Technology in Education

Aidan Johnson-Bujold 1

Introduction

Technology is a collection of tools that humans have learned how to use to create, modify and manipulate at the highest rate possible. It has the ability to do great, wondrous things, and has  helped humans create a wireless, unlimited source of information and has even brought man to the moon. With technology being so easily manipulable it can transform anything that it is applied to. Over the past decade or two, technology has made itself much more important and present in music and music education . With technology, we have the ability to manipulate and create music at a much higher rate than ever before. With the inclusion of the internet and digital music, songs can be shared instantly all over the world. That being said, the demand for new music has never been higher. According to Rick Carnes, President of the Songwriters Guild of America he says that  “This rapid emergence of new

technologies has caused huge alterations in what was once a straightforward business model for success in the music industry, causing many industry leaders to take a second look at how to tackle their art form.” (Stafford, 2010) With technology having such a huge influence on the music industry and the music market, they both have changed drastically from what they used to be. There are new genres and subdivisions of music such as, Pop music, Rock and EDM (electronic dance music) that are dominating the music industry, where as art music or Classical music has begun to dwindle. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of technology in a classroom setting, so students who wish to pursue a career in the music industry and have a good foundation of technology and understand how it is essential in todays' music industry, rather than focusing more so on the teaching of classical or art music. This paper will be looking at questions  such as “How can technology be used to teach students in a more modern fashion to better prepare them for a career in the music industry?”

Aidan Johnson-Bujold 2

The Goals of the Curriculum

        A good foundation is necessary for students to achieve a proper, thorough learning experience. Firstly, let's take a look at the elementary and high school curriculum to see their expectations of students in the music program. “The expectations identified for each course describe the knowledge and skills that students are expected to develop and demonstrate in their class work, on tests, and in various other activities on which their achievement is assessed and evaluated.” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2009) One the many goals of the curriculum is to help educate students with knowledge that the ministry of Education decides is most important for students, so that they may become better civilians in our society. Most of the goals and subjects being taught from the curriculum are things that are highly necessary in the working world, such as, being able to read, write, problem solve and use critical thinking. Students are taught these subjects and skills so they can become better civilians and so that they can earn a job and survive in the work place outside of school. However, looking back at the Art Curriculum of elementary and high schools in Ontario, they do not teach with the same principals in mind. Most all the music studies are relating to classical or art music, when classical music is no longer a genre of music where one could obtain a job very easily out of school, nor is it the most favourable type of music to study. (Walker, 2004) Students are still being taught with an “old” mind set. Classical music has been becoming less and less popular and been creating less and less revenue. In 2013, classical music was the second lowest in record sales, selling only 2.8 million records. (Neilson) There has been a decline in sales for years; in 2008 the classical genre sold 13.1 million copies and over the past 6 years has continued to decline. (Statista, 2014) As for jobs, there are very few remaining in that genre, there are 1,200 orchestras in the United States compare that to 1,600 students who are studying music at UI Jacob School of Music last year. (Jacobs School of Music) Although, not all these

Aidan Johnson-Bujold 3

students are classically trained musicians, this leaves the question as to what will these students do with their degrees after they graduate? Most students who study music get asked what do they want to do when they graduate and the responses are either teaching, performance or other. However, if a student does not want to teach, and has been studying music classically and wishes to do performance, where in their career as a student has the curriculum taught them the necessary knowledge to survive in the workplace? Looking now at the most popular genres, Rock, Pop, Country these are all genres that rely heavily on the use of new technologies, recording, new instruments, midi components, samples and editing. These genres have been growing rapidly in popularity and between the three of those genres of music, they have sold over 200 million copies of albums in 2013 alone. (Statisa, 2014) If the curriculum's goal is to prepare students so that they can be suitable for the work place once outside the school then, there might need to be a revision on what should be taught in the music programs and should have a more throughout revision of the music curriculum.

                                        History of Technology In Music

        “Children entering formal education today are unaware of a world without computers, personal digital assistants, portable CD and MP3 players, digital keyboards and the internet with it's connection to vast amounts of information.” (Webster, 2002) There seems to be a lot of issues with classically trained musicians as to the fact that they can't open their minds to these new technologies and practices being introduced in music performanceand education, when they don’t realize that advancements in music technologies have always been happening and have even created a great deal of the musical tools that they use in their own practices. They also feel that new technology has no place in a musical setting.  It has only now become the case, where music technology has become on par with performance practice. Technology has always gone hand in hand with music, it might not always have been computer or digitally related technology, however over hundreds of years there has been a great

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