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MENC Revamps Web Site For The Better |
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Tales From The Podium
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Written by Chad Criswell
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 Ever wanted to ask a music education question but couldn't find a good place to ask it? MENC has revamped their music education forums and, at least for now, they are open to anyone member and non-member alike!
One thing that I have always felt was lacking from online music
education resource sites was a useful, well maintained message forum
where teachers could openly communicate with each other about topics
related to their profession. Many sites have flirted with hosting
forums for this purpose. I even tried starting one on several
occasions here at MusicEdMagic but the vast majority of these small
start up forums failed simply for lack of traffic and interest.
MENC on the other hand has always had a well used forum system on
their web site, but sadly it was always crippled with a very poorly
written batch of software code to run it. Searching was almost
impossible, and reading replies to topics was archaic. Lucky for all
of us that MENC finally took notice and did some major updates.
MENC Conference Brings Big Changes
At the recent MENC conference in Milwaukee MENC unveiled a
sweeping change of its entire web site including the message forums.
Gone is the old boring site theme and in is a modern web layout with a
modern, fully functional message system. At this point the new system
is open to posts from anyone that registers (the old version locked off
the forum posts to members of MENC only). I can only hope that MENC
continues with this new open format to encourage non-members to post
their questions as well. In the end I think it would be a great way to
show non-members that MENC membership is useful and does have its own
benefits beyond a simple feather in one's cap.
The new forum system
has been simplified in that it now contains boards for Band, Choir,
Orchestra, Higher Ed, General Music, and Future Teachers. Gone is the
old Technology category, its posts now to be incorporated into the
other sections. Users can customize their profiles, uploading avatar
images if desired to accompany their posts. In short, the new message
board now has the potential to be the one stop place on the Internet
for music teachers to go to get answers on almost anything related to
our profession. Check it out and chime in on anything that interests
you!
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