Singing Teachers Virtual Classroom

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Frequently asked questions and answers sorted into relevent catagories will be added to the FAQ section below as time permits. Please note the Singing Teachers Directory will have it's own dedicated FAQ once it has been upgraded.

Do not ask questions here!  
Use this forum to ask questions about the site or its features.
Use this forum to ask singing related questions.

If you want to contribute a new answer, please use the button below to "Add a new entry". All new entries are checked manually before being published.



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A

Question:

About Singing Teachers Virtual Classroom

(Last edited: Wednesday, 20 April 2005, 10:36 PM)
Answer:

The Singing Teachers Virtual Classroom is a working interactive demonstration of the use of online software and courseware materials enabling voice teachers to educate students via the internet.

The site and it's content are NOT designed to take the place of qualified tuition, although registered teachers with existing listings in the Singing Teachers Directory CAN provide their tuition services via 'courses' using this system by upgrading their listing. (Approval and setup required). Site visitors and voice students may browse or participate in the free public sections and register online for 'paid' courses when available.

Our aim is not to offer courses ourselves, but rather to provide hosting for teachers who wish to offer online or distance learning courses without the hassle of setting up or maintaining their own server and system. The benefits of using our services include the use of our pre-setup course materials like the Musical Terms Glossary and other content which is in the process of being added. Further information on the exclusive features we offer to Course Creators will be posted in the ST Virtual Classroom News Forum when released.

Singing Teachers Virtual Classroom is made possible by Moodle, a course management system (CMS) - a software package designed to help educators create quality online courses. Such e-learning systems are sometimes also called Learning Management Systems (LMS) or Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). One of the main advantages of Moodle over other systems is a strong grounding in social constructionist pedagogy

Moodle is Open Source software, which means you are free to download it, use it, modify it and even distribute it (under the terms of the GNU General Public License). Moodle runs without modification on Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Netware and any other system that supports PHP, including most webhost providers. Data is stored in a single database: MySql and PostgreSQL are best supported, but it can also be used with Oracle, Access, Interbase, ODBC and others.

Moodle has 60 language packs, including: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK and US versions), Finnish, French (France and Canada versions), German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Maori, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai and Turkish.

To find out more, see the features demo, try the demonstration courses here and at Moodle.org, or see the growing number of Moodle sites around the world.

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Question:

Add a Teachers Directory Listing

(Last edited: Friday, 14 September 2007, 07:33 AM)
Answer: To be listed free of charge in the Singing Teachers Directory, visit http://www.singing-teachers.co.uk/directory or click the link to the directory in the left hand menu from the site main index page. At the directory main page, click on 'Submit Listing', located on the right hand side 'Menu' box and enter your details into the form provided to register.

Once registration is complete, login to the directory, scroll down the OPTIONS Menu located on the left hand side of your screen then click on Add Listing and complete the form provided.

Your listing will be checked by our staff prior to addition and you will receive a status conformation or rejection email within 48 - 72 hours. If accepted, your listing will automatically be displayed on the directory and you may then login to edit our upgrade your account at any time by visiting the directory main page and clicking 'User Login'.

In most cases, if you follow our Directory Submission Guidelines, your listing will be accepted. 

Full instructions are available in this FAQ.

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Question:

All Directory Listing Submission Guidelines

(Last edited: Monday, 14 January 2008, 07:22 PM)
Answer: Login to your account at http://www.singing-teachers.co.uk/directory, click Add Listing, fill out the form provided. Here are the guidelines for your convenience:

Membership
Select Membership: Choose the membership level from the drop down box provided.

Select Catagory
Use the drop down box or Search Catagories field provided to select the catagory you would like your listing to appear in. You may select more catagories once the listing has been created (up to 10 catagories).

Listing Details
Listing Title: This is a 'REQUIRED' field. Enter your Name, company name or title into the box provided. Please DO NOT:
1. use the following keywords or terms in your listing title: Singing Teacher, Vocal Coach, Voice Therapist etc.
2. use ' or " or £ or any other special character in your listing title / company name or any other text field. Apologies to anyone whose name contains these characters (i.e., O'Brian), but they cause issues with the system that may result in your listing failing to display and upgrade or our script to upgrade correctly.
3. use ALL CAPITALS - standard letter formatting please.
4. use alpha numerical or other unassociated symbols in an attempt to be displayed at the top of the other listings. We do not condone or allow this practice and automatically reject all attempts to bypass our standard listing practices.
5. enter qualifications after your name ... yes we realise you've earned the right to use them but these will prevent visitors who are searching for you by name from finding your listing. Please enter all qualification info into the short description or description field.

