Tobias, E. S. (2017). Re-Situating Technology in Music Education. In S. A. Ruthmann & R. Mantie (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education (pp. 291-308). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
It’s often the case that music educators discuss technology in relation to tools and techniques. My chapter Re-Situating Technology in Music Education in The Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education focuses on re-situating technology in relation to social and cultural issues.
Here’s the abstract:
Technology’s place in music education is largely related to how it is socially constituted. Despite how technology enables intersections of and blurred boundaries between ways of being musical it is often situated in terms of hard boundaries and compartmentalized notions of musical engagement. Furthermore, music education often situates technology as tools without necessarily considering related social, cultural or musical contexts. This chapter addresses how philosophical, pedagogical, and curricular perspectives play a key role in the types and degree of change that occur in relation to technology and music education. To forward related praxis, I propose that music educators re-conceptualize curriculum and re-situate technology to address social and cultural issues explicitly. I invite music educators to consider the potential of digitally mediated musical engagement within the contexts of curriculum as experience and as social reconstruction. The chapter considers how such change might occur and conceptual frameworks that might help in forwarding such work.
The chapter is somewhat structured in relation to “provocation questions” that the editors, Roger Mantie and Alex Ruthmann, posed to authors. Here are some of the overarching themes I discuss throughout the chapter (some of the links to books are affiliate links) :
Considering change in relation to technology and music education
In this section, I draw on the work of Kathleen Hayles in the book How we think: Digital media and contemporary technogenesis to address technogenesis, a process of coevolution of people and technology that recognizes that “both sides of the engagement (humans and technologies) are undergoing coordinated transformations” (p. 81). I think this is a helpful concept to avoid situating technology in music learning and teaching through perspectives of technological determinism. I flesh this out by discussing aspects of what Hayles describes as strategies of assimilation and distinction and describe three vignettes of music programs as images of assimilation and distinction in practice.
Considering technology in relation to change
The next section discusses how images of assimilation and distinction play out in relation to the ways that music educators address technology in their programs and the types of change in which they engage. I suggest that music educators’ worldviews impact the ways they address technology and that we could benefit from discussing technology in relation to philosophies, pedagogies, curricular inquiry, musical engagement, and sociocultural contexts. Again, focusing on specific tools such as an app or techniques such as looping will only get us so far in addressing larger issues of change.
How are music educators responding to social and cultural issues?
In this section, I acknowledge that music educators are indeed responding to social and cultural issues in the context of technology but that “music education could benefit from more reflexive and critical engagement with technology while accounting for social, cultural, and economic issues.” I argue that much of professional development around technology focuses on techné, “the material matrix and practical activity in and which we carry out our craft” and “instrumental, how-to thinking” (Henderson & Kesson, 2004, pp. 48-49). As an experiment, take a look at the technology-oriented sessions of state MEA conferences, TI:ME conferences, and NAfME conferences and consider the degree to which they focus on techné or socio-cultural issues.
Addressing social and cultural issues explicitly through praxis
In this section, I suggest that music educators could benefit from mobilizing critical and sociological frameworks to inform how music programs address technology and related pedagogical or curricular decisions. I draw on Schubert’s images of curriculum, from Curriculum: Perspective, paradigm, and possibility, and suggest that approaches to music learning and teaching through images of curriculum as experience or curricula for social reconstruction have interesting possibilities for addressing social and cultural issues through technology. I also describe several examples of digitally mediated musical experiences that reflect these paradigms such as:
- Wayne Marshall’s notion of technomusicology as a form of musicological inquiry and engagement (which I think has rich potential for K-12 contexts as well).
- Paul D Miller’s (a.k.a. DJ Spooky) Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarcitca or his Nauru Elegies
- The intermedia work SuperEverything* by the Light Surgeons
- Beware the Dandelions by Complex Movements
Contact me via email or in the comments section if you would like a copy of the chapter.
You can also learn more about my other chapter, Augmenting music teaching and learning with technology and digital media, in The Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education.