MusicStrands

Last week on my way home from the eLearning Annual Gathering I sat next to young talent from Barcelona who had just spent the week in Corvalis, Oregon working on a special project for MusicStrands. My curiosity peaked, so I had to find out just what MusicStrands is all about.

“MusicStrands helps people discover and enjoy music, and share tastes in music.”

What MusicStrands is, is a creative music portal designed to create playlists of your favorite music, tag your music, find people with similar music interests, share your playlists with your friends, listen to snippets of all different types of music, and there are even links to where you can buy the song if you please!

You can develop your own music community with your friends or discover other’s favorites. MusicStrands was developed with community in mind, and on the idea that music and artists are shared among community members.

“….music discovery is like a chain of recommendations. You discover an artist you like, and from there another and another, your taste continually expanding...” and from there share what you hear with your friends...MusicStrands is a well developed social network connecting people and the music they listen to.

My very favorite aspect of MusicStrands is the World Map that allows you to go ‘Dancing in the Streets’ and find out what others are listening to all around the world right now.

How is MusicStrands useful in education and your curriculum? Listening to audio is great way to spark interest in a subject, start a conversation and motivate this generation so immersed in media. MusicStrands makes it easy for you to listen and create playlists to use in your courses.

Displaying the World Map and discussing music interests world-wide could open a discussion in a social studies, cultural diversity, or psychology classes. MusicStrands is portable and can be used on mobile devices for mobile learning.

One of my aspiring, media-user instructors recently shared a lesson plan with me that included students listening to the audio of a poem, sharing digital images, in-class collaboration, and a collaborative project outside of class. The lesson culminated in student oral presentations and the class listening to John Lennon’s Imagine. This instructor has gotten the message; his students are more engaged and enjoy their learning now that he uses creative new media with them.

MusicStands is tool you can use in your free time to enjoy your own passion for music or share the link with your always-on, net generation students!