Teaching with Technology

Teddy’s CTCH 603 Reading Log 03.22.2010

For class CTCH 603 class session 03.24.2010

Music Education with Digital Technology by John Finney & Pamela Burnard

Each of us enjoys some form of encounter involving music on a daily basis. It is through this encounter that we learn, listen and become more enriched by the experience. In the article entitled “Music Education with Digital Technology, Finney and Burnard manages to well orchestrate and supply us with a wealth of challenges, changes and innovations that digital technology presents to the music curricula for teachers. The purpose of this article is to engage the musician and non-musician in dialogue and research that exposes how the use of the “Sonic Arts” integrated in to every discipline can be a most effect tool for teaching and learning.

In Chapter one, “Music Education As Identity Project In A World of Electronic Desires”, Finney provides input and criteria for classroom success that has been externally imposed on music teachers and highlights the differences between formal and informal learning practices in both. Chapter two, “Perspectives From A New Generation Secondary School Music Teacher”, presents a narrative of successful and distasteful experiences accounted by music teacher Hannah Quinn while in the GCSE music program. Chapter three, “The Gender Factor: Teaching Composition In Music Technology Lessons to Boys and Girls in Year Nine”, introduces the reader to the potential of using digital technology to produce music for still imagery while touching on the issue of gender among students using technology.

In Chapter four, “Finding Flow Through Music Technology”, Serena Croft combines the use of ICT in music with flow theory and motivation. The nine dimensions within the theory are linked to experiences of the students using the digital technology and a diagrammatic model of flow is proposed by Croft. Chapter five, “The Mobile Phone and Class Music: A Teacher’s Perspective”, provides insight into the use of mobile phones and the cultural significance these students place on ringtones as part of their social identity. Chapter six, “An Examination of the DJ Factor: Teaching Performance and Composition From Back To Front”, Mike Challis describes an alternative and innovative approach to composition for students from a Pupil Referral Unit. Students learn to cope and manage mainstream education using familiar music genres.

In Chapter seven, Kevin Jennings shows us how composing with the aid of graphical technologies can help us to better understand musical concepts. Two software packages are utilized here: “Hyperscore” and “Drumsteps”. Chapter eight explores the possibilities of collaboration via a computer network. Students learn through on-line collaborative music making. Chapter nine, reviews the current opportunities for using music e-learning environments as part of teaching practice. Students are encouraged to compose music for use on the internet. Chapter ten, “Current And Future Practices: Embedding Collaborative Music Technologies In Secondary Schools”, explains the use of ICT in schools music programs. Chapter eleven, “Strategies for Supporting Music Learning Through Online Collaboration Technologies”. Chapter twelve, “Pedagogical Strategies for Change: Based Upon Current Research and Classroom Experience”. Chapter thirteen provides an insightful account of new forms of composition. Chapter fourteen is on music education and training for ICT/curriculum reform. Chapter fifteen proposes strategies for that reform and Chapter sixteen closes with informative data about creativity and technology as critical agents of change.

References

King, A. (2008). Music Education with Digital Technology. Journal of Music, Technology & Education, 1(2/3), 167-172. doi:10.1386/jmte.1.2 and 3.167/4. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.mutex.gmu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=104&sid=f7d9d94b-3932-4aaa-b33b-686c07e9c7d0%40sessionmgr110