Hmm....new post at Mustech.net, let's see.... "Many organizations (read music related organizations here, among others) are in dire need of an easy to use, EASY TO IMPLEMENT, user-friendly CMS that can be “up-and-running” in no time...WordPress is unparalleled (not to mention FREE), and perhaps peerless, with regard to the easy customization of its engine for any type of application."
This is such a no-brainer Joe. I am now using Wordpress as a website for our band program at Mercer. We have made several items available for parents to download as a pdf thereby making it easier for parents to know what is going on! Updating it is very easy, and just today I added a Widget to allow band parents to subscribe through Feedburner. My next goal is to get some of the images of the group performing uploaded.
Since I started it using it, the site has been visited well over 2000 times. Wordpress has allowed me to make better use of my administrative time for the program. For example, in the time it takes me to type up a memo to pass out to students and copy it, I simply do it in Wordpress then copy-and-paste it into a Word document. The hardcopy is out there, but parents are able to access information so they know what is going on just in case the memo about the spahgetti dinner in September doesn't come with their music folder until March.
I am really enjoying having the ease of control in using this CMS as a serious administrative tool for the Bands at Mercer. Great "visionary" article!!!
Dr. J. Pisano
· 1 year ago
Travis,
I'm glad to hear that my advice about adding the feedburner feed widget went well and was easily implemented... Did you have any problems with the process? Or was it as "painless" as I led you to believe?
Evan T
· 1 year ago
Joe,
I've also found wordpress to be an excellent CMS system as an alternative to commercial systems like Blackboard. The flexibility is fantastic and as far as the blogging goes students seem to find it fairly easy to set up and and start using the blog system right away. I can see eventually moving to a system like Joomla or Drupal but for now wordpress is excellent.
The nice thing about having college students use Wordpress as an alternative or addition to Blackboard, I think, is that they can then build the skills and experiences to use it after graduating when they have their own programs.
I can also see how the inability for people to use plugins based on where their systems are hosted can be frustrating. Ted Love and I have been running Wordpress Multiuser on our server at http://musiced.net for a couple of years and find the feedback from users great so far. We can also add plugins at will which is helpful in adapting it toward the needs of the community.
Thanks for the post and example with the Phi Mu site you started. - Evan T.
Dr. J. Pisano
· 1 year ago
Evan,
Glad to see you back from the "realm of the missing". I know you've been busy finishing your doctorate. Great to hear from you and thank you for your site musiced.net where any music educator can have a wordpress site for free! Hope to be reading your many forthcoming posts soon!
Joe
SteveCarter
· 1 year ago
Joe, I recently discovered your site and I'm really finding it interesting.
I agree with you that students should work on improving typing speed. The computer is one of their instruments, just like guitar or keyboard or whatever, and they need to develop chops.
I haven't had time yet to search your Best Music Freeware columns to see if you've mentioned freeware instructional software for learning touch typing and developing speed. If you haven't done that, it might be a good idea.
Also, you might want to mention InstantText (www.textware.com), a text expansion program. [disclaimer: I worked as a software developer on InstantText, but I do not receive compensation as cheerleader for the product]. This program allows you to enter long words and phrases with just a few key strokes, and can improve typing output significantly.
Your comments on typing have inspired me to write about that subject on my own blog.
Steve
Dr. J. Pisano
· 1 year ago
Steve,
Thanks for taking an interest in my posts and mustech.net. Do you know of any great freeware for typing? I know that there are some really good software programs that are shareware or cost, but not any really good ones for typing that are open-source or freeware.
I wish you luck on you blog endeavour! I know it will be worthwhile!
SteveCarter
· 1 year ago
Joe, No, I'm not up on typing programs at this point. I got my first computer in 1984 and even back then I was able to find a free touch-typing drill on the WWW (the web was all plain text back then!), so I'm sure there is good freeware out there somewhere.
