Abstract:

This papers presents a report of a research project that had the aim of investigating the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the teaching and learning processes of music distance education. This study is focused in the distance education undergraduate program in music education of Universidade de Brasília - Brazil. Many aspects related to the employment of digital technologies are analyzed. It is hoped that in the end of this research project new proposals may be made for the field of music distance education in general and consequently the learning processes of the undergraduate program in music education of Universidade de Brasília - Brazil may be improved.

The Ministry of Education of Brazil (MEC) started a program in 2005 called Open University of Brazil (OUB). This program has the intention of offering distance education degree programs in order to have more elementary and secondary school teachers all over the country. The OUB program also intends to have students from parts of Brazil in which there are no university campuses. 97 (ninety seven) Universities in Brazil, including University of Brasília (UnB) are offering degree programs through the sponsorship and supervision of the OUB system. UnB offers at the moment programs in subjects such as visual arts, biology, geography, music education, and others.
The UnB distance education degree program in music education was initiated in 2007 and has now approximately 250 (two hundred and fifty students) from many states of Brazil such as Acre, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso, and Bahia. Many people with different roles are involved in the UnB music distance education program such as: degree program coordinator, pedagogical coordinator, coordinator of tutors, tutors, and lecturers who design and supervise the courses. The lecturers who design courses are responsible for elaborating the didactic material and consequently for the employment of ICT in the learning processes of the courses. Since the above mentioned program is taught at distance, many ICT are used such as: audio, graphics, video, web pages, MIDI, and others. The lecturers then chose the digital technologies that they believe are the most appropriate for a given task. Before designing the courses the lecturers are asked to attend a formation course in which they learn how to elaborate multimedia content for the courses they are asked to design. What happens is that this formation course is given by UnB for all lecturers that design courses for all degree programs. There is no specific formation course for the music education lecturers. Consequently, the specificities of music education are not taken into consideration in the course. The employment of ICT is then covered in general and not specifically for music education. In addition, the distance education music program of UnB has been offered for approximately 5 (five) years but there were not any studies concerning the effectiveness of the use of ICT in the learning processes of the program. It is not known, for instance, which ICT is more adequate for applied lessons or which one can be employed more effectively for sight singing classes. It can be inferred, therefore, that an study about the use of ICT in the learning processes of the distance education music program of UnB is needed.

Keywords:

ICT, Music Distance Education, Learning Processes.