Situating Technology within and without Music Education

Abstract

This chapter addresses two overarching questions: “Where is technology within music education?” and “Who is affected and how?” In considering those questions, I attempt to situate technology within and without music education, that is to say, internal to and external to the paradigmatic constraints of institutionalized learning. In the process, I argue for the development of authentically poietic spaces, or communities of response, within music education contexts. Further, I recommend situating technology within those spaces in such ways as to empower otherwise vulnerable young musicians to explore their own interests, idiosyncratic ways of learning, and the deterritorialized, subjective-social worlds they inhabit. The first section of the chapter addresses the particularized nature of technology within music education contexts. The second section includes examples of technology without music education. The final section lists conclusions that attempt to situate technology in and across those two broad domains.

A constructivist approach to music education with DAWs

“…There is also the argument that technology should be viewed as a means of expressing identity, and therefore assessment should be based on this rather than technology being an end in itself (Pignato, 2017). While it is an attractive option to assess on technical ability alone, I would argue that assessing a learner's ability to rationalise using the tools can (and should) be the primary goal of curriculum design from the earliest stages of music education.…”