I had the recent pleasure of watching high school students become more addicted to Sibelius than PSP, Xbox 360, and Wii. The band director started the music lab last week, but had many students confused at his delivery. He, himself, has been in the classroom and performance area of education for 20 years and needs to stay ahead of what is going on. His instructions needed to show the various ways one could input music, for instance, or he needed to have a creative working knowledge of Sibelius.
Webster, like other writers, mentioned the values of technology in music education, but suggests ways to bridge old machines with current. He immediately addresses the importance of the teachers, themselves, having a creative mind to pass it on to the students. I experienced a minute where I had to sing the correct rhythm, and know how to subdivide the music correctly to create the appropriated time signature that is easy to follow.
The playback option on Sibelius gives immediate feedback to students, and it is that feature I witnessed that opened up this side of creativity. The nuts and bolts necessary to build an assisted technology program requires knowledge of the 9 Standards, and how to use them effectly to fulfill them.
I know I struggle with hearing music on a page in my head, so I can relate to the feeling of doors opening thanks to Sibelius' playback feature. I'm sure seeing that in the high schoolers was quite satisfying; realizing that these students now how more opportunities to connect to not only music in general, but to their own music.
ReplyDeleteTechnology can be a valuable tool to allow students to be musically creative. However, the most important aspect of any classroom is the teacher. What that teacher does and how s/he does it (whether or not technology is involved), is the most important thing.
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