On Tumblr.Com, you find a YouTube video of Maori poi dancers in an 80s pop mashup. This helped her urban middle-schoolers get in the mood for a Maori waiata a ringa song.   The next includes accompaniments for her voice students to practice solos at home.  She used it for All-County rehearsal schedules and announcements.   She had several snow days during the tightly-scheduled rehearsal cycle, and students could check from home for the revised schedule. They were also instructed to check the Tumblr.Com blog for a snow delay on the day of the event.

A PowerPoint presentation about Latin American music was created for her 7th grade general music class. They viewed the presentation in class, and were able to view it on demand at home. This was also handy for students who were absent.  She imported the presentation to Camtasia Studio to record the animations and add the narration which isn’t difficult.

A podcast about African instruments was created with Mixcraft, also for 7th grade general music.  Her Poweroint review, A Ridiculously Brief History of Jazz , had linked sound files. This summer she plans to import the presentation to Camtasia Studio so the sound files can also be heard. Her 7th grade final exam review was viewed in class, and also could viewed it on demand at home. "Somehow, studying seemed much more appealing when you can do it online," Erin said. "Interestingly, the scores on the final improved quite a bit when I introduced this resource."

YouTube videos of the music were used to prepared for All-County Choir. Erin recalls, “I made sure to post the best performances I could find, with the correct arrangements and voicing, so they could listen and practice at home. I couldn't find a video of  "Sing Out This Day," so I purchased and downloaded the Vivaldi aria it's based on from Amazon, snipped out the part the students would sing with Mixcraft, pasted in  a picture of Vivaldi using Camtasia Studio, and posted it on YouTube. Then I was able to post it to the Tumblr.Com blog. By the way, Mixcraft 5 has video capabilities, so I would only have had to use one program.

“My Slideshare page has several of my student-oriented Powerpoints, as well as slideshows I have created for professional development presentations. Lately I have been directing students to Tumblr.Com and colleagues to SlideShare for resources.

“Currently under construction, I have several Smart Notebook presentations that I want to record with Camtasia Studio and post on Tumblr.Com for student review. They include Renaissance Instruments with a sorting activity and sound samples, an interactive Blues presentation, and an internet safety sorting activity.

“I have also had a project going this school year putting my course materials on MOODLE, an online course management program to which the Kingston school district subscribes. For now I have been using it to share my materials and lessons with the other music teachers in our district. Our students are beginning to get their own district usernames, so next year I will be able to assign classwork and homework in MOODLE. I'm not sure whether you'll be able to view this, but it's worth a try.  http://moodle.kingstoncityschools.org/course/view.php?id=39”. Here is a 2-minute montage of my music tech class. These are 7th and 8th graders from M. Clifford Miller Middle School, Kingston City School District, Kingston, NY."   Click here for: E. Contrady's music tech class

What do administrators think of multimedia use with students?  Al Goren, Asst. to the Superintendent for math-science-technology stated:  “Erin is a master teacher who also serves as our technology liaison for music.   In addition to developing an outstanding program that infuses technology into her curriculum she has spearheaded this integration within her department.   As a direct result of her efforts,  her students excel and throughout the District many others are being motivated to learn in a new, exciting manner. “

I also used Camtasia in developing a multimedia presentation for a church that I volunteer for in establishing a School of the Arts in the Denver ghetto which has the highest teen pregnancies in Denver at:  http://www.kuzmich2.com/Masterpiece/Masterpiece.html.  For podcasting and other multimedia webpages, go to my media blog at: http://kuzmichmediablog.blogspot.com.
I have also created a major series of interconnect blogs with web page interaction for my church dealing with employment which is where I volunteer two days a week helping people find jobs. Go to:  http://goldenstakeemployment.blogspot.com which links to three other blogs that I coordinate for the Denver, Kansas and Missouri areas.

As you can see, multimedia is the best way to present ideas, photos and videos to others.  My favorite multimedia web site for music educators to show off their music program is at http://www.whotune.com.   If you go to my account there, it is designed to highlight my 43 year career as a public school educator which contains many whistles and bells for web making.  You can even transmit "live" lectures, concerts, rehearsals to 250+ people world-wide over the Internet with "Jam Cam" feature and all for free.  And even allows you to record and save the entire session for replaying at another time.