PLN Resource 3 (NPR: Jazz Profiles)

NPR: Jazz Profiles
URL: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10208861

As I was searching my PLN resources, I was intrigued by the site NPR: Jazz Profiles (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10208861). NPR is National Public Radio, and Jazz Profiles is a show on NPR. This is an excellent source because the website allows you to download entire podcasts of the show for free. The podcasts are documentaries about famous jazz musicians and jazz topics. By listening to the programs you can learn a great deal about the topic being presented from a historical perspective and through the perspective of key jazz figures. For example, Wynton Marsalis was included in a discussion about Duke Ellington. In addition to hearing information about a topic, the listener gets the opportunity to hear music that relates to the topic. Along with the ability to hear podcasts of the program, the website for NPR: Jazz Profiles is an excellent resource as well. On the website, one can find a text article about the person or topic being featured along with pictures to help convey the message. On the website, one can also find an archive of the programs that have been done in the past.

As a music educator, and a teacher of a jazz ensemble in particular, this is an extremely valuable resource. When learning about a style of music, like jazz, it is nice to be able to provide resources for students to search and gain information. Through this website a music educator can provide students with an opportunity to learn about the historical contexts of jazz music and many of its important musicians. Not only can students learn information in the traditional manner by reading the text on the website, but they can also hear a podcast with the information as well as hear quality musical examples. This provides students with a media resource that may be more intriguing to students then just an article on a website. In my experience listening to music is a great way for students to experience and learn about music, in this case jazz music. This can help the students learn about the style of the music and how to better perform the music. In addition, another feature of this resource that I found valuable for educational purposes was the fact that you could download the podcasts to a program such as iTunes, and you could even put it on an iPod, which could be played over a class stereo system. In addition, it seems that most students have an mp3 player; therefore, students can download a podcast, put it on their mp3 player and listen to the program whenever they like, giving them even more opportunity to learn about and hear the music. I believe that with all the information that NPR: Jazz Profiles provides, it can be an extremely valuable and interesting resource for music education.