Tobias, E. S. (2013). Towards Convergence: Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture. The Music Educator's Journal,99(29), 29-36. doi:10.1177/0027432113483318
Integration of technologies in the music classroom is on the rise as it connects to how people now engage with music regularly. Many people have resisted this for the sake of tradition, but the way that contemporaries like Evan S. Tobias are suggesting technology be included in the classroom is in a more intermittent way. This approach is one that includes both traditional subject matter as well as newer music of different genres while consistently engaging with technology as a basic component and as a tool to aid the learning experience.
As stated by Tobias, examples of technology in the classroom would be assigning students projects where they model online mixing contests. This would allow a student to not only pick the genre of music they want to work with, but it is an incredibly open assignment in which they could mix music, combine pieces or alter existing ones with endless possible outcomes. Other interactions with technology Tobias did not emphasize as much include recording and producing. This is a great example of how to seamlessly integrate technology without making it into a ‘unit’ section of learning. Students could compose, arrange or learn a work and then record and mix it as the final section of the project or have their live performances recorded. Files like this are helpful as they can be replayed and collected as a body of work for each student and something they can be later asked to reflect on to analyse their growth over a period of time.
I feel that using technology in these ways can be really beneficial to students and is the best way to provide them with comprehensive lessons. It is important to remember that you are teaching students to aid their future engagements with music. Since few students will continue playing traditional band instruments seriously after grade school, the curriculum should match how those students will interact with music. The likelihood is that they will consume and work with pop music, but they may also engage with other styles. The constant between these genres will be technology, so as I gleaned from Tobias’ implications and from my own experiences is that integrating technology is a more relevant contemporary focus than including popular music in the classroom. With this method students may be more engaged as well as learning the foundational skills that they can grow upon outside of the classroom and for their future in music.
Technology in the Classroom
Williams, D. A. (n.d.). Another Perspective: The iPad is a REAL Musical Instrument. Music Educators Journal,101(1), 93-98. doi:10.1177/0027432114540476
The main dilemma I currently face as a prospective music classroom teacher is deciding what music should be included in my classes. This concerns what genres of music I bring to a class and the mediums in which they are engaged with and the types of tools used by students to make music. Reading “The iPad is a REAL Musical Instrument” by David A. Williams I was given examples of many different ways the iPad has been used positively as an educational and performance tool in music. The article also lead me to question the importance of Western art music in the classroom.
Since there is so much to learn from each instrument, to increase students’ breadth of understanding about music and performance, it seems logical to lead a series of classes that give students time learn about making sound and music in a variety of mediums. Especially since technology is a huge part of life in North America and consumer music now always uses some form of technology, providing a comprehensive music education is best done with the inclusion of technology. Although Williams only highlighted the multifaceted positives to integrating tools like the iPad into the classroom, he did not do so in a way that implied the iPad would be the only music making tool in future classrooms. I agree with this notion, as there is lots to gain from music on wind and string instruments, percussion and voice.
I would however still disagree with the title of Williams’ article, as I am not convinced that an iPad itself can be considered a musical instrument. Other sound producing technologies, like the theremin, would be considered an instrument. The iPad however has ever-changing and developing apps which allow you to create sound, but are not the iPad’s only function. I would consider the iPad and materials like it to be learning and music making tools, rather than instruments without diminishing their positive impact.
In addition, ne of the main points of the article was that the physical and cognitive skills required to make music on an iPad are not as different from those required to play a wind instrument. The way it was presented, I found the description to be quite comparable to percussion instruments, but with a reduced range of movement required of the performer. This appeals to be as a classroom tool as it may be beneficial for all students, including those who may have physical or cognitive disabilities. The work and thinking Williams has done about including the iPad in music classrooms is one I agree is incredibly positive, and I hope to be able to provide my future students with access to them.
Pedagogical Dualities
Strouse, A.W. (2016, April 24). Teacher's Pet. The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 2016. http://www.chronicle.com/article/Teacher-s-Pet/236182/
In reading the article “Teacher’s Pet” by A.W. Strouse, I found myself engrossed in the many different situations to which this piece challenges the reader to reflect on their personal style of teaching. I also began to be overwhelmed with the myriad of social and instructional cases where this article can pose itself as the perfect analogical component.
Strouse’s narrative about potty training her kitten, and the elements within that story, can perfectly parallel so many important challenges in pedagogy and could really influence current and future educators to analyze their pedological approach and the reaction that they observe from their students as a result of it. The subject in the story, Cookie the kitten, is comparable to a student for her possesion of basic instincts or knowledge, but a lack of knowledge and experience in the realm of which Strouse is trying to educate her. The first note of personally familiar strategy I noticed was in the concept behind the Litter Kwitter. The process banks on the student dealing with small changes in order to gradually achieve something that would have been unachievable to accomplish directly if was tackled from the original starting point. I have been subject to this approach for most of my academic career.
What Strouse’s story also features, is the avenue many educators turn onto, when the transition from one gradual learning step to the next, is extremely challenging for the student. In the classroom setting, a student’s aversion to moving forward may be for a variety of reasons, but what is most unfortunate is how many educators (like Strouse in the context of this article) react by using methods based around tricking and forcing their students into accomplishing what they want them to. Usually in the form of giving harsh penalties or offering bribes, I can recall many times, especially in my elementary schooling where teachers have approached a roadblock this way. This system, is one I feel that won’t instill the intended knowledge or skill permanently because if a student does not directly know why what they are learning or how they are learning it is important they are far less likely to care about gleaning the ability to do it and therefore will not advance they way the educator has hoped.
This idea also leans into a debate as to what then really is the best approach to teaching. John Dewey’s approach could be seen as the inverse of ‘tricking’ students into learning as his method involves students making discoveries entirely on their own. I think there must be a halfway point, and I think that is where I see myself being if I want to be the most effective educator that I can possibly be. I would be curious however to discuss these dueling pedagogies with Strouse as he has extensive experience in Dewey’s system of education, but has also been an educator that strays from those ideas, as he did with Cookie. This all being said, I am thrilled to continue analysing the different avenues of self-examination posed by Strouse in this article.