MOOCs are Massive. Seriously.
In the following series of posts, I'll be reflecting on some of the highlights from one of my university courses, Technology in Music Education (TME). To see my reflections from other weeks, click here.
I’ve just finished watching seven videos from the University of Sydney’s MOOC, ‘The Place of Music in 21st Century Education’. Although the shock factor was mildly blunted by my previous exposure to those videos a semester earlier, they were still vociferously thought provoking in the best way possible. And it all left me wondering: What is the best way to use technology in music classrooms? Is there even a best way?
The first video introduced us to Northern Beaches Christian School (NBCS) through the eyes of our illustrious host, James Humberstone, and the Director of Innovation at NBCS, Steve Collis (I mean, first of all, what kind of school has a Director of Innovation? That’s so cool!). NBCS has a large emphasis on technology being integrated into learning.
Amongst the mountains of gold that he casually threw at the camera, Collis emphasised the importance of empty space in learning areas; otherwise the “space has an agenda”. When I extrapolated from this, I realised that almost every classroom that I had ever entered had a very clear agenda; rows of chairs filling the room facing the front meant teacher-driven individual work. Even before thinking about technology, NBCS seek to maximise the flexibility of their learning spaces, not by filling them up with objects, but by leaving empty space that can facilitate a variety of activities.
Subsequent videos explored the way technology worked in music classrooms at NBCS, and frankly it was astounding. Dedicated jam rooms were completely wired up for band practices with headphone sets (so that the maths department don’t rage quit), individualised monitoring (because I need more bass!) and recording equipment.
So, if you’re a student at NBCS, amongst the twenty minutes of jamming in your last class, those two minutes of gold are automatically uploaded to a Cloud (along with the less-than-gold bits of course). That way the next day, when you have entirely forgotten the hit record you made in class, it’s all there for you. NBCS also have an emphasis on team teaching, composite classes, and group work. These facets aim to promote mentoring amongst teachers and students, and actually allow for a better teacher student ratio when group work is taking place.
The next three videos focused on Kamaroi, a Steiner school with a very different approach to music and technology. The school remains entirely screen-free until upper primary, which is a very intentional decision, as the principal Virginia Moller explains. Moller argues that withholding technology from younger primary students actually enables them to develop their own creativity in a way that ubiquitous device use may inhibit in early childhood.
At Kamaroi, it is not simply a matter of removing technology; movement and singing are ingratiated into all parts of the school curriculum. In the videos, students can be seen singing and moving together in a variety of classes, while dedicated music time uses Orff methodology. It’s clear that creativity is at the centre of the Kamaroi school ethos, and when technology is introduced, it is used as a tool to enhance creative expression, rather than as a replacement for creativity.
Seeing these two best-practice schools live out very different ideologies led me naturally back to my original question: What is the best way to use technology in the music classroom? In some ways, although NBCS and Kamaroi were painted as schools at the opposite end of the technological spectrum, they were actually more similar than it may first appear. Both schools wanted to put students at the centre of learning, which means that they favoured collaborative learning. Both schools wanted to emphasise student curiosity and agency, though Kamaroi represented a primary developmental stage, while the focus of the NBCS videos was on their high school students. Conceivably, a student could finish primary school at Kamaroi and move to NBCS for high school, where their developing creativity would be able to be recorded in a jam room or creation space.
It was clear, however, that NBCS did not have the same kind of reservations about technology that Kamaroi had. In Video 7, Hill Top Road Public School principal Natalie See talked about the importance of technology being used with an emphasis on connectedness and global networks, rather than it just being “glorified worksheets”. It is clear that intentionality with the use of technology is an important factor in how it is enfolded into classroom learning. For example, at Kamaroi, upper primary students created clay animations and used a video camera to capture their ideas. In this case, the students’ own creativity was the impetus for the story and ideas, and the camera was merely a tool for recording their creation.
Ultimately, in the MOOC I did not see one best-practice model that would suit all students, but rather two different approaches that both had the potential to facilitate creative development and musical development.