Music Education Technology Enabling Composition Processes in Schools

Many of the recently published research reports on composition pedagogy in Finland also address the role of technology in opening ever-new possibilities for creative musicmaking activities in school. As witnessed in out-of-school contexts, such as online music communities, technological innovations have transformed the ways people can participate in music-making by creating new works from scratch, engaging in digital sound explorations, and playing along with commercially produced content (Partti & Westerlund, 2012; Michielse & Partti, 2015). The rapid development of music education technology can be viewed as a welcome addition to the opportunities to facilitate musical composition also in the school context. It is therefore not insignificant that in the Finnish core curriculum for basic education (FNAE, 2016a) ICT skills are understood both as a goal and a tool for learning, and the use of technology in music instruction is viewed as one way to promote the development of students’ creative and expressive skills. Music education technology may offer major possibilities for musical expeditions in the classroom, especially when teaching large and heterogeneous groups of students from diverse backgrounds and with varied competencies in music (e.g., Juntunen 2018). Furthermore, the creative and versatile use of educational technology can also be integrated into other important aims of education, such as teaching media literacy and critical thinking.

Finnish music educator and researcher Aleksi Ojala (2017) developed practical e-l earning materials and theoretical principles for a pedagogical approach named Learning Through Producing (LTP) that aimed to open one possible way of advancing collaborative and technologically aided creative music-making activities in upper secondary school. Ojala’s research shows how digital technology can be harnessed for musical learning and sustained interaction with shareable musical artifacts such as tracks and music videos.

The LTP approach enabled students to construct their musical knowledge and skills as well as negotiate their musical identities through creative music-making practices, such as arranging, songwriting, sound engineering, recording, and mixing. Importantly, however, Ojala considers the role of technology not as a replacement, but as an augmentation to the use of (electro) acoustic instruments and face-to-face interactions in the music classroom. While the use of e-learning materials and mobile devices can provide significant opportunities for personalized learning, for instance, the importance of hands-on music making with peers and teachers provides vital opportunities to build a collective knowledge and skill base in music.

The potentials of technology for supporting classroom composition projects has also been investigated by Marja-Leena Juntunen (2018 and 2020), through the case of a Finnish lower secondary school music teacher using tablet computers in a seventh grade music classroom. In this case, the music teacher designed a project that aimed to use music education technology in creative activities in ways that would support the active, bodily, and creative engagement of students. Reporting on the case, Juntunen (2018) shows how the integration of multiple forms of creative expression (such as movement and music exercises, improvisation, and composition, as well as recording and editing a video) enabled a space that developed students’ musical skills and understanding.

The use of tablet computers was also seen to increase students’ motivation. Perhaps even more importantly, the project succeeded in offering possibilities for students’ multimodal experiences and expression, exemplifying how the integration of technology in creative processes can make students’ agency visible to the teacher and to the students themselves. The study also offers a significant example of possible ways to advance creative engagement and a pedagogically safe environment for approaching composing from various angles.

Finnish researcher Sara Sintonen (2013) points out the significant opportunities technology-enabled creative music-making opens for advancing students’ digital empowerment and cultural participation. Sintonen examines the use of digitized sound as part of multimodal digital storytelling and as a tool for self-directed and creative expression. By utilizing digital recording and editing techniques in the processes of examining sounds it is possible to introduce students to the worlds of music and sounds and guide students to trust their own ears when making decisions. In this way digital technologies can also be understood to broaden the focus of composition pedagogy from the end product (i.e., songs, compositions) to the process of exploring the potential of sounds and music by enabling alternative approaches and musical practices, such as instant composition or sound painting (Sintonen, 2013).

Such activities may or may not result in musical products, but this is neither required nor an end in itself. Indeed, as I have suggested elsewhere (Partti, 2020, n.p.), it would often be more appropriate to talk about the pedagogy of composing rather than composition pedagogy in school, as “the latter brings to mind the end product—a composition—while ‘pedagogy of composing,’ or ‘composing education’ puts the focus on doing, the activity of composing"