The Popular Notion

Tuesday’s class brought up a variety of very interesting and important conversations. One conversation that really resonated with me was the notion of technology and how it affects our teaching. The fact that PJ even used a video from the internet as an aid for teaching the class is huge. He jokingly said something along the lines of, “it’s not good teaching these days unless you use a youtube video.” I some ways this statement is true. The first video he showed conveyed such a unique message about the internet and the age of information, that I think could not have been conveyed without that very video. Even as I am writing this blog, I am sitting in the computer lab in the library watching an English teacher teach his class using the internet. There is no doubt that technology and the internet shapes not only how we teach but also what we do in our everyday lives.
I chose to read Democratic Conversations in Music Education: An Introduction by David Lines this week. As I read this article I couldn’t help but think of this idea of technology and how it has affected the ways in which educators teach. Lines talks about the change in a lot of the Western educational institutions. He observes that these educational systems went from being “more liberal-humanist to a more economically driven neoliberal global oriented educational agenda.” With this shift came the notion of producing as many great candidates for professions incorporating math and science. Another result of this shift is a continuously diminishing interest in music programs. Lines also tells of music programs in the United Kingdom and New Zealand where schools are resorting to hiring private and community musicians to teach the music programs. Another point Lines makes is that music programs use too much institutional music. We live in the information age where we have a plethora of music available to us, at our fingertips. Because of this music is a big part of everyone’s life. The average person’s life is almost completely shaped by music. Music can affect someone’s culture, style even the friends that they make. Using institutional music in our programs does not spark any interest in our students and because of this, our students may not learn as much about music as we would like them to. If we used more popular music in the classroom students would be hooked. I think that this could solve the problem that the UK and New Zealand are having. Opening the classroom up to the student’s world would create more interest and with more interest I think there will come more music teachers. If we let the advancement of technology shape how we teach, why not let the advancement of music to do the same?