Moving the Classroom to Web 2.0

You may have noticed this semester that I've been trying to build community outside the confines of the 2 1/2 hours I get to spend with my students each week. There is only so much I can do in that time to open their minds and ears to all that is available to them today, to make new links among and between musics and musical cultures. I've been trying various ideas, but I recently stumbled across an anthropology profession at Kansas State who has moved this idea in an entirely new direction. In thinking and writing about our current mediated culture, he hit on the idea of visually depicting it for his students:

He then turned to his massive 200 student lecture hall and began using the internet to simulate many of the concepts he hopes they take away from class. I'm amazed by this process and my mind is firing with possibilities for similar ideas in my classes, especially in the large film music class I'm currently scheduled to teach next spring. Notions, ideas are always welcome.