Genuinely interactive technology in instrumental tuition is more than elearning – it is Real Learning!

“All children should have the chance to learn an instrument” — Michael Gove


Nobody would disagree with Mr Gove’s aspiration; especially parents and pupils.

The scale of the challenge set by Mr Gove must not be underestimated though, and we have long argued that we need to utilise technology to support our workforce deal with the issues of scale and reach.

Teaching with technology (interactive technologies)

However, those of us involved in teaching with technology must be clear of what we mean by interactive technology. We must also convince traditionalists that technology produces real outcomes, is not a gimmick and is designed to be used in addition to, not instead of, high quality teachers and teaching.

The purpose of using technology in musical instrument tuition in formal education must be about being part of a system that creates more instrumental opportunities than is currently possible.

So let’s start by being clear and demanding of our vision of elearning in instrumental tuition - it must be real learning.

Real eLearning – Good teaching and learning

For elearning to be real learning, it needs to;

•incorporate good teaching and learning,
•use a mix of learning models to support learners of many styles,
•blend activities to enable skills development to support academic development and musical literacy.
Musical instrument tuition needs to be even more demanding of technology for it to be meaningful and it must be genuinely interactive, so that it can provide formative feedback to the learner and, an opportunity for the teacher to provide personalised assessment to support the learner’s progress.

We, of course, believe that Gigajam is unique in its offer and well placed, not only, to meet the current demands, but to evolve its services and meet the continual improvement that we demand from our technology in helping raise standards.

Let’s interogate the basis upon which Gigajam was created.

http://news.gigajam.com/?p=500

Brian Greene
http://schools.gigajam.com