This weekend, I will be in Spokane, Washington, presenting sessions at the NAfME Northwest Division Conference, speaking on ukulele, recorder, and technology (scanning), sponsored by Peripole.
As I uploaded my session notes (so people don’t have to write furiously), I realized that my first presentation was on the Pocket PC in February 2005. That’s still six years before the iPad; and twenty years ago.
I have seen a lot of change in that time; the dominance of the Chromebook is something I would have never predicted (I thought that Windows-based webbooks, a similar concept, would have been the device of schools), and I certainly didn’t see the impact of the iPad (which I am working on as I type this post).
What has also surprised me is how technology in our field, music education, has been in a holding pattern, even before COVID. The deep dive into the use of devices during COVID has resulted in a push against the use of technology by parents and teachers alike, but the technological slowdown started before that.
Currently, technology in music education is improving gradually, and options are thinning as the market cannot sustain so many products. In a world of Dorico and MuseScore (paid and free), there is little room for a legacy (i.e. outdated) application such as Finale, and as such, Finale shuts down. Expect to see more of this in the future.
What is unclear at this time, is what the influence of AI is going to be in music education. If you haven’t taken the time to see the tools at Magic School, or to have Gemini or ChatGPT help you with writing introductions to songs at a concert, or to respond to a parent or administrator, you need to stop and try these solutions (as a starting point). And if you haven’t played with Suno or Udio, you should check these out, too. Dr. Jim Frankel (MusicFirst) is one of the music educators writing about the implications of AI and music education, and I would refer you to his thoughts on the subject.
And as I have mentioned before, while there are a lot of people using technology in music education, the number of active music educators who blog (or vlog) and share their experiences has never been smaller. There are a few voices out there which continue to advocate in this space, such as Dr. Jim Frankel, Robby Burns, Amy Burns, and Katie Wardrobe. But many of the voices that used to speak out on the subject do so rarely—including myself, as my focus in life has changed with my move from secondary music education to elementary education, from a wider focus on technology to the topics of ukulele AND technology—and creating content for myself and others to use.
Incidentally…I have a Dell Pocket PC (The topic of my first presentation) and need to try to figure out how to get it to work with a modern Mac or my iPad…I know if I look hard enough, I’ll find solutions.
And if you’re in the Washington area and going to the NAfME Northwest Division Conference, by all means, please say, “Hello!”