The place of Music in 21st Century Education. Technology or Orff? Or both?

"Music is the sound and the performance of that sound, not just the written symbol that stands for it."

(Steen, 1992, p. 28)

How can we as educators best meet the needs of our students?

After watching James Humberstone's MOOC videos, one is inspired to rethink the way we teach. Two schools, despite demonstrating best-practice and great outcomes for their students, use radically different approaches to the use of technology and embracing 21st century culture.

Northern Beaches Christian School

As evident in the MOOC videos, this school is renowned for its innovation in the building of spaces, student-centred learning and its integration of technology. Space has been designed to support innovative approaches to teaching and learning - this is seen in their informal learning spaces which provide room for comfort, motivation and flexibility.

Project-based learning / student-centred learning is reinforced through the social component of students working together collaboratively and with technology.

Technology not only plays a critical role to a student's learning, but also carries many benefits with regards to how teachers respond to and deal with their students. According to one of the music teachers at the Northern Beaches Christian School, "technology allows the teacher to become more receptive, to come alongside the students and to really meet them" especially when it involves structuring lessons to suit the modern day world / environment that students are exposed to and infused with.

Kamaroi Rudolf Steiner School

As opposed to the Northern Beaches Christian School, Kamaroi uses a different approach - one in which technology is reserved and only used as a tool in the later stages. Integration of the arts into every subject results in the vibrant classrooms whereby students' engagement, motivation, and participation are crucial to their development.

Learning is fundamentally student-centred and experiential. This is evident in commonly practiced techniques derived from the Orff-Schulwerk approach and they include singing, moving, learning patterns, transferring learnt patterns to pitched and non-pitched instruments, experimenting, etc.

Principal Virgina Moller clarifies the importance of creativity and states that children are to "create their own original thought and develop those capacities before utilising technology because it can be so misused." Developing a student's confidence, self-esteem and performance skills are major benefits of the Orff approach, which sometimes cannot be applied when embracing technology.

Now what?

Here comes the question asked earlier again: how can we as educators best meet the needs of our students?

While this is a difficult question, I personally believe that having a balance between these two approaches in any educational setting is of high importance. I agree with Steve Jobs' saying, that "technology alone is not enough. [It is] technology married with the liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing." Without ignoring either approach or placing emphasis on one stating that it is better than the other, I would begin with the basics - that is through the Orff approach. Once this is established, I will (at a later stage) move on to utilising technology and have that as the main source for students to transfer their learnt patterns onto instruments available in studio / multi-track recording apps such as 'Garage Band' or 'Music Studio' to name a few. Technology can also be utilised for the purpose of an extension activity (create or compose) - this way we avoid good students from being bored of having to wait for the rest of the class. So in a way, technology can also be seen as a tool for behaviour management.

Orff approach

As Arida Steen (1992) states (p. 27), "The lesson is the point of transfer from the musical goals and objectives in the curriculum to the action by students that demonstrates their musical learning." Incorporating such engaging activities would allow the students to develop their musicianship and listening skills through active participation and the process taken to ensure that they work in a cooperative manner. According to Frazee (1987) (p. 20), Orff's philosophy includes how "....the voice is the primary melody instrument" that is highly dependent on listening.

This is "often directed towards activities" in which students actively participate (p. 25). Thus, when they begin this journey, they become reliant on the teacher - who "moves from the role model to that of the facilitator" [Steen, p.31] - through listening and imitating.

• Echo and imitation

In reference to Choksy (1986) (p. 97), imitation is one of the significant elements of Orff-Schulwerk and is highly "used to insure a role model for creativity." Majority of the musical activities that took place in Kamaroi, demonstrated the importance of imitation and ensured that students were familiar with rhythmic and melodic content. Frazee reinforces (p. 25) that "the aim of fine music-teaching is student mastery of skills and concepts...best taught inductively by...imitation."This portrays that the final outcome will allow for the development of their rhythmic and musicianship skills.

• Body Percussion Body percussion is a useful tool in allowing students to gain an understanding of the sound quality that percussion instruments produce. "Orff teachers typically use stepping, thigh-patting (called 'patschen'), clapping and finger-snapping for sound gesture compositions" as Frazee highlights (p. 22). In some circumstances, there is no access to musical resources or even technology, and hence body percussion is useful in that it is:

• ​Naturally built within the body, therefore

• Resulting in effectiveness of the lessons to run smoothly without wasting time. ​

• Singing A positive experience will become a solid ground for students to develop their musical ability with confidence. As Choksy notes (p. 100), "Good vocal technique is essential to the overall musical development" of students "and to the best performance of Schulwerk." A good example could be introducing students to the melody of 'Ode to Joy' and then challenging them to perform in a manner similar to a canon when divided in groups.

• Improvisation Frazee elucidates (p. 20) the significance of improvisation in its application of the Orff-Schulwerk: "Improvisation involves putting skills to work to invent new material and is of great importance in music... learning situations." It is through improvisation that students:

• ​Gain confidence in achieving their potential

• Are given opportunities to experiment with a wide range of musical problems. From these encounters, students

• Can develop the skills and concepts that promote independent musicianship" (Frazee, p. 26) and result in the progress and development of musicianship skills.

• ​Orff Ensemble As Choksy mentions (p. 98), "music cannot be made where there is no community", highlighting the need of an Orff ensemble. He also states (p. 144) that "Ensemble is a key element in the Schulwerk" through "speaking, singing...and playing." When students participate in a cooperative manner, they learn to "listen, to appreciate and to help one another in collective musical endeavours" (Frazee, p. 21).

Technology

After watching this video, one understands the importance of technology in that it is accessible to students and the importance of embracing it in our music classroom. Check out this article using the following link http://nd.music.msu.edu/music-learning-technology-william-bauer/

Reference List

Choksy, L., Ambramson, R. M., Gillespie, A. E., Woods, D. (1986). Teaching Music in the Twentieth Century. Englewoof Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 92-103 and 137-143.

Frazee, J. (1987). Discovering Orff: A curriculum for music teachers. Mainz, Germany: Schott, pp. 14-33.

Steen, A. (1992) Exploring Orff: A teacher's guide. Mainz, Germany: Schott, pp. 27-33.