FIG. 1: Berklee students are required to own a Macintosh laptop and use it with a variety of music software and hardware.

Computers are everywhere today, and they have changed our approaches to music education dramatically. Nowhere is an understanding of their pedagogical potential more important than in college music-education programs. Colleges and universities with the vision to get on board early did a great service to their graduates and to their graduates' future students, anticipating that a well-qualified teacher entering the job market would need all the traditional qualifications as well as skills in using contemporary technologies to enhance teaching and learning.

One challenge faced by college music-education programs is integrating new technologies into curricula already overloaded with requirements. Adding a separate survey course in educational technologies usually isn't possible and isn't a total solution anyway. Instead, colleges are finding ways to integrate technology into existing courses. Technology is treated as an essential tool in all aspects of music teaching rather than just as an add-on.

Let's look at how a few of the many fine contemporary music-education programs are preparing tomorrow's music teachers to teach with technology.

Boston, Massachusetts
www.berklee.edu

Berklee College of Music has a long history of using technology in its performance and composition curricula. Its music-education department, however, was not particularly active in using technology until recently. Things began to change in June 2000, when Berklee received a Department of Education grant called “Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology” (PT3). The information that follows is based on Berklee's Self-Study document, prepared for the Department of Education and available to the public at www.berklee.edu/departments/music_ed.html.

According to Berklee's grant proposal, “Today's technologies allow music students to participate actively in the learning process, gaining confidence while developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Music teachers can also use technology to create media-rich learning experiences for their students while extending their reach beyond the classroom walls. Our goal is to close the gap that exists between (1) the technology that is already installed in schools, (2) student interest and proficiency with technology, and (3) educators' readiness to embrace technology as a teaching tool.”

The grant lasted for three years. In the first year, Berklee created two new required courses. The first, Computer Applications in Music Education, focuses on music-production software, notation software, and electronic instruments. The second, Multimedia for the Educator, focuses on office applications, presentation software, and how to use digital media in music education. These two courses are now required in the second and third semesters so that students will have the skills necessary to apply technology in the remainder of their courses.

In the second year of the grant, Berklee focused on faculty development. Berklee and Boston Public Schools faculty members participated in training and received support in how to use technology in music teaching. A series of course-support Web sites were created to enhance teaching and learning in Elementary Methods and Conducting classes. A comprehensive test-preparation Web site was created to help students prepare for the Massachusetts Educators Licensing Examination.

The third and final year of the grant focused on students. Expectations for technology integration were raised for all students, especially those preparing for student-teaching experiences. For student-teaching locations that lacked technology, Berklee made available portable workstations consisting of a Macintosh computer with music software, a MIDI keyboard, a sound system, and a projector (see Fig. 1).

Berklee College of Music is part of a national trend that requires students to use laptop computers throughout their college careers. At Berklee, however, each student owns his or her Macintosh laptop, the cost of which is added to the student's first-semester tuition. As this trend spreads, we can expect more new teachers to show up for work carrying their own laptop computers and music software.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
www.temple.edu/boyer

I entered Temple University's Boyer College of Music in 1987 as a Ph.D. student, and went on to serve as Director of Computer/Media services from 1991 to 2001 before I left to start my own business. The college's interest in music technology began before I arrived and continued unabated after my departure. To catch up on events at the college since leaving in 2001, I spoke with Dr. Beth Bolton, chair of the Music Education department, and I received a tour of the facilities from Aaron Fisher and Sandy James.

During the past 20 years, Temple's development has been similar to that of other colleges and universities that have worked to stay on top of changing technologies. When I arrived as a graduate student in 1987, Temple already had a system of competency assignments in place. Each music-education student was required to learn basic skills in word processing, flat-file databases for mail merge, spreadsheets for calculating grades, computer-assisted instruction for theory training, marching-band charting software, notation software, and sequencing software. At the time, most of those competency assignments were administered using Apple IIe software, and a few were available on Macintosh Plus computers.

Given an already overloaded curriculum, there was no way to create a separate course on technology, so the competency assignments were distributed among existing music-education courses. That approach, taken out of necessity at many colleges, was an important element in encouraging students and faculty to integrate technology into their studies throughout their four years of study.

A few years later, Temple University implemented a core curriculum for all colleges. That permitted the Boyer College of Music to create a class called “Computers in Musical Applications,” which satisfied one of the core science requirements. Students were encouraged to take a course in acoustics to satisfy their second core science requirement. Combined with the existing competency assignments, the new core curriculum science offerings made it possible for all music-education students to graduate with practical skills and knowledge in music-education technology and have some understanding of the science behind it all.

In the early 1990s, a computer-activities fee was implemented across the campus, providing funding for infrastructure improvements and new facilities. The Boyer College opened a new building containing the Presser Creative Music Technology Center; a new Director of Computer/Media Services position was created; and interested faculty in all departments formed a technology committee and began to collaborate on planning for the future. Technology eventually became so integral to all aspects of productivity that the old competency program was no longer needed. Expectations changed so that teachers and students routinely used technology in all classes.

FIG. 2: Temple University’s Presser Creative Music Technology Center offers specialized software such as Cycling 74’s Max for students taking the Music Technology Component.

Today's students at Temple University must learn to use office-productivity software such as Microsoft Word and Excel for the basic administrative tasks they will encounter when they become music teachers, such as mail merge and grade calculation. They also learn to use Microsoft PowerPoint and multimedia technologies to present lessons. Theory classes require submission of assignments using notation software, and students are expected to use computer-assisted instruction software to drill aural-theory skills.

The Internet, of course, has become a normal part of every college education. At Temple, music-education students learn to use the Blackboard course-management system in their Teaching General Music class. Faculty members answer questions and receive assignments regularly by email.

