Abstract:

Taken that the digital revolution has caused a major transformation in global music culture by creating new affordances for learning, creating, and sharing music it is no wonder that technology-aided creative music making is a prominent part of Finland’s new core curriculum of music, taking effect in 2016. Still, recent research suggests that creative music making and the use of music technology have remained marginalised, and in many cases are completely absent from the classroom practice. Taken that the amount of workstations, laptops, and tablet computers in Finnish schools is on the European middle level and many Finnish children have their own smartphones already in primary school age, the lack of devices does not seem to be the main reason why Finnish music teachers leave creative possibilities of digital technology untapped. Rather, they seem to be short of pedagogical support and personal experiences in using technology to promote the development of versatile musicianship.

This presentation introduces a novel pedagogical approach, named Learning Through Producing (LTP) that aims at bridging the gaps between the ‘real world’ musical experiences of young people, and what is taught and learnt in the school classroom. This is done by widening the perspective of general music education from reproduction to creative work, such as arranging and songwriting, and from performance to producing shareable artefacts, such as tracks and videos. The presentation focuses especially on introducing the roles of the teacher, peers, mobile devices and e-learning materials in LTP. Towards the end, the presentation also aims at visioning how LTP could be used outside the music classroom, for instance when learning languages.

The development and implementation of the LTP approach took place in the context of the only compulsory music course in Finnish general upper secondary schools, using design-based research as a methodological toolkit. The findings are based on analysis of student-participant’s course diaries, surveys, and video-recorded group interviews during technologically aided pedagogical interventions that took place in four general upper secondary schools. The findings of the study reported in this presentation indicate that when students are able to construct their musical knowledge and skills through arranging, songwriting, recording, mixing, and sharing, opportunities arise for them to form music-related communities of practice and negotiate their musical identities. Furthermore, the findings suggest that in order to learn music effectively and purposefully through producing, most of the students benefit if they are introduced to musical elements and tools, together with developing understanding of relevant use of such tools in different cultural situations. While building a collective knowledge and skill base can be successfully accomplished through hands-on music making in the music classroom, the use of e-learning materials and mobile devices can successfully cater opportunities for personalized learning. However, the findings also suggest that the use of e-learning materials and mobile devices should not replace traditional instruments, the teacher, or face-to-face interaction with peers, but, rather, that it can be used in a way complement established practices effectively.

Keywords:

General music education, Music producing, Blended learning, Collaborative learning, Mobile devices.