Motivating and Relevant Digital Tools in Music Education

Description of impact

In the 3-year project "Online Learning in Music Education," teaching activities at music school and conservatory level have been developed, tested, and analyzed.

A website was build by members of the IT and Learning Design research group at the Department of Culture and Learning, Aalborg University. A diverse range of digital tools and online learning methods within music education has been used, in contexts spanning from beginner to elite levels, with various instruments and incorporating research-based knowledge.

The project was carried out in collaboration between Aalborg University, Aalborg School of the Arts, and the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg (coordinator).

This website has been developed with open access for everyone, in both Danish and English. On the website, you will find:
• Over 25 teaching activities describing different ways to use digital tools in music education.
• Over 100 video clips with teachers from the conservatory and the music school.

The results include practical descriptions of teaching activities that are generic in nature and can be adapted to various instruments and levels. These descriptions outline the objectives of the activities and what to consider before, during, and after the activity. For each activity, students’ and teachers’ experiences and perceptions as they were applied in the project are disseminated. Furthermore, the website includes a comprehensive walkthrough of the teachers’ work, experiences, and perceptions of the activities in their own teaching context. Finally, we identified and present organizational perspectives, including considerations when implementing such activities and perspectives on teacher professional development / competence development for individual teachers and groups of teachers.

The results impacts students, teachers and organizations, as well as the research field. Thus, the project contributes with an educational, social, and cultural impact, as findings from the project aim to help develop music education that can be more relevant for children and young people.

Category of impact	Social impact, Cultural impact, Other impact