Applying technology in your teaching practice can be quite a challenge. You will need to invest time and effort in getting to know the technology you want to use. You may first need to purchase it. You will have to design and prepare its use in your lessons, and think carefully about what needs to be organised or coordinated with others. You will also need perseverance—especially when the technology does not work straight away or when the added value of technology is not immediately recognised by your environment.

Still, technology can offer a great deal in return. It can help bring your music teaching up to date and even support innovation. It can contribute to more meaningful learning experiences for your students—music education in which they recognise the music they listen to outside your lessons and musical practices from the “real world”. Technology can support you in preparing and delivering your lessons. It can make music education more accessible for students for whom this is not self-evident. It can help music education better align with the diverse learning needs of students. It can also create opportunities for students to continue learning music beyond your lessons.

I could go on, but let’s say this: contemporary technology has the potential to enrich your music teaching — but it does not happen automatically.

Finding the right balance

Regarding technology integration, a major challenge for music teachers is finding the right balance between their investments in time and effort, and the value that the use of technology can add to their lessons.

Of course, the right balance for you may differ from mine and depends on our ideas about what high quality music education encompasses. It is also about what you can already achieve without using technology versus what you would like or are expected to achieve.

If you are completely happy with your students performing music on acoustic musical instruments and your teaching context does not require you to use digital musical instruments for that purpose, there will be no reason for you to investing time and effort in learning to implement the technology.

Similarly, if the added value of students meaningfully using digital musical instruments is so evident and clear to you, you will likely be open to spending hours and hours learning the technology and how to implement it into your music lessons

Enrichment versus enhancement

For integrating technology we are looking for added value. However, if the added value is still not greater than what you must invest into learning to operate the technology, to make music with it, and to use it for teaching music to your students, as well as the costs for buying the technology and other facilitations, it still makes little sense to take this route.

In this case technology integration might be an enhancement, but, to me, the balance is still not right.

However, if the added value of technology-integration is greater than what I would need to invest, then it will truly enrich my music education.

To me, the right balance comes down to a positive answer to the following question:

Do the benefits of using technology in my music teaching practice outweigh its investment?

The following tool* might help you answering this question more easily.

Tech Implementation Balance tool

Estimate whether the expected value of a technology implementation in your music education is likely to outweigh the expected investment of time, money and effort. Note that your answers reflect expectations, not measured outcomes.

* This tool is under development. It is intended to support reflection and professional judgement regarding the balance between expected investment and expected value when implementing technology in music education.

The results are indicative and based on self-reported expectations, not on empirical measurement or evaluation. No rights can be derived from the outcomes. Content, interpretations and functionality may be adjusted as the tool evolves.

If you have any suggestions for improvements, please let me know.