Short Description: This field allows you to enter a short description of up to 50 characters in length, i.e., your qualifications (M.D.) or other info (e.g., Singing Teacher).

Description: This is a 'REQUIRED' field. Enter a description of your teaching services, vocal products, or brief biog about your teaching background. Browse some of our existing listings for an overview of the type of information you can provide. IMPORTANT NOTE: Please DO NOT enter your telephone number, email address or website url in the description!

Address Line 1: This is an 'OPTIONAL' field. Enter your company/studio house name/number or address here. i.e., 3 Star House

Address Line 2: This is an 'OPTIONAL' field. If you have a long address, enter the second part of it here. i.e., SuperStar Road

Location: This is a 'REQUIRED' field. Use the drop down box to select the 'COUNTRY' and 'COUNTY' in which your service is available. (Enter a letter or keyword into 'Search Locations' box for help in finding locations.

City: This is an 'OPTIONAL' field. The town/city should be entered to help visitors using our search form to find your listing when searching for teachers in their area. i.e., Shoreditch.

Zip: This is an 'OPTIONAL' field. Enter your Postcode or Zip Code. This is also used to display a link to an online map service to enable visitors to find directions or view the map location.

Email: This is a 'REQUIRED' field. Enter an email address to enable visitors to contact you using our 'send message' form. Your email address is not publicly displayed or disclosed to enquirers unless you respond to their enquiry.

Website: This is an 'OPTIONAL' field. Enter the full URL to your website i.e., http://www.yoursitename.com

Phone: This is an 'OPTIONAL' field. Enter your contact telephone number into the field provided.

Fax: This is an 'OPTIONAL' field. Enter your fax number into the field provided.

Contact Person: This is an 'OPTIONAL' field. Enter the name of the contact person here.

Mobile: This is an 'OPTIONAL' field. Enter your mobile telephone number in the field provided.

Security Code: This is a 'REQUIRED' field. Enter the auto generated alpha numerical digits into the box provided.

Terms and Conditions: This is a 'REQUIRED' field. Tick the box to agree to our listing terms and conditions. To read terms and conditions, click 'I agree to the terms and conditions' which will open in a new window.

Once you have completed the form then click 'Submit Listing'

Your listing will be reviewed and if considered suitable accepted into the directory. If your listing does not meet our guidelines it will be rejected. A confirmation email will be sent to the address provided on registration stating whether your listing has been accepted or rejected.
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Question:

Are there any hidden or subscription fees?

(Last edited: Thursday, 19 May 2005, 05:02 PM)
Answer:

We do not charge anything to join or use the community section of this site but a fee is charged if you choose to use one of the optional services like upgrading your free teachers listing on the singing teachers worldwide directory to include more features or use the virtual classroom to provide online lessons and courses.

Students and visitors who register with the site incur no costs unless they sign up for a paid course and may participate in any of the public forums plus view or place information in the events calendar and access all articles and documents contained in the free courses.

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Question:

Auto Complete on Logins

(Last edited: Friday, 9 February 2007, 11:13 PM)
Answer:

Question: I notice something odd when I login. All I have to do is fill in my name and my password is automatically filled in. Is this normal? Can anyone login to "changes", fill in my name and automatically gain access to change details on my entry?

Answer: What you are seeing is something that is generic with your own computer. When you have information saved in your history folder of viewed sites and depending on your computers settings 'passwords' and other saved information so should only be seen by you. Unless of course you use more than one computer to login and fail to clear out the temporary folders when you finish your session.
To remove this information from your 'history' folder, go to
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Internet Options
 
Depending on your operating system (XP, Win 98, Win ME) you should then have a pop up box which says Internet Properties. The first 'Tab' is usually opened at 'General' which includes a box or boxes with the terms 'Browsing History' or Temporary Files and Cookies. Click the button marked 'Delete' next to any of these terms and the system should then delete all record of your password and username. It is best to do this at the end of your session before you close down your computer. Next to the delete button is a Settings button which displays another selection of possibilities. Unless you wish to keep tons of pages in your computer it is best to click on the one next to 'Temporary Files' or Browsing History and find the box marked 'History'. Change this from the set number of days to 0 (or just 1 day) which will then auto delete all pages in your history folder. 
 