Steve
Travis J. Weller
· 1 year ago
Hey Joe,
Welcome back to the land of warmth and sunshine! ;)
FYI - We are extending the rehearsal hall this week as students complete their first quarter self-evaluations in the academic concert bands. For example, bump on over to http://mercerbands.wordpress.com/high-school-wi... and check out the student work. Thanks for a great idea!
All Comments
"Many organizations (read music related organizations here, among others) are in dire need of an easy to use, EASY TO IMPLEMENT, user-friendly CMS that can be “up-and-running” in no time...WordPress is unparalleled (not to mention FREE), and perhaps peerless, with regard to the easy customization of its engine for any type of application."
This is such a no-brainer Joe. I am now using Wordpress as a website for our band program at Mercer. We have made several items available for parents to download as a pdf thereby making it easier for parents to know what is going on! Updating it is very easy, and just today I added a Widget to allow band parents to subscribe through Feedburner. My next goal is to get some of the images of the group performing uploaded.
Since I started it using it, the site has been visited well over 2000 times. Wordpress has allowed me to make better use of my administrative time for the program. For example, in the time it takes me to type up a memo to pass out to students and copy it, I simply do it in Wordpress then copy-and-paste it into a Word document. The hardcopy is out there, but parents are able to access information so they know what is going on just in case the memo about the spahgetti dinner in September doesn't come with their music folder until March.
I am really enjoying having the ease of control in using this CMS as a serious administrative tool for the Bands at Mercer. Great "visionary" article!!!
I'm glad to hear that my advice about adding the feedburner feed widget went well and was easily implemented... Did you have any problems with the process? Or was it as "painless" as I led you to believe?
I've also found wordpress to be an excellent CMS system as an alternative to commercial systems like Blackboard. The flexibility is fantastic and as far as the blogging goes students seem to find it fairly easy to set up and and start using the blog system right away. I can see eventually moving to a system like Joomla or Drupal but for now wordpress is excellent.
The nice thing about having college students use Wordpress as an alternative or addition to Blackboard, I think, is that they can then build the skills and experiences to use it after graduating when they have their own programs.
I can also see how the inability for people to use plugins based on where their systems are hosted can be frustrating. Ted Love and I have been running Wordpress Multiuser on our server at http://musiced.net for a couple of years and find the feedback from users great so far. We can also add plugins at will which is helpful in adapting it toward the needs of the community.
Thanks for the post and example with the Phi Mu site you started. - Evan T.
Glad to see you back from the "realm of the missing". I know you've been busy finishing your doctorate. Great to hear from you and thank you for your site musiced.net where any music educator can have a wordpress site for free!
Hope to be reading your many forthcoming posts soon!
Joe
I recently discovered your site and I'm really finding it interesting.
I agree with you that students should work on improving typing speed. The computer is one of their instruments, just like guitar or keyboard or whatever, and they need to develop chops.
I haven't had time yet to search your Best Music Freeware columns to see if you've mentioned freeware instructional software for learning touch typing and developing speed. If you haven't done that, it might be a good idea.
Also, you might want to mention InstantText (www.textware.com), a text expansion program. [disclaimer: I worked as a software developer on InstantText, but I do not receive compensation as cheerleader for the product]. This program allows you to enter long words and phrases with just a few key strokes, and can improve typing output significantly.
Your comments on typing have inspired me to write about that subject on my own blog.
Steve
Thanks for taking an interest in my posts and mustech.net. Do you know of any great freeware for typing? I know that there are some really good software programs that are shareware or cost, but not any really good ones for typing that are open-source or freeware.
I wish you luck on you blog endeavour! I know it will be worthwhile!
No, I'm not up on typing programs at this point. I got my first computer in 1984 and even back then I was able to find a free touch-typing drill on the WWW (the web was all plain text back then!), so I'm sure there is good freeware out there somewhere.
Steve
Welcome back to the land of warmth and sunshine! ;)
FYI - We are extending the rehearsal hall this week as students complete their first quarter self-evaluations in the academic concert bands. For example, bump on over to http://mercerbands.wordpress.com/high-school-wi... and check out the student work. Thanks for a great idea!
Travis