Sunday, October 4, 2015

Week 6: Copyright Laws and Google Sites

This week has been a little less interesting compared to previous weeks, though still informative. This week we covered copyright laws and Google Sites.

I remember talking about copyright laws in my undergrad, because as a music educator I feel we have to deal with copyright laws frequently. Copyright is in place to protect people’s work and with technology and the Internet you can find almost anything online, but that doesn’t mean it is all public domain. Learning what can be used and what can’t is important. I found a link on copyright that is appropriate for elementary general teachers: http://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2015/09/copyright-laws-how-much-do-you-know.html?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=rss

Google Sites are a great tool for educators. Having a free online resource to post information for parents and students can be extremely beneficial in today’s tech savvy culture. I know the first thing I do when I want to know something is look online, so I’m sure my student’s parents would benefit from me posting important information online. I can easily get a free website to post information about instrument rehearsals, lesson schedules, practice information, and concert dates and attire.

The other great way I came up to use Google Sites for is teaching purposes. I could have a chorus website with information about the music we are learning and sound clip or YouTube videos of the music we are working on. Another great thing to put up is accompaniment tracks for students to practice with. Asking students to practice their chorus music without an accompaniment can be difficult, especially when they come back and have practiced the music incorrectly because they forgot how it sounds. I could put up clips to practice with, like me singing the parts we were working on that week.


Overall, Google Sites seem easy to work with and a great resource for my students. The only thing to watch out for are copyright laws especially when posting music for students to listen to or practice with.

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