Photo credit: Cathy Kuehner

As music educators, we know that implementing changes takes time and that raising funds to support arts education and technology isn't easy. If there are funds to support arts education at your school, the budget process will likely take at least a year. If you don't have unanimous support from administrators or the board, it will take longer to convince detractors.

Fortunately, we can point to great examples of programs and strategies that help make the case for music technology in the classroom. For instance, take this story about a campus that is implementing lots of technology and doing it on the fast track thanks to superior leadership and vision. After a year of planning and gathering support, Shenandoah Conservatory (part of Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia) has taken a giant step forward in delivering excellent tools that empower creativity and learning for both teachers and students.

Founded in 1875, Shenandoah Conservatory is the oldest of Shenandoah University's five schools. It has gone through many changes and challenges since its inception, and today it proudly offers more than 60 degrees and produces more than 300 performances annually. The Conservatory includes theater, dance, and music divisions.

In September 2006, I made my way to San Antonio for the Association for Technology in Music Instruction (ATMI) conference. This conference is held in conjunction with the College Music Society, and it attracts faculty and administrators from college and university music programs around the country. Many of the sessions were held in a hands-on technology lab sponsored by SoundTree and Apple.

Session topics included methods for teaching sound design with virtual instruments and techniques for managing a networked lab. Due to some last-minute scheduling conflicts, I presented an impromptu session on Apple iLife, the creative software suite that comes with every Mac and includes GarageBand, iMovie, iWeb, and more.

Although demonstrating iLife is not part of my usual repertoire, I use it all the time to create music files, Web pages, and presentations for teacher in-service professional development. I focused the session on a real-life, practical application: creating a Podcast file in GarageBand and posting it to a Web page using iWeb and Apple's .Mac service.

Most of the attendees were new to me, including Dr. Laurence Kaptain, the recently appointed dean at Shenandoah Conservatory (see Fig. 1). After the session concluded, Kaptain introduced himself, explained his role at the Conservatory, and expressed a strong commitment to making digital-media tools a new foundation for communication and learning. He invited me to participate in creating a new program at the Conservatory, including a digital-media lab and an addition to the Shenandoah summer program featuring music technology.

Dean and a faculty member since 2006, Kaptain is an accomplished percussionist and in 1987 received the first doctorate in percussion performance from the University of Michigan. He specializes in Latin percussion and has played with everyone from the New York Philharmonic to Elvis Costello.

I asked Kaptain why he was so focused on technology as a foundation for his school. He said, “When we cut through everything else, at the highest level, everyone is trying to bring meaning to their lives. As musicians and artists, we have the chance to affect people in a lot of ways. Technology has given us the venue to tie that together on an individual basis.”

Why make a large strategic investment in music and arts technology at a conservatory with a well-established track record? What needs to change? “In the past,” replied Kaptain, “technology was used for communication in a business sense, like email. Now we've taken a step further to use it in two important ways: self-reflection and sharing your art with others.

FIG. 1: Appointed dean of Shenandoah Conservatory in 2006, Dr. Laurence Kaptain is committed to making digital-media tools an important part of the school’s program. Photo credit: Jeff Taylor

“Students often ask their professors how they are doing. I turn it around on them and say, ‘Show me.’ Through e-portfolios, DVD burning, video blogs, and Podcasting, the power is given to students to reflect on themselves to a greater degree and to share their art.”

But what does “sharing your art” mean? How does technology facilitate this paradigm shift? For Kaptain and Shenandoah Conservatory, it was a gradual transition. First came the vision, then an investment, and finally — and most importantly — professional development and training.

Within nine months of Kaptain's initial vision at the ATMI conference, the lab became a reality. In June 2007, a breathtaking new classroom appeared on the main floor of the Conservatory. Kaptain tapped SoundTree, Korg's education division, to design and install a new 13-station lab intended for use in a wide variety of courses, from music education to composition, theory, graphic arts, and more.

The lab's first visitors reacted with a resounding “Wow!” Beyond enjoying the cool look, many faculty members recognized the potential of the new 24-inch iMacs. They immediately made the connection between screen real estate and creative potential, recognizing how Sibelius and Finale scores, digital video, and photography could be managed and manipulated on such a magnificent palette.

Two distinct networks are key to instruction and management in the Shenandoah Conservatory lab. The regular campus Ethernet network enables Internet access and project file sharing. It also provides instructors with powerful lab-management capabilities using Apple Remote Desktop 3, which allows them to share any computer's screen with other computers on the network. Instructors can also lock all computers down so students must focus on the task at hand instead of writing email, chatting, and engaging in other distractions.

From an administrator's standpoint, Apple Remote Desktop 3 enables easy distribution and installation of files and updates to all student computers. You can even remotely log out and shut down student Macs with a couple of keystrokes.

The second network is the more crucial from a music and audio perspective: the lab stations are interconnected with the Korg Group Education Controller (GEC3; see Fig. 2). The GEC network is similar to a traditional language-lab setup in high school or college, allowing teachers to play audio or speak to students on a headset microphone, as well as to listen in on any station or group of stations. The GEC also provides up to 32 channels of high-quality digital audio that flows between students and teacher. Teachers can record projects and performances with or without students' knowledge. They can also group students in pairs, trios, quartets, and so on for collaboration.

Housed in Omnirax Tyro II workstations, each iMac is joined by a Korg K61 MIDI keyboard controller. This versatile keyboard has a great feel and comes bundled with a virtual version of the legendary Korg M1 music workstation, a component of the Legacy Collection Digital Edition. Between GarageBand's library of high-quality synth sounds and the Korg software, students can quickly launch a program and just play.

Beyond options for live performance and practicing, the core software tools in the lab include two notation programs: Sibelius 5 and MakeMusic Finale 2008. Providing both programs was a prudent decision, as the Conservatory faculty includes loyal users of each one, and having both avoids conflicts.

Faculty and students have the complete iLife suite at their fingertips, and many applied-music faculty (studio instrumental teachers) use MakeMusic's SmartMusic in lessons and for practice. The school plans to add more computer-assisted instructional software in the coming year, including Sibelius's Auralia ear-training program.