Web Evaluation: TMEA

1. Name of Website: Texas Music Educators Association
   

2. Web Site Address: www.tmea.org
   

3. Copyright date and/or last update: Copyright 2007 – Last updated 10/03/2007
   

4. Author/organization Credentials: TMEA – Texas Music Educators Association began as the Texas Band Teachers Association in 1920. The organization currently is composed of over 9,000 music educators across Texas. This organization is the organizers of all Texas All-State Music Groups and is a major lobbyist for music in schools.
   

5. Web site design and ease of navigation: On a scale of 1 – 10 (1 being the lowest ease of use and 10 being the highest) I would give this site a 7. The navigation bar at the top of the page is very helpful and breaks the site down it to “bites-size” elements. However, the content of the front page seems a bit jumbled and unorganized. I think for a return user, this would be ok but for a first time user trying to navigate into needed content, it would be more difficult than it should be.
   
   From the top navigation bar, it is very easy to surf to needed information areas. For example, when needing information on Texas All State Choir Auditions, you simply pull down the “divisions” drop-down menu to “vocal” and then to the “all-state”. This area provides music information that is needed for any High School choir director in the state of Texas. Navigation is also easy to helpful links connecting music teachers across the music industry.
   
   While navigation is overall good, there were some problems I noted. First, was the sites use of pop-ups. This causes some hassles because of the current standard use of popup blockers. I would hope the web designers could steer around the use of this kind of pop-up. I also noticed that the Elementary division seemed to be underrepresented on the site. For example, the region calendar for Region 1 (Amarillo’s region) didn’t list any elementary events. I happen to know that there were elementary events because my wife is the elementary region chair! So, this site seems to be highly focused for High School Band/Choir/Orchestra and has less use for Elementary, Middle School or College.
   
   Finally, while the navigation bar was very useful, the general design of the front page is cluttered and not very attractive. It is hard to tell what the most useful and needed information is by looking at the front page. You have to know what you are looking for before you get there.

6. My response and recommendation for use: For High School and even Middle School music teachers, involvement in TMEA is an absolute must. The calendar year of choir, orchestra, and band highly revolves around involvement in the audition process for the All State Ensembles. The TMEA convention and other regional workshops are also very helpful and attending the February convention is almost a requirement among middle school and high school music teachers. With this in mind, I would recommend that every music teacher in Texas bookmark this site and use it as the tool that is intended.
   
   Another fantastic use for this site is as a resource in promoting Music Education. From the “News Media Tookit” to the “Fine Arts Enrollment Study”, the Resource Tab can be used to go beyond having a good ensemble to promoting music in your community.
   
   While this website is great for upper level music teachers, it is not one to recommend to students. Students are NOT the intended audience. However, there is a “Students” tab that can be useful for specific situations such as ordering past years recordings and applying for scholarships.