Digital portfolios are an increasingly important part of music-teacher preparation at Temple University. The Boyer College of Music owns 20 digital video cameras that students borrow to videotape their teaching and chart the progress of the children they teach. Students use software called SCRIBE (Simple Computer Recording Interface for Behavioral Evaluation) to record the timings of observed events in their video recordings. SCRIBE was developed at the University of Texas at Austin Center for Music Learning and is an integral part of the teacher preparation programs at their school of music as well as at Temple University and a number of other universities around the country.

Student teachers are able to improve their teaching through self-critical analysis and observation of their students' progress over time. Boyer students also assemble video footage and PowerPoint presentations into digital portfolios on DVD, CD-ROM, and the Web to help them find jobs when they graduate.

Some students go even further and opt for a music-education degree that includes a 30-credit Music Technology Component. This component consists of courses in music production and sound design, advanced notation software, and multimedia and Web design. The courses are taught in the Presser Creative Music Technology Center (see Fig. 2), where specialized software and hardware are available along with training and support. The component adds a fifth year to the degree program, but graduates are extremely competitive when they seek positions in school districts that have the resources to offer contemporary technologies.

An important part of the success of Temple University's music education program has been its requirement that all new music-education professors have substantial interest and skills in using technology to enhance teaching. The program also benefits from the work of professors in other music departments who integrate technology into their courses.

Professors in the music-education program model appropriate uses of instructional technology in a technology-enhanced facility known as the “smart computer classroom.” This classroom has 16 Macintosh G5 workstations for students, a teacher's station with laptop connections, a projection screen, stereo speakers, wired and wireless Internet connections, and a good selection of music software installed on each workstation.

An equally important part of Temple's success has been the supportive climate at the university level. Smart computer classrooms, wireless Internet access, and strong network resources are being created for students in all disciplines. The university sees these changes as necessary to continue to attract bright students to campus and to help existing students prepare for the future.

Valley City, North Dakota
www.vcsu.edu

Valley City State University (VCSU) is a small liberal arts university in North Dakota that offers degrees in music, music business, and music education. I corresponded with Dr. Sara Hagen of the VCSU music education faculty, who said that VCSU has been included on the Best Colleges list prepared by U.S. News & World Report for the past eight years.

Like Berklee, VCSU is one of a growing group of universities that requires students to use laptop computers. VCSU began its “notebook” initiative in 1996. Every full-time student is issued an IBM ThinkPad laptop computer. High-speed wired and wireless network connections are almost ubiquitous in classrooms, laboratories, the library, the student union, and all residence-hall rooms.

FIG. 3: Laptop-equipped VCSU students learn to configure and use MIDI instruments.

Every course offered at VCSU is classified as either a Classroom (C), a Hybrid (H), or an Online (O) course. Many courses are offered in two or more of these venues. For example, the “hybrid classroom” combines the personal attention of the traditional classroom with online instruction, including Internet resources on demand, rich audio/visual presentations, electronic handouts, and threaded discussions.

Students are actively involved in learning, using the computer to solve problems, create projects, participate in teams, access information, and communicate with others (see Fig. 3). Students store their information on their laptop hard drives and back it up using space on a VCSU server.

Like Temple University, VCSU requires all music-education majors to create a multimedia CD-ROM or DVD portfolio in order to graduate. “The multimedia portfolio contains the best of these integrated projects throughout the years,” says Hagen. “For example, some students pull a piece of videotape from each of their recitals over the years to show growth. Another example is completing a project within a class such as the Composition Through Time theory project; students create a series of drafts based on the same essential melody, using Finale and PowerPoint. Their entire portfolio is compiled, edited, narrated, and timed in PowerPoint.”

VCSU also teaches each music-education student how to set up a MIDI system, download and install drivers, and troubleshoot music software. Each spring, the music-education department runs a special class for faculty and students to keep them up-to-date on all the hardware and software owned by the department. Students become comfortable connecting their laptops to projectors and using notation software, intelligent-accompaniment software, loop-based composition programs, audio- and video-editing software, and office applications. Students also learn to burn CDs and DVDs and to share their work with others using the Internet. All music-education students review a large number of instructional software packages for use in their student teaching.

According to Hagen, VCSU student teachers are seen as technology experts when they are in the schools. “Because of the environment at VCSU, the students are willing to try almost anything with technology,” she notes, “and that is another one of the key differences in our graduates.”

Like many colleges, VCSU did not have room in its music-education curriculum for a course dedicated to music technology. The content of any single course is too easy to forget anyway, so that's often not the best path to take to integrate technology. Instead, technology is integrated into every aspect of campus life and every course in the curriculum. And because students tend to teach the way they are taught, VCSU graduates will naturally use technology in the classroom when they become music teachers. According to Hagen, technology is integral — not an add-on.

Many college and university music-education programs anticipated the explosion of information technology and responded by creating facilities and programs in which future music teachers could learn today's tools of the trade. As a result, many new music teachers expect to use notation and music-production software, multimedia instructional and presentation software, and Internet communications in their teaching.

Berklee, Temple, and VCSU are just a few of the many fine schools that are creating a new generation of music teachers who will bring technology-enhanced music education to our schools around the country. Others I encountered in my research include Duquesne, Elmhurst, Georgia Tech, Georgian Court University, Stanford, and USC. You can find a list of leading schools in the Browse Here section of the Technology Institute for Music Educators Web site (www.ti-me.org).

Steven Estrella owns StevenEstrella.com and Shearspire, Inc., creating interactive media and providing research services for business and education. He served for ten years on the music education faculty at Temple University, and currently teaches for Villanova, Duquesne, and Central Connecticut State. He is also on the National Board of Advisors and Board of Directors for the Technology Institute for Music Educators.