Main goals:
- The integration of virtual pedagogy, methods and technology in music education
- Teachers’ pedagogical and technical know-how has increased
Case 1: MUSIC IS CONNECTION – STUDY PLANNING IN VI R MUSIC 2009-2010
The long distance objective of Oulu University of Applied Sciences (OUAS) in Vi r Music project is to establish distance education as permanent part in Bachelor´s degree studies and to create a study programme of Professional Specialisation Studies in Distance Education in Music. The aim is to create also joint studies with music educational project partners (Oulu University of Applied Sciences/School of Music, Dance and Media, Luleå University of Technology/School of Music and Media, University of Tromsö/Faculty of Fine Arts).
The professional specialisation studies are a type of updating education for the people who wish to emphasize on a certain topic or issue in their profession. The prerequisite for the education is a completed, applicable Bachelor´s degree. However, in the School of Music, Dance and Media the professional specialisation students often study in the same groups with the students on a Bachelor´s degree.
The progression of the curriculum work
The curriculum work was intentionally planned to start later in the project time scale. It was considered essential to acquire more knowledge and experiences from the field of distance education prior to study planning. Important point in planning the contents of the education was that all students must be able to keep up with the development of the distant teaching, not just use the equipment, technologies and possibilities that we have today. As the project activities began in full force in autumn 2009, the study planning was launched in the late spring 2010.
The main responsibility of the work lied in OUAS. The first meetings were conducted via Skype between cooperating project coordinators and other relevant people from each school. The aim was to gather together a group of people who have the expertise and experience on the distance teaching subject, but also knowledge about curriculum work, arranging studies and financial issues. In the beginning it became obvious that the active participants in the cooperation are the partner schools which offer music education. Kemi-Tornio University of applied Sciences will have a role of an external support in the field of distance teaching in general, and cooperation with Särestö-Academy will continue in the form of virtual classes and elementary violin pedagogy. The high point of study planning was in October 2010, when the group of participants was gathered to curriculum sessions for two days in Tromsö, Norway.
Basic Course of Educational Technology (BET) 2009/2010 and Distance Teaching Practicing
A steady basis for the planning was the Basic Course of Educational Technology, which was executed twice in cooperation with OUAS and TOKEM (autumn 2009 and 2010). The focus of the course was to offer the students basic information about distance teaching in general and experiences and practical training with different tools for distance education in music (eg. video conference equipment and accessory, recording and editing, applicable softwares). In 2010 the course was offered also to students of the international partner schools.
BET-course was essentially important for the students who started distance teaching practicing as part of their instrument/music theory pedagogy in autumn 2009. During the Vi r Music project a group of OUAS Bachelor´s level students gave weekly lessons to basic level pupils in Lapland Music Institute via video conference equipment. This activity is planned to be established as a permanent part of study plan of the students in Option of Music Pedagogy. All students will practice also traditional teaching, but the aim is to expand their pedagogical expertise by giving them a chance to specialize on distance teaching and by giving them extra value in recruitment situations in the future.
Study plan and course descriptions
The planned structure of the Professional Specialization Studies in Distance Education in Music is planned as follows:
Information technology and notation programme, 4 ects
Basic course of Distance Education in Music, 3 ects (joint course)
Music Technology lab, 3 ects
Distance Teaching Seminar and Practical Training, 10 ects (joint course)
Project, 7 ects
Optional studies, 3 ects
Total 30 ects
Information technology and notation programme –course (4 ects) and Music Technology lab (3ects) are conducted to both specialization students and Bachelor´s degree students in OUAS. These courses focus on basics of computer skills, fluent using of a notation programme (Sibelius), physiology of sound and acustics, PA-systems, studio work and midi/sequencer-programmes. Basic course of Distance Education in Music (3ects) (former BET, Basic course of Educational Technology) will be conducted as a joint course with Piteå and Tromsö Schools of Music. Besides the subjects in the BET-course, the focus will be expanded to pedagogical aspects of distance education. Each school will offer two 1,5-hour lectures on a given topic via applicable distance education tool.
Distance Teaching Seminar and Practical Training (10 ects) will be the cornerstone of the programme. The specialization students get their two own long distance pupils/groups to teach weekly with a chosen distance education tool (video conference equipment, learning environment, software etc.) The lessons are recorded, shared and discussed in distance education seminars among the students in OUAS, Piteå and Tromsö Schools of Music. Supervising of the seminars comes alternately from each school.
Project studies (7 ects) can be determined by the student in cooperation with his/her supervisor. The content must be related to music education, and the student must utilize one or multiple distance education tools in the project. The student can use the contacts he/she has in music institutes or other possible associates to plan and conduct the project. The student can also choose some optional studies (3 ects) from the other available courses.
Joint studies for students in Bachelor´s level and the Professional Specialization Studies programme will start in autumn 2011 (application period and entrance examination in spring 2011).
Contact persons from participating schools are:
Riitta Tötterström, Oulu University of Applied Sciences/School of Music, Dance and Media (riitta.totterstrom@oamk.fi)
Sture Brändström, Luleå University of Technology/School of Music and Media (sture.brandstrom@ltu.se)
Michael Strobelt, University of Tromsö/Faculty of Fine Arts (michael.strobelt@uit.no).
