Day 1 of Technology in Music Education

~ mitchelljamesdavis

There is indeed a first time for everything. Reflecting on classroom content in a public way definitely feels more engaging from the get go than being stranded in a library making dot points for personal study notes. It definitely seems to be a social constructivist learning activity rather than a purely behaviourist one (look at me learning so much already in Music Ed at the con!). Organising thoughts and ideas in this way is pushing me out of my comfort zone of my usual personal methods for study and revision. This method of organising ideas onto a blog is forcing me to think about how I can present my thoughts to a reader and have them clearly understand the points I make.

The focus of today’s lesson was a surprisingly strong piece of software called “Soundtrap” and the relevance of technology such as this in modern music education. I say it was surprisingly strong since it was a basic yet fully functioning digital audio workstation inside of a website! 

With some guidance from our teacher James, we were given a short time frame and the freedom to make any kind of music we felt like while having a laugh in the process. 

My work in progress from Today’s class

Me being myself, I immediately looked for all of the hard rock and heavy metal instrumental loops I could find and wound up with what sounded like a double speed, poor man’s tribute to Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Here it is! :

James spoke about the relevance of such technology to modern music education, reminiscing about teaching the beauty of GarageBand loops to high school students. The trial and error process that his students used was interesting as it made evident that even students who do not have any prior interest or skill set in music can begin exploring and engaging in learning music beyond simply enjoying their favourite tracks, through the use of new technologies in and out of the classroom.

Similarly, a blog post by WURRLYedu also spoke about the benefits of modern music technology in the music classroom. Music technology was highlighted as a super useful way of “engaging Gen Z” who have grown up in a world full of the latest and greatest advancements of consumer technology. However, the author also noted that technology in the music classroom should support the “pedagogical” focus of the class in any given moment, rather than simply using the technology as a means of entertainment for the students without any purpose to the lesson plan.

Today’s class was definitely engaging and had a positive mix of laughs and learning. As someone who uses and can enjoy technology in healthy doses, today further opened my eyes to the advancements in education since my time in secondary school. The example of Soundtrap today demonstrated to me that technology in music education can be straight forward without too many complex details taking away from the lesson plan in the classroom, which personally I would have otherwise been afraid of as a future music educator. I look forward to the rest of this course and further exploring technology in the classroom.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more.

Mitchell Davis

Bibliography

https://blog.wurrlyedu.com/home/2018/2/13/the-role-of-technology-in-the-music-classroom

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Published by mitchelljamesdavis

Mitchell Davis is currently a music education student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, born in 1997 in Sydney. Following a positive experience with music education in primary and secondary school combined with a personal interest in music as an art form and pastime, the decision to become a secondary school music teacher was naturally made. Complimentary to studying music education, Mitchell also holds ongoing experience working casually in a youth centre in his home town of Liverpool, New South Wales. After studying a Certificate IV in Youth Work, It was here that he initially found his confidence and appreciation for working with young people to achieve positive outcomes, predominately running various sport and recreational youth programs both in local Liverpool school environments and at the youth centre's facilities. Mitchell's specific area of musical expertise is in contemporary popular music. He is a guitarist and songwriter who enjoys genres such as heavy metal, extreme metal, hard rock, blues and pop. He has begun to write, release and perform his original music in order to gain greater experience in the world of contemporary music and give more value to his skills in becoming a music educator.

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