Vermont MIDI Distance Learning Network:
a model for technology in classroom music1

Glenda Cosenza and Sandi MacLeod

University of Vermont

gcosenza@zoo.uvm.edu or smacleod@founders.k12.vt.edu

Students, Teachers, Composers, Mentors and Pre-Service Educators …

Currently over 50 Vermont teachers, composers, and pre-service educators working with over 4,000 students, participate in a state wide distance learning network to further music composition by students at all grade levels. Using technology as a tool, students create compositions which they post on a World Wide Web site for the purposes of sharing, critique and reflection. Teachers and professional composers exchange lesson ideas and strategies, and come together for professional development.

Samples of our public work can be seen at http://www.webproject.org. Go to "Initiatives" and "WEB Exchange." We also maintain a secured site where initial posting of student work and the critique and reflection process take place. This is password protected to encourage students and teachers to upload works in progress.

With distance learning funds from the Vermont State Legislature and support from the Vermont Arts Council, the MIDI composition project began in the winter of 1995 with 11 MIDI stations across the state. The teachers from these new MIDI technology schools were connected via e-mail to communicate with each other. Composers-in-residence added an important dimension to the success of the project.

Music composition has many similarities to the writing process: brainstorming; drafting; revising. In many member schools, students work together to compose compositions and rely on feedback from others to strengthen their pieces. Students in grades 1 through 12 are approaching composition through many varied methods. Basic computer skills are reinforced as students enter information, establish and save files, cut and paste, edit ideas, and access the Internet to share music.

In addition to creating compositions, teachers have been working towards assessing what students know and can do in music. The MIDI project, with its emphasis on critique and reflection, clearly teaches students to express, listen, analyze, and improve. Teachers encourage students to use the language of music to discuss compositions by established composers, Vermont teachers, classmates, and other students from around Vermont. Student work takes on added sophistication as they listen to and view new musical ideas.

Early in the establishment of the network it became obvious that higher education needed to become involved in this project. Funds were secured to provide the Music Education students at the University of Vermont with a MIDI station similar to the kind the schools in the project were using. Additionally workshops, training sessions, and school visitations were set up so that pre-service educators would be knowledgeable about the process and begin to serve as on-line mentors in the critique work.

In the first stage of the project, students work together in small groups to compose music within guidelines specified by the teacher. The assignment may be related to form and rhythm, or theme and variations. There are many different variations on the assignment that our teachers use. Most schools use notational software for the initial composition experience.

The composition process is modeled after the writing process where students write many drafts and submit their work to peer review before the final draft is finished. During this process students are required to use appropriate composition techniques including accurate notation, rhythm, melody, harmony and form. Sometimes the work begins on an Orff bar instrument or an instrument the student plays, notating the creation with paper and pencil. After completing a phrase or two on paper, the students move to the computer to enter and revise their work. Because the students are working in groups there is constant discussion about the piece. Watching the students at work, one notices the immense amount of problem solving, listening, critical thinking, and reflection that is ongoing throughout this group composition process.

In the second component of the project, students critique and evaluate their compositions and the work of others from schools around the state via the World Wide Web. Feedback from professional composers, mentors, teachers and students is used to help children revise their work as they near completion of their compositions. The process of the critique and evaluation component of MIDI Composition is to encourage students to think critically as well as learn how to write and talk about music using appropriate vocabulary and music terminology. Students are required to write descriptions of their work including specific questions about their composition to assist others in responding to the composition.

EXPECTED AND OBSERVED OUTCOMES OF THE VERMONT MIDI DISTANCE LEARNING PROJECT

Expected Outcomes

    1. Implementation of National Standards in Music 4, 5, 6 and 7;

    2. Increased motivation for students to participate in music classes and ensembles and to become musically 'literate';

    3. Increased communication among music educators in Vermont;

    4. Heightened support for music education among educators and administrators.

Observed Outcomes (all of the above, plus):

    1. K-12 students are learning to analyze and evaluate theirs and others' compositions (including those of master composers from the Western art music tradition) using sophisticated music vocabulary and terms/concepts from the major-minor tonal system in music theory that may be difficult to learn by any other means;

    2. There is increased and ongoing communication among university music education faculty and students, and public school music educators and students in grades K-12 via the Website and shared workshops/mini-courses;

    3. Music educators in the Project report intense interest in raising their own standards of teaching;

    4. Music educators in the Project are exploring unique ways to use MIDI Composition to suit their own classroom needs and curricula with unexpectedly creative and exciting results;

    5. Students are purchasing notational software and composing at home on family computers, increasing parental involvement and enthusiasm.

  Acknowledgments: The Vermont MIDI Distance Learning Network is partially funded through The WEB Project, a US Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant requiring a 2:1 local match. Public Examples and Information can be found at www.webproject.org/midi and www.webproject.org/exchange

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1. Acknowledgments: The Vermont MIDI Distance Learning Network is partially funded through The WEB Project, a US Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant requiring a 2:1 local match. Public Examples and Information can be found at www.webproject.org/midi and www.webproject