UPS Violin Teacher Uses YouTube To Teach
by Joe La Sac
Violin instructor and alumna from the University of Puget Sound, Janet Utterback-Peck, teaches young violin students (ages 6 – 14) by recording them and posting their videos on a private YouTube account. She and her community of violin instructors have found that video-taping their students increases the students’ self-efficacy, and opens them to a wide range of violinists over the internet.
“I think the physical part – looking – and connecting – what physical motions make certain sounds is key,” she says. Janet also uses YouTube to learn tricks from the professionals in her own work as a violinist with the Tacoma and Northwest Symphony Orchestras.
Staci Elliott and I created a short documentary video through Instructional Technology at UPS, which among other things is the department that administers the BlackBoard content management system, tutorializes university software, and offers to students and educators regarding technological and pedagogical combinations. In the video I featured a documentary about Jascha Heifetz, which can be seen here, and a rendition of “Last Rose of Summer” by Hilary Hahn (which happens to be one of Janet’s favorites). That video can be seen separately here.
