COLLABORATIVE VIDEO LOGS: VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE AND ALIVENESS IN THE MUSIC CLASSROOM

A vlog or videoblog is a series of videos that feature someone speaking to the camera to present entertainment, reflection, opinion, or education. Collaborative vlogs (CVLs) involve multiple people taking joint ownership of a vlog through asynchronous interaction, discussion, and expression. This paper explores how online video helped create communities of practice both within the classroom and beyond through developing connections with each other that extended their interactions from the classroom to the Internet. Additionally, they creatively explored new ways to express themselves, developed their identities, and discussed pertinent topics regarding music, technology, and education. To explore the sociological vectors of culture and identity, I adapted a framework of aliveness within communities of practice developed by Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder (2002) to analyze seven semesters of student reflections on CVL projects in music courses that serviced music education majors, elementary education majors, and students from a variety of majors. Through CVLs, students have explored mediated musical practices and shared their lives and experiences in ways that classmates and instructors do not get to see when limited to the classroom. Students and vloggers alike deal with issues of trust within our digital society, and by critically analyzing how the participants in this study developed relationships with each other and me as their instructor, we can better understand how to move forward in the classroom and through social media, video broadcasting sites, and blogging. While the participants in this study were music students, CVLs can be applied to any discipline.

Exploring the Music Identity Development of Elementary Education Majors Using Ukulele and YouTube

The purpose of this instrumental case study was to understand how learning to play the ukulele influenced the music identity of elementary education majors. Eighteen participants (17 females, 1 male) from two universities created YouTube playlists and recorded solo ukulele performances for their YouTube channel. Music identity perceptions were collected via writing reflections, video recorded class sessions, and focus group interviews. We found that students’ early life experiences informed their beginning-of-semester perceptions of music identity (past selves), while in-class experiences contributed to higher levels of music competence and participation, and meaningful shifts in music identity (present and future selves). Music teachers should consider how the ukulele and YouTube may be used to promote individual expression, accountability, and self-directed learning. We encourage music teacher educators to use music biographies and YouTube as tools for culturally responsive teaching while creating safe spaces for the music identity development of less experienced/confident musicians.

Scaffolded Daily Writing Assignments Introducing the Writing of Mathematical Proofs

Writing mathematical proofs is a key component of writing in the discipline in mathematics. Historically, many students have struggled in pursuing this endeavor, particularly during their early exposure to the process. To help students progress toward the goal of being able to consistently create well-written proofs, I present an incremental approach used in a course for elementary education majors who are concentrating in mathematics. This approach uses daily low-stakes writing assignments. Using this instructional technique, I found that student engagement improved and that, overall, better mathematical proofs were written. One more instructor at my institution has already adopted the same methods, and I expect more to do so.

Boys will be superintendents

Even though the teaching profession is dominated by women, men hold more superintendent positions. The authors examine the pipeline that leads to the principalship and the superintendency and how it has evolved over time. They note school boards are more likely to perceive high school principals and athletic coaches as plausible superintendents, in contrast to elementary principals and curriculum specialists. In addition, elementary education majors, mostly women, tend to be more conservative and thus may choose family over advancement to a more demanding position. They discuss why having more women in high-level leadership is valuable and ways to reform the gendered career track.