Orchestral Strings Teacher
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Connected Learning and Instrumental Music for the present.
The chart above (Oddone, 2018) is derived from the Connected Learning Framework by Ito et al, 2013 (p.12). Instrumental Music mostly fits into this chart, although some aspects need to have more technical development. One of the most helpful factors would be a closed site for IM students to access for downloading Knowledge, and uploading assessment. The average IM student has a 30-minute lesson on the practicalities of operating their chosen instrument. During this time, instruments must be unpacked from their cases and tuned, instant maintenance occur if necessary (or possible), revision of Knowledge from the previous lesson/s, the introduction and practical application of new Knowledge, the noting of what pieces and actions to do for the next week, and finally the cleaning and packing up of instruments and walking back to class.
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A site only accessible by Instrumental Music (IM) teachers and their students would help in that the site could contain demonstration videos of pieces, giving the student a clear indication of what their playing should sound and look like. The site could also contain lesson plans, stream sound files of the music students are learning, have assessment items, and a place for students to upload their assessment as a recording or preferably, a video. All of this makes IM much more accessible for students, and has the potential for the IM teacher to have a more efficient learning process with no extra effort.
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SmartMusic® is such a system (mostly). It streams music to accompany the student during their practise, it records and can rate pitch and rhythm in real time, showing the student how accurate their playing is, and allows these results to be uploaded for assessment. However, it costs approximately US$50.00 per student per year to be part of it. This can be an equity issue for families. Education Queensland also has issues with its students linking to a foreign server. Families may have similar issues.
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Other software like SeeSaw is used by classroom teachers in some EdQLD schools, and there seems to be no problems with it, except that it’s not really compatible with how Instrumental Music delivers its knowledge to the students.
Eight Pedagogical Points for Connected Learning
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1. Relationships
Offline, Instrumental Music relationships are based around ensembles and small group learning. Online, with closed Facebook groups, students need to be given the ability to upload their video performances to a local school website which supports similar functionality to YouTube.
2. Learning Goals
Connections could be created that link peer culture to more formal music making, in that the Instrumental Music teacher could use the student’s interest in popular music to show connections with more formal music styles.  Comparing the harmonic, melodic and rhythmic complexities of more formal music styles with those of popular music, could stimulate interest by students in both classroom and instrumental music programs.
3. Challenge
Challenges are built into each stage of the learning process, as students learn how to play music. A network should allow students to interact online, both listening to and producing music with each other, while interacting with online sound/video files guided by the teacher. The network also needs to provide security (closed network) for assessment uploads.
4. Real World
Public performance is an important part of Instrumental Music. School ensembles regularly perform for school events like assemblies and school concerts. Instrumental Music also goes outside the school (outreach) to other events like eisteddfods and retirement villages.
5. Participatory
Schools vary in the approach to Instrumental Music. Some schools have dedicated performance centre to teach in, while others have lesser accommodating spaces. For shared purposes, specialists can be brought in to run workshops and concerts. Australian jazz trumpeter James Morrison and jazz clarinettist Don Burrows do exactly this, and day long workshops, rehearsals and concert with them and their bands are possible for high-school students. At a primary level, schools in the same cluster will organise ‘day camps’, targeting a particular student level, where the day is organised by specialist instrumental teachers. The students benefit by gaining about a term’s worth of ensemble technique and development in one day.
6 & 7. Openly Networked and Production Centred
For both of these pedagogical aspects, the students need to be able to login to their own Instrumental Music site, created and maintained by the government or private school as the case may be. For child safety and for privacy reasons, an Instrumental Music site needs to be within the school system, and not openly networked. The act of a teacher giving a YouTube link to students does not limit the students to this link, which may generate concerns by administrators. Software such as SeeSaw is available to network within a school (https://help.seesaw.me/hc/en-us/articles/115003755186-How-does-Seesaw-work-) however, at present there is not a way for students to safely share their learning in an open network.
8. Interests
Instrumental Music concepts of technique can be driven by student interests and choice, but it’s probably best if the teacher suggests a series of options. Some of these ideas won’t be considered until tertiary level as the student transitions into a more professional musician. Within the limits of the curriculum and their own personal limits, students can be given choices of music to learn for performance and assessment that provide a challenge for their abilities. Being challenged to learn something a little be harder at times is how the beginner transitions into a professional in most areas of education.
To conclude, while introducing Connected Learning principles into the Instrumental Music curriculum is in its early stages, further development of platforms are needed that offer safe social connection while allowing greater flexibility and security for students to engage in an openly networked environment. The safety of data in online networks is always a concern as earlier this year a school server was subjected to 5000 overseas unauthorised login attempts per hour for a two-week period. Although no attempt was successful, this situation shows that personal data, no matter where it’s located, has value for illegal activities.