MITIS - Musical Information  Technology in Schools : How can interactive  music technology be used to support learning of music literacy?

• MITIS – Musical Informational Technology in SchoolThe aim of the MITIS - project is to explore possibilities to create interactive teaching materials where new technology is used to distribute knowledge about musical structure (i.e. notation) as well as content in an interactive and creative way. This is carried out as a collaborative project between a group of music teachers, the company DoReMir, and researchers and staff from the Institution for Folk Music and the Institution for Music, Pedagogics and Society at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.The core foundation of the project is literacy in music – for example reading and writing notation (Asmus, 2004). Notation is for most musicians an important tool to use both for taking part of, interpreting, documenting and pass music on (Hultberg, 2000). In connection with the digitalization of society and digital tools to do things such as interpreting, documenting and pass music on made available to a broader public, traditional notation has got a more hidden place in music education in schools. In the Swedish curricula for the compulsory School, notation is explicitly mentioned in 1969. In the later Curricula’s, different kind of notation is mentioned, but not as explicitly as in earlier years (Skolöverstyrelsen, 1969; Skolverket, 2019). This also aligns with the development of society as a whole, and with the strategy for digitalization that was established by the Swedish government in 2017 (Regeringen, 2017) and can be seen as a development towards a wider view on different forms of notation. However, in the aesthetic program for the upper secondary school, reading traditional notation on a basic level, is required in the Curricula (Skolverket, 2020). Furthermore, to get access to higher music education in Sweden, the skill of reading traditional notation, is required. We argue therefore, that to increase music literacy, also in regard to reading notation, can be seen as an democratic issue. To make learning notation available and possible in an easy and digitalized way, with devices available to pupils in school, may be an important step to advance possibilities for every child to access higher music education.An important part of the project is to develop and support learning and interpretation of notation in different creative ways. One of the starting points for this project is the technique for digital music interpretation that has been developed by DoReMir Music Research AB. This technique has been used in an app called Notysing, for learning to read and sing traditional notation with a digital device such as a reading tablet or mobile phone. The project has been running since 2018. The first year the focus was to develop the app, test it within a small group of music teachers, and ensure good technical quality as well as pedagogical foundations for the design. In 2019 testing started in compulsory as well as in upper secondary School in Sweden, with focus on gathering qualitative data through a digital survey in the app. During autumn 2020 a qualitive study has been conducted, and in-depth interviews are in progress. Pupils in San Diego has been included in 2020, also as a part of finding new teaching strategies for distance education during the Covid19 pandemic. It has been developed and tested with over 200 pupils and music teachers.Preliminary results suggest that pupils and music teachers are positive to learn notation through an app that uses gamification to enhance and motivate learning, and that issues that arise are mostly technical, and that the equipment of the schools, and technical skills ana knowledge of the music teacher are crucial for success. Furthermore, the results indicate that regards must be taken todifferent systems for managing IT in different schools and municipalities. Last but not least, there are great school-cultural differences in how schools work with notation in San Diego and in Sweden, which once again raises questions about how to work with it in our context, and also, why we work with it the way we currently do.ReferencesAsmus, E. P. (2004). Music Teaching and Music Literacy. Journal of Music Teacher Education, 13(2), 6–8. https://doi.org/10.1177/10570837040130020102Hultberg, C. (2000). The Printed Score As a Mediator of Musical Meaning – Approaches to Musical notation on Western Tonal Tradition. [Doctoral thesis, Malmö Academy of Music].Regeringen. (2017). Nationell digitaliseringsstrategi för skolväsendet. Utbildningsdepartementet: Bilaga till regeringsbeslut I:1, 2017-10-19.Skolöverstyrelsen. (1969). Läroplan för grundskolan 1 Allmän del. UtbildningsförlagetSkolverket (2019). Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet 2011. Reviderad 2019. Skolverket. Skolverket.( 2020). https://www.skolverket.se/undervisning/gymnasieskolan/laroplan-program-och-amnen-i-gymnasieskolan/gymnasieprogrammen/amne?url=1530314731%2Fsyllabuscw%2Fjsp%2Fsubject.htm%3FsubjectCode%3DMUS%26courseCode%3DMUSINS01S%26tos%3Dgy&sv.url=12.5dfee44715d35a5cdfa92a3#anchor_MUSINS01

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musikvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Musicology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Music pedagogy

Digital learning

Music Theory pedagogy

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