In that same set of boxes one of the top tabs will also display the settings for AutoComplete which is the thing that automatically saves whatever you type into the web browser address bar, online forms etc. To prevent usernames and passwords from being saved on your computer untick the boxes. To delete the stored form data and passwords click the 'General' tab and follow the instructions shown above.
 
Also in that box is an ADVANCED tab which when clicked will show a list of boxes. To prevent 'inline AutoComplete' untick the box next to it. Scroll down a little further and tick the box that says 'Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder when browser is closed' and the this will empty all unwanted files automatically.
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D

Question:

Do I have to register to submit a free listing?

(Last edited: Friday, 14 September 2007, 06:53 AM)
Answer: Yes. Registration to Singing Teachers Worldwide Directory is required to submit a free listing. Registration is FREE of charge.
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Question:

Do I need to register to use this site?

(Last edited: Thursday, 19 May 2005, 04:53 PM)
Answer: Visitors may access and read some areas of the site including the searchable singing teachers worldwide directory without registering, but for full access to all sections, you will need to register.
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F

Question:

Find a singing teacher

(Last edited: Thursday, 8 February 2007, 01:44 AM)
Answer:

Questions to ask when looking for a suitable Singing Teacher

We often get requests for the types of questions to ask both yourself and a potential teacher when looking for someone suitable to train your voice so here goes!

There is an article on finding teachers here in the FAQ

Essentially what counts in a teacher are the following:

Does the teacher have a qualification with a certificate (most will have
these displayed on their studio wall and their qualification can be checked
with the school, university or accrediting authority for verification). Most
teachers with qualifications state them on their listing at the Singing Teachers Worldwide Directory along with their related experience in the field.

A good teacher does not require a qualification however! There are both good
and bad teachers, some are qualified, some are not. Those without
qualifications should have a background in performance i.e., they will have
appeared on stage or have a wealth of experience in the field of their
choice (opera, pop, musical theatre) with some form of accreditation or
checkable background i.e., CD recordings, signed to labels, list of shows
they have appeared in.

Of course there are good teachers who do not perform just as there are bad
ones who do so there are no easy answers!

The difference between a good teacher and a bad one is the ability to teach
healthy techniques and communicate them well to their clients. He/She should
have a good understanding of the vocal mechanism and be able to answer any
queries the student has regarding the exercises and techniques they are
asked to do. A good teacher should have no problems with providing you with
references for previous or existing students and you will find the Singing
Teachers Worldwide Directory includes reviews that are submitted by the teachers students.

It is not always an easy process because part of the teaching process is
dependent on the character of both the teacher and the student. Whilst the
teacher may well be perfectly competent and eminantly qualified, if the two
personalities clash then no matter how good the teacher is, the student will
fail to learn! The same applies for the student... who must be prepared to
take criticism in the manner in which it is given and work on improving at
home as well as in the lesson.

Ideally, it would be preferable to search for a selection of suitable
teachers and go for an evaluation lesson so that you can choose which one you feel comfortable with. Alternatively, considered trying one of the many group workshops, masterclasses or classes that are often cheaper and allow you to see how you get on.

Regarding value for money.. this is a relative thing and prices can vary
considerably. The most expensive is not always the best but a busy
reasonably priced teacher must be pretty good to have a studio that is
constantly booked and with students that are progressing.

So... the main questions to ask:

1. Do you have any teaching qualifications that are checkable.
2. Can you provide references from satisfied clients
3. Do you have actual stage or recording experience
4. Do you provide evaluation lessons and/or allow potential clients to watch
a lesson/class prior to paying for a full lesson.


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H

Question:

How do Bookmark a listing or add it to my Favourites?

(Last edited: Friday, 14 September 2007, 10:02 AM)
Answer: You may Bookmark an individual teacher/company listing by browsing to the individual listing and click 'Bookmark Listing' located in the right hand column next to their description.
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Question:

How do export listings?

(Last edited: Friday, 14 September 2007, 09:59 AM)
Answer: You may export individual listings ONLY by browsing to the individual listing and click 'Export Listing to PDF' located in the right hand column next to their description.
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