Thursday, June 25, 2009

What makes a good music website:


(Note: this is the second lesson plan that's due 6/25; #1 was posted on 6/22)

This assignment gives students a chance to think about the idea of "What makes a successful website" in a way that's tied in to their own interests in music and pop culture.

Every year, the website Webawards.org gives an award to the best music website...they base their decision on the following criteria:

  • Design

  • Ease of use

  • Copywriting

  • Interactivity

  • Use of technology

  • Innovation

  • Content

Start by having a discussion about what each of the above terms mean. Then show students some examples of past winners and why they scored highly for the various criteria. You could also show other music websites you find that are particularly successful (e.g. radiohead.com, garylourismusic.com, pitchfork.com etc).

Students will then examine websites of musicians and music websites that they know. If they need help figuring out where to start, you could give them terms to google ("innovative music websites"), or you could provide them with websites like: billboard.com/pitchfork.com/kdwb.com/allmusic.com etc. Since I'm SURE many students would disagree on webaward.com's choices (based on students' musical preferences...i.e. most kids probably wouldn't have voted for Margaritaville.com. I can't stand Jimmy Buffet), they're likely to be intrinsically motivated to find websites for bands that they LIKE that demonstrate the above criteria.

Students must then choose ONE artist or organization's website which they would identify as The Best Music Website, and evaluate it based on the criteria above, writing their responses in their blogs. Students would be required to visit a certain number of their peer's blogs, explore their chosen website, and leave comments as to why they agree or disagree with the evaluation.

3 comments:

  1. Centron,

    Good idea. Don't you think that the web awards are the most redundant and stupid awards ever? No? Sorry, I insulted you. But seriously, if a site is popular, that means millions of people already click on it - it is as useless to give that site an award as it is to give the "it" star of the moment an MTV award. It's like: "Oooh, Mariah Carey! You are so famous! We love you so much! Here is an award for your famousness! Can we touch the hem of your famous garment!? Oooh!"

    Love,

    Joe

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  2. Web awards are as stupid as any other awards (hello...the Oscars are dumb. Famous and/or successful people give awards to other famous and/or successful people...But I still watch every year). The reason why I liked this as an activity, is because of the criteria that they base their judgments on. It gives students a chance to think about things like the "interactivity" and "copywriting," which they might otherwise not put much thought in to. In other words, it's not just awarding "famous" or "well trafficked" sites, but sites that are innovative.

    Also, don't dis Mariah Carey...ever. Never ever. We all know that you're just jealous of her immense talent. Lets continue this fight on Friday at the cohort BBQ.

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  3. Hey Matt,
    I really like the idea of your lesson! I think that thinking about what makes a good website is just as analytical a process as thinking about what makes a good piece of literature or a good song. Also, I think students would be really interested as it allows them to explore the web while looking at websites that ties into their own interests. Both of those concepts have proven to be very large motivating factors for my students in the past. I also think that allowing the students the freedom to explore the websites of musicians they like or their favorite styles of music will lead to an interesting class discussion at the end of the lesson, which is always a great way to close a lesson and make sure that students are thinking about something as they leave your classroom! I’m curious about the kind of class for which you would use this lesson and perhaps your particular learning objectives for the students? I think you could probably got a couple of different directions with this, but I’m interested in what you were thinking when you wrote it.

    -Leyah

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