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News

Spring 1996

Integrating Technology into Music Higher Education - The Lancaster Seminars

Lucy Warren

In contrast to the fully integrated and tightly organised NetSem system, IT resources at Lancaster University have been used within seminar teaching in a much more 'support' oriented manner. This has been done with two main aims in mind:

to introduce the first year students to email and to the Music Department's own computer conference
to introduce them to computer technology in a form where it could aid them in widening their direct experience of music - in this case by introducing them to some basic techniques of computer-assisted composition

This latter exercise actually served a dual purpose - in giving the first years a 'taster' of the options that would be open to them in their second and third year courses.

The Setting

These activities took place within the first year seminars - an aspect of the first year music course that allowed students to experience and study a diversity of subjects in a pressure-free environment, as they were not formally assessed and did not count towards their final degree mark.

The degree system at Lancaster is divided into two parts. Part I is the first year of study, and Part II comprises the second and third years. The pedagogical drive behind this bipartite system is to allow the students greater flexibility and breadth of study, and to help ensure that they opt for the degree scheme best suited to their academic talents.

Within the Part I scheme a student will normally take three subjects, one of which will be their intended major. In order to move on to Part II, each student must pass exams in all three subjects and achieve a 'majorable' mark in their intended major. It is only during the second and third years, therefore, that the student's work counts directly towards their final degree result. Students intending to major in Music, however, must take two Part I courses in Music; one to cover practical and technical aspects and the other to cover musicological and historical issues. The first year seminars were only available to those students registered for the Double Part I course and effectively were an 'added extra' to the compulsory course requirements.

Historically, seminars in Music had been organised along the Oxbridge lines of small tutorial groups meeting once a week to discuss musicological issues. It was, and still is, felt by the academic staff at Lancaster that such seminars were invaluable educational forums, but with the explosion of student numbers in recent years, it is now recognised that the halcyon days of one tutor to three students are long gone and seminar groups are now of 12 to 15 students. The syllabus of the first year Music seminars was entirely tutor-driven, but there was an emphasis on integrating 'study skills' and transferable skills such as essay writing, independent research, bibliographic techniques, team work, oral presentation and discussion skills.

The Format

Each seminar group was divided into three 'teams' of 3 or 4 students. Once a seminar presentation topic had been assigned, the seminars ran on a three-weekly cycle.

in the first week, tutorials were offered to the individual teams
in the second week, there was no formal contact - but the tutor was available for consultations
in the third week each team made a group presentation to the whole seminar group (and the topic for the next cycle was announced)

As the Music Department at Lancaster University is very much technology centred, being the home of CTI Music and a TLTP lead development site, I felt, in my capacity as a seminar tutor, that the first year students should be presented with more opportunities to utilise the excellent facilities available to them. Within the purpose built Music building we have a recording studio and a large computer studio with 6 workstations, all connected to keyboards, and also connected to the University computer network enabling the students to use email. Every student is entitled to use email, and all first years are automatically issued with an account. In addition to this, an internal conferencing network known as 'LuBBs' (Lancaster University Bulletin Board System) allows the students to discuss a range of topics and also contains a conference called SECRET-MUSIC. SECRET-MUSIC is only available to music students and staff, and is gradually becoming a source of lively - sometimes outrageous - discussion about music department issues.

Despite the excellent facilities offered at Lancaster, it was felt that the available technology was not being adopted widely enough by the students, and the first year seminars seemed to be a suitable forum through which the students could be re-introduced to computers and their application, after the initial induction course in their first week. With this general aim in mind, the first seminar project was developed to include the very specific goal of making it necessary for all the students to experience email.

The 'Quest'

In the 'Quest for Knowledge' project, the students had to work in teams solving cryptic crossword-style clues which lead them to their literary materials in the library. In order to complete the Quest they had to solve a final clue and log on to the email where I had left the presentation question for them. As an added incentive, an element of competition was introduced and the first representative of a team to email me and register that they had completed the Quest won a small prize.

The Quest project was, indeed, successful in achieving the aim of ensuring that all first year students had first-hand experience of email from the earliest stages of their university careers. Many of them continued to use email as a method of communication, both with members of staff and amongst their peers - both socially and in the development of later seminar presentations. In addition to this, contributions to the departmental SECRET-MUSIC bulletin board increased rapidly during the academic year when the Quest project had run.

The Quest was not without it's 'bugs', however. Technophobic students were able to get around the need to confront the computer part of the project simply by asking one of their fellow team members to tell them what the presentation topic was but, on the whole, it was successful in encouraging those students who could see the virtues of computer technology, but had never confronted the practicalities.

The Minimalism Project

It was to those students who had been enthused by the application of computer technology that I geared a seminar project later in the same year. Building on the foundations laid down earlier, I designed a project centred on Minimalist music, a genre selected for its relatively simple structures and principles. After studying the style, those students who expressed an interest were given the opportunity to compose a short piece in minimalist style. I gave them the option of using traditional methods, or the chance to get into the studio under the guidance of our resident Music Technology specialist, Paul McFadden. The students had three weeks to prepare their composition, after which they had to present and perform the work in the final seminar session. In addition, the best compositions were publicly premired at a very well attended lunch time concert, together with student performances of pieces by Steve Reich*. Student feedback from this project and from the concert was excellent, and it was clear that those students who made the effort to learn a technology-driven compositional technique, gained a great deal from the exercise.

Conclusions

These are two examples of how technology has been used to support the seminar teaching of first year music students at Lancaster. It demonstrated to the students, in more general terms though, that computer technology can have a role in their studies apart from just for word processing and, furthermore, that the facilities are readily available to them. It offered to those students who were open minded enough to venture into unfamiliar territory, an introduction to study-facilities that will greatly enrich their progress through the Music degree at Lancaster - as within several Part II courses, use of computer packages such as the Forte pitch-class set program and the TLTP CD-ROM tours are fully integrated into the course.

Having recognised that positive action has been taking place at Lancaster, there is still a long way to go before technology-supported teaching is fully integrated into the system at all levels. This is particularly so within the first year music course which has, this year, undergone some drastic changes. The seminar structure and working methods, having been recognised as important learning arenas, have been integrated into a Music History course based around four set works. Each work is studied over a five week period, of which the last three weeks are seminar based, using the pattern I have described and ending with the formal presentations. Perhaps we at Lancaster could learn from the Glasgow NetSem system, and integrate into the five-week modules an element of computer-mediated discussion, within or between the groups, which could then be reinforced by the live seminar presentations at the ends of the modules.

Finally, I would assert that the interpersonal skills associated with and promoted by 'real' seminar interaction are every bit as necessary in the contemporary education and employment worlds as they ever were. Having said that, it is clearly desirable to enhance these skills through the permanent integration of appropriate forms of electronic support.

Reference

Duffy, C., Arnold, S. & Henderson, F. (1995). NetSem: electrifying undergraduate seminars. Musicus, 4, 25-39.

* A composition for tape by Becky Jarvis, which had been presented at this concert, was played as an example.