I found this article interesting because it took a 21st-century approach to music and music making. It took into consideration new technology and how it could be used in further developing pedagogy. There are a lot of new interesting ways to share and produce music, many of which I already participate in. it makes music very accessible to a large group of people and technology allows people to share music and gain feedback and insight into it as well. Nothing really surprised me in this article. There were a lot of things that I had already encountered in my everyday life and as someone who’s tech-savvy, I already knew about a lot of the new ways music is being produced and shared. I was a little frustrated with the examples that were given to include technology and music in pedagogy and classroom environments because they didn’t seem very interesting. In my opinion, I think there are many more interesting ways in which technology can be implemented in the classroom and the ideas provided were a bit unoriginal. The article itself seemed much more factual and informative than one of ground-breaking thought and in that way seemed a little bland. There is so much more to explore with music, technology, and globalization and this is really just scratching at the surface. I would have liked the author to bring new information and ideas to the table and maybe even researched on studies or at least mentioned any studies related to the topic. I also would ask for some more original ideas of assignments and ways teachers could include music and technology into their music classes. For one, I think that it would be interesting to have students use the same royalty free sample to create their own compositions as is seen often within the pop industry. This would show students how to use samples and music correctly and still make pieces of music that can fit different genres, time periods, and styles and give them a piece of what it’s like to be a producer and composer of music in the 21st century. More importantly, they can be creative and come up with their own fusions of genres and styles and try to push past even those boundaries that music most often has. I think that there is so much more depth in which this topic could've been explored and presented.
Tobias, E. S. (2013). Toward Convergence Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture. Music Educators Journal, 99 (4), 29-36.