apcampbell

Ever since Stephen linked to Seeqpod earlier in the week, I’ve been going crazy with this fun and very useful tool. Essentially, you do searches on your favorite music, artist, or band, and then browse the resulting list of full mp3 files or music videos - all flash based for experiencing in the browser, not for download. Then, you can create a playlist, name it, save it, and embed it in your own website, complete with the audio player.

I’ve already used this in one of my EFL classes this week: I embedded a popular song into our Moodle course, did a quick search for the lyrics online and then used them to create an on-the-fly cloze exercise for the students to complete. It took a grand total of 15 minutes to do and was ready to go when the bell rang. This is a major improvement for educators looking to incorporate music into their curriculum, since songs no longer need to be hunted down and purchased, but rather borrowed for convenient use. It opens up a huge variety of music previously out of range on short notice.

So in the spirit of sharing, have a listen to one my favorite groups ever, Thievery Corporation, based out of Washington D.C. And hey, if you like their music, buy it.