Making Music Together: The blending of an on-line learning environment for music artistic practice.

Abstract

Music curricula have become increasingly systematised in universities. This means that students may be segregated into class groupings that do not naturally support active participation in knowledge sharing, networking, moving between expert groups, socialisation and professional success. This may result in students graduating still unprepared for professional workplaces. This paper examines a project that attempts to address the issue of promoting a program-wide learning community by blending a web-based discussion board with a face-to-face curriculum for music technology students in an Australian conservatoire. It is shown that the inclusion of an online affinity space unfettered by artificial educational boundaries can provide a means by which students can communicate, reflect and collaborate to build and sustain an authentic participatory learning culture at a program level.