at NEIU that's a
lot).
Translation: An online teacher should be an online student.
Think of the web site component as only part of the whole and use
email (one-on-one and listserv), one-on-one/face-to-face
(office hours), class meetings, phone (and phone mail), fax (written
assignments), video tape (of student performance
assignments), textbook, software, and other ancillary components.
Translation: Use all communication avenues creatively.
Use the principles of information architecture to guide me
(translated to a one person team), not the principles of graphical
design.
Translation: Don't be cool, be useful.
Get input from the students and improve the site as that input
directs.
Translation: Get the students in on the fun as collaborators.
Use the Web and Internet and computer as tools for music making.
I.e., use these tools to continue the agenda I've had
since before they existed.
Translation: Think of the computer's keyboard as a paradigm of a new kind
of musical instrument!
While the cliche that "the web must not be used like traditional
media such as books" is a valid principle, I'm not afraid to put
simple text on the web when it will help the students and it is so easy to
do.
Translation: If it helps the students, do it.
Like Guido d'Arezzo (c991-c1033), the first music educator about whom
we have any detail, I am trying a totally new way
of teaching music. As part of his work as trainer of the choir at the
Cathedral of Arezzo, he developed a method of sight-singing
based upon the syllables ut, re, mi, which allowed singers to learn chant
much more quickly than the traditional way.
Translation: I am following in a tradition of great teachers and
musicians.
Since audio and multimedia make the site richer, I have begun to
include these more and more. However, I've designed the
site so that students who don't have multimedia computers won't be
penalized, while students who do have and would like to
use the multimedia can do so.
Translation: Bells and whistles are integrated to enhance, but are not
necessary.
I've worked alone, because the collaborative process wasn't practical
for me at the time. As I review and rewrite the site, I
intend to utilize a graphic designer.
Translation: Now that I've done it, I want to do it better.