Resource: Internet Archive
One of the coolest websites on the internet is the Internet Archive. One VERY important thing to note on this resource though: do not take your students there! The site is literally an archive of TONS of media, including some types that are completely inappropriate for school use. That said, if you are a teacher, it is a wonderful resource for finding lots of stuff. There are numerous ways to use this site to find content for use in student projects, search previous versions of websites, listen to live music, and more. Here are a few of my favorite ways to use this site:
The Live Music Archive is a HUGE collection of audio that has been recorded at concerts of many of the jam bands out there. As a passionate Dead Head, I use the Live Music Archive all the time through a wonderful site/app called Relisten, which pulls all of its audio from this site. There are over 250,000 recordings that are free to download. Many of the concerts that are represented on the site have multiple recording available, and the people who post these recordings often give very detailed descriptions of the equipment and means that they used to make the recording. If you’re a jam band fan, bookmark this site right now if you haven’t already. That said, if you’re not interested in listening to endless hours of jam band music, maybe this next resource is for you.
In addition to audio, there is a HUGE collection of videos on the site - and this is where you would definitely get into some trouble if you took your students there. My favorite part of this archive is the Animation & Cartoons section. Here you will find amazing collections of vintage cartoons, public domain animation, and my personal favorite - Brick Films. This collection is only for stop motion movies that use Legos bricks. They were the original inspiration for the Lego movies, and they are REALLY funny and awesome displays of creativity. For example, you can download a Lego version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail or 2001: Space Odyssey. Hilarious. I used these videos for nearly ALL of my film scoring projects that I did with my students. Now that YuStudio is a part of MusicFirst Elementary, this is a GREAT place to find material for your students to use in their film scoring projects. My recommendation is to go there, choose the best file format for your situation (.mp4 is always a good option), download the videos you’d like to use, and post them for your students to access.
One of my favorite sections of the Internet Archive is the Wayback Machine. This section allows you to search previous versions of ANY website - even if it is no longer active. Simply enter the name of the URL in the Browse History button and you’ll see a calendar view with all of the snapshots that the Wayback Machine has taken over the years. If you choose a year, you’ll then see little circles around dates where snapshots were taken. Click on the circle and you’ll see what that website looked like on that date. I LOVE this when I am trying to find a resource that might not be online anymore. It’s also a LOT of fun to look at what well-known websites looked like when they first started. Check out Amazon, Facebook, and Google - it’s pretty cool.
The last section I recommend checking out is the Software section. Here you’ll find lots of old music software (as well as many other PC games and early software emulators) that you can download and use. It’s a fun trip down memory lane. Not everything will work on your computer, but it’s worth checking out.
I hope that you find this resource useful. Again, full warning that you should NOT take your students to this site. The Images and Video sections have lots of things you DEFINITELY don’t want them accessing in your classroom. Enjoy!