Case 2: MUSIC IS CONNECTION – DEVELOPING DISTANCE EDUCATION IN MUSIC 2009-2010
The objective of Oulu University of Applied Sciences (OUAS) in Vi r Music project is to train teachers and pedagogy students to use virtual and long distance pedagogy and technology and to establish distance education as permanent part in Bachelor´s degree studies.
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| Future music pedagogues at Oulu University of Applied Sciences together with their teacher Jouko Tötterström |
Equipment and training
The required equipment for distance teaching was purchased during spring and summer 2009. OUAS School of Music, Dance and Media built up a distance teaching classroom for this purpose only, and made necessary procurement to destinations in Lapland.
Before the distance teaching activities began, the students were trained to use the equipment and familiarized with distance teaching situations and pedagogy in Basic course of Educational Technology, executed in OUAS in autumn 2009. The course was conducted in cooperation with Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences and marketed also to music institutes nearby Oulu. The most efficient way of learning to use the equipment proved to be a setup of two nearby classrooms: distance teaching classroom with a new Tandberg video conference equipment and another classroom humorously called “Sotkamo” (a small town in Eastern Finland), provided with an old video conference equipment which was borrowed for a few months from School of Engineering. The students were able to practice and test the equipment together even without supervision, whenever both classrooms were available.
The students always started the session 15 minutes prior to the beginning of the lesson to check the connection, make necessary adjustments in the classroom and contact the technical support if needed. The lesson itself lasted for 30 minutes. The length turned out to be quite sufficient since the atmosphere often was highly intensive and focused.
Pedagogical tools of distance teaching
Practical training has brought up some of the most important notices of distance teaching pedagogy. Both students and teacher must get used to the delay in both sound and picture, and as a result the teaching situation becomes calm and considered and teacher inevitably must observe his own activities more closely than in normal music teaching. As the delay depends on the equipment in each destination and also on the load of the internet connection at the time, both student and teacher have to communicate in a slower speed and definitely wait for each other to finish their sentence before answering. In both speech and playing it is impossible to do things simultaneously. Conducting the student can be done: not in tempo, but by showing the atmosphere and different energies with your hands and body (for example peaceful music – slow and flexible movements). In managing the existence of the delay, it has been proved that all students learned to handle the situation appropriately during the first year of distant teaching.
Predicting camera zooming and different angles optimal for the teaching situation and testing connections force the students to plan his lessons carefully beforehand. Since it´s impossible to touch and guide the pupil physically, the teacher must use his imagination in a more creative way. Different imaginary examples, stories and showing details clearly to the camera help the teacher to deliver his pedagogical ideas effectively. Consequently, distance teaching practising can be much more efficient way to study teaching than normal practising.
Intensive experiences with the help of distance teaching
According to the project plan, the distant teaching students in OUAS have participated also as active students in the virtual classes arranged by Särestö-Academy. The artistic level of the classes has been rather high, and they have offered a different point of view to the participants, as they have been attending the classes as students themselves. On some of these classes it has been proved that distance teaching can be more focused and intense than traditional teaching. The distance is forgotten and equipment – TV screen, loudspeakers and wires lose their importance. Another meaningful factor has been the possibility to observe tuition in other destinations. As passive participant the student can pay attention to both teacher and student and their actions in distant teaching situation.
The intensiveness of the lessons can partly originate from the limitations of the space. Since the student can see only what the teacher wants to show at each time and all of that is presented on a TV screen, the focus of the student is riveted towards it for the whole lesson. Consequently, it is important that the background of the teacher´s room is calm and easy to look at. The teacher can make the situation diverse by using the equipment effectively (change of pre-set camera angles and zooming).
Technical tools and problems
In instrument tuition need for extra accessory was not as obvious as in music theory tuition. Theory teachers learned to use laptop, document camera and blackboard as their support in teaching. Switching between different supplementary tools also made the concentration of the pupils more profound. Notation programme and pdf-files proved to be a good way of transmitting electronic material to the students before and during lessons. The teacher´s own imagination sets up the limits of using new solutions as suitable tools in distance education in music. In the future, saving and editing the lessons electronically can offer extra material to both students and teachers.
Problems in the internet connections and in voice and picture quality interfered the activities to some destinations during autumn 2009. Especially piano students in Pello suffered from these problems. Testing the connections and adjusting classroom and audio/video setup made the situation better for spring term. On the whole the need for technical support has been bigger than expected. Sometimes the best solution to the problems was rather easy: in both Pello and Oulu some people outside the project had the tendency to wring the settings of the equipment (mixer, microphones etc.) between the lessons. Proscription signs were written and knobs were locked with sticky tape. Consequently, the problems decreased.
New perspectives for the future
In academic year 2010-2011 distance teaching practising will be continued and also piloted with new instruments. In the future cooperation will be made not only with Lapland Music Institute, but also with music institutes near Oulu. This way it is possible to combine traditional and distance teaching with same pupils, and the role of distance education as the supplementary reinforcement will be realized and studied. Technological knowhow and distance education will expand the professional skills of the music teacher of the future and give extra value in recruitment situation.
Cases were written by Outi Nissi, Oulu University of Applied Sciences/School of Music, Dance and Media
