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Collaborative Vlogging

Help your students extend the classroom into the virtual universe by talking to each other asynchronously (one at a time) on YouTube or whatever platform you have available to you. While my students were taking music courses, just like your favorite vloggers on YouTube (or podcast personalities), this approach to creating a meaningful community in online classrooms can be applied to any topic, course, discipline, or subject. (Scroll to the bottom of this page to download project expectations that you can adapt for your class).)

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​What is a vlog?

A video log,  video blog or vlog, is a series of videos found on a virtual site. One of the most common sites for vlogs is YouTube. Vlogs can have a variety of foci including comedy, cooking, pop culture, music, or anything else the video creator wants. Here some of my favorite popular vloggers on YouTube:

Daily Grace    |    Dan Howell     |     Tyler Oakley     |    Miranda Sings    |    Markiplier

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What is collaborative vlogging?

A collaborative vlog is a vlog channel that is run by more than one person. Often a conversation emerges as the multiple video creators talk to each other, bring up topics, or ask each other questions. The concept became very popular as the vlog brothers, Hank and John Green, began a conversation through videos on YouTube on January 1, 2007.

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In the late 2000's, there was an influx of groups of five vloggers that banded together to create CVLs.

Five Awesome Guys     |     Five Awesome Girls      |     5 Awesome Gays     |     Five Awesome Baristas

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If you’re wondering what a music vlog could look like, you could check out my CVL Five Awesome Muxians (that’s musicians with an X). Here I am explaining our set up:

How Can this be Educational?

My colleague, Heather Fox and I described collaborative vlogs (CVLs) like this:

 

A collaborative learning model designed to engage groups of students around a topic that promotes ownership, reflection, academic and social outcomes. CVLs involve groups of students posting videos, in a rotation, on a shared topic. (Cayari & Fox, 2013)

 

We, as a coauthors, and I as a solo author have published research articles, papers, and chapters about how CVLs could be used in the classroom. Click on any of the following citations to download the articles from Academia.edu:

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Here are some great examples of what my students have created and discussed:

Making Music

Discussion

If you would like resources, click any of the links below to download pdf files and word documents I used for my students.

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6 Weeks - 5 Students Per group - Discuss any musical topics - Each student chooses 1 day a week

Music Appreciation Course

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Project Instructions:  .docx    .pdf

Preparation Sheet:    .docx    .pdf

Reflection Sheet:      .docx    .pdf

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5 Weeks - 5 Students Per group - Prompted Questions - Students sign up for different days each week

Music for Elementary Education Majors Course

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Downloads Coming by March 23

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Other ideas:

  • Try this in an ensemble that can't meet face to face and encourage students to challenge each other.

    • Play a Disney song by ear

    • Sing your favorite part from one of our choir songs and tell us why it is so meaningful to you

    • Play the hardest passage from our repertoire at 1/2 the speed of a performance

    • Play a ballad as if it were a mariachi number

    • Download the acapella app and sing or play two or more harmonies of your favorite children's song

  • Instead of having students write in a discussion board, have everyone post a video. Then, have them write or video respond to a certain number of original videos.

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What are some ways you could impliment CVLs in your classroom?

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