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Australia and Musician?

Auralia and Musition*


Dad works in student admin at UTS right? And during this whole COVID thing, unis have had to adapt their examination processes, mostly to computer exams or open book etc. Some have been using tech to track eye motions, tab usage, and other strategies to make exams still equitable. He's come back with stories of students who have been stuck overseas unwilling to access personal computers or are unable to try to adapt to these new examination circumstances. A bit of a hard place vs. rock situation between uni and student.


Auralia and Musition got me thinking about how aural and music theory should be taught. I'm still using old bound books with the piano excerpts and Dulcie Holland exercise books. Should I actually be purchasing Auralia and Musition and dishing them off to students to complete in their own time?


I mean, both come with pretty cool features: built in and customisable syllabuses so the teacher can still scaffold, guide according to students level of competence, feedback is instantaneous - no need to wait a whole week for teachers to mark your work!


But i guess the age old (or boomer headspace) or pen on paper vs screen with keyboard stilll exists. Is Auralia and Musition to be a replacement of traditional methods of teaching aural perception and music theory? Is it necessary in this day and age to draw ovals, colour them in, and add stems? Do you still need to hear a passage played twice, clap the rhythm or sing the lower notes of a series of harmonic intervals?


My feeling is that both are viable and important and I won't stop doing those traditional exercises with my students. But in the case that one cannot gain access to an educator/tutor who can go through and teach using the traditional methods, then technology seems to have an answer.


This comes back to the original point though: technology is great, it gives you the capability and access to learn and to be assessed on your learning, but the barrier is not in the technology itself, rather it is in the person who is using it. The onus to learning is sometimes in the student themselves and whether they are willing to use the technology to their educational advantage. Auralia + Musition should supplement the making of Australia's Musicians as they learn through more conventional ways...at least for now.


But look. Don't take my advice. I binge watched a series of bootleg Taskmaster today. Not really someone to look to when it comes to responsible use of technology for learning.

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