Fellow digital pedagogy advocate Bert van Uffelen and I recently wrote an article titled: A Smart Investment: The Struggle with Technology in Music Education
Image: Cover of Kunstzone 01/2025: Mindlight Kunst & creatie Jasna Rok Lab.
In this article, published in Kunstzone 01/2025, we explore the challenges that music educators encounter when trying to integrate digital technologies into their teaching. While there is increasing societal and institutional attention for digital skills, applying technology meaningfully in the music classroom is anything but straightforward.
We question the assumption that integrating technology is simply a matter of teacher enthusiasm or digital affinity. Drawing on frameworks such as TPACK, the Technology Acceptance Model, and DigCompEdu, we argue that more structural conditions are needed. These include recognition of pedagogical goals, room for trial and error, and professional space for dialogue and reflection.
“We don’t believe that the answer lies in more tools or stronger beliefs about the need for digital skills in music education.”
To explore what teachers need in practice, we designed and led a professional development programme for music teacher educators in the Netherlands. The course aimed to create a context in which participants could reflect on their role, explore digital possibilities, and experiment in their own teaching environments.
The professional development programme was designed as a train-the-trainer course for music teacher educators from across the Netherlands. Over the course of several months, participants engaged in a process of shared inquiry, reflection, and experimentation. Rather than focusing on specific tools or ready-made solutions, the course emphasised the exploration of pedagogical questions: What role can technology play in your teaching? What learning does it enable—or hinder? How can you stay musically grounded while working digitally? The course created space for participants to learn from one another, document their practices, and explore how technology might support—not steer—their educational goals.
Two concrete outcomes from that development programme are featured in the article:
- A primary school project in which pupils in Year 5/6 used MIDI controllers and DAWs to compose and perform original beats.
- A formative assessment approach at a Dutch teacher training college (pabo), where technology was used to document and discuss student learning in real time.
“It is not the technology itself that brings value, but the thinking, conversation and experimentation that accompany it.”
We conclude the article by announcing the next step: a professional learning community for music teacher educators focused on digital didactics. This space will support ongoing exchange, development, and support around the pedagogical use of technology in music education.
For Kunstzone, go to: https://kunstzone.nl/kunstzone-1-is-uit-vooruitkijken-en-vernieuwen-met-artssciences-onderwijs/
Are you a music teacher or music teacher trainers, living in The Netherlands and wanting to participate in or learn more about this professional learning community? Go to https://www.meermuziekindeklas.nl/activiteiten/plgmuziektechnologie/
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