Evan Tobias
Arizona State University, Music Education, Faculty Member
- Music, Technology, Digital Humanities, Educational Technology, Popular Culture, Qualitative methodology, and 55 moreSocial Justice, Digital Culture, Video Games, Popular Music, Music Education, Curriculum Design, Computer Games Technology, Popular Music Studies, Video Games and Learning, Participatory Culture, Hip Hop Culture, Hip-Hop Studies, STEM Education, STEAM Education (Science, Ludomusicology, Curriculum, Digital Media, Musical Composition, Music Production, Music Teacher Education, Multimodality, Music Technology in Music Education, Media Convergence, Music Technology, Songwriting, Multimedia, Pedagogy, Arts Education, Philosophy of Music Education, Convergence Culture, Video Game Audio and Music, Music Composition, Hip-Hop/Rap, Arts-Based Research, Aural Skills, Transmedial Storytelling, Audiovisual Art, Sound Synthesis, Intermediality, Music Industry, Media Arts, Film music and film music theory, Digital Media And New Literacies, New Media Performance and Installation, Informal Learning, New literacy studies, Guitar Pedagogy, Game Spaces, Spatial Story Telling, Sound and Music Computing, Interactive and Digital Media, Orff Schulwerk, Digital Literacies, Critical Media Literacy, and Arts Education and Pedagogyedit
Technology’s place in music education is largely related to how it is socially constituted. Despite how technology enables intersections of and blurred boundaries between ways of being musical, it is often... more
Technology’s place in music education is largely related to how it is socially constituted. Despite how technology enables intersections of and blurred boundaries between ways of being musical, it is often situated in terms of hard boundaries and compartmentalized notions of musical engagement. Furthermore, music education often situates technology as tools without necessarily considering related social, cultural or musical contexts. This chapter addresses how philosophical, pedagogical, and curricular perspectives play a key role in the types and degree of change that occur in relation to technology and music education. To forward related praxis, I propose that music educators re-conceptualize curriculum and re-situate technology to address social and cultural issues explicitly. I invite music educators to consider the potential of digitally mediated musical engagement within the contexts of curriculum as experience and as social reconstruction. The chapter considers how such change might occur and conceptual frameworks that might help in forwarding such work.
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In this chapter, I address how technology enables people to augment aspects of, blur boundaries between, and connect across musical experiences in ways that might expand conceptions of musicality, musicianship, and who might be considered... more
In this chapter, I address how technology enables people to augment aspects of, blur boundaries between, and connect across musical experiences in ways that might expand conceptions of musicality, musicianship, and who might be considered a musician. I propose three such approaches to leveraging technology: augmenting music and musical engagement, augmenting musical sharing and concert experiences, and augmenting performing and ensembles. These three approaches to augmenting music teaching and learning through technology and digital media have potential to expand how music educators and their students conceptualize and enact musicianship. The chapter forwards a perspective that leveraging technology and digital media to augment music and musical engagement situates the act of connecting and identifying musical relationships as a form of musicianship and way of being a musician.
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This chapter explores intersections between technology, digital media, music, musicking, and education. At focus is the development of a hybrid approach that encompasses multifaceted ways that people enact musicianship in relation to and... more
This chapter explores intersections between technology, digital media, music, musicking, and education. At focus is the development of a hybrid approach that encompasses multifaceted ways that people enact musicianship in relation to and through digital media and technology. In the context of music education, a hybrid approach embraces overlaps, combinations, connections, and blurred lines among music and ways of being musical. It fosters classrooms that mix aspects of general music and ensembles; mobile devices and acoustic instruments; or musics from multiple genres, eras, and cultures. The hybrid approach discussed in this chapter situates students’ learning and musical engagement in musical inquiry and projects. This approach is flexible enough to support students’ interests in particular musical foci in a manner that resists linear, sequential, or compartmentalized forms of instruction. This chapter provides a springboard for developing and facilitating learning environments that are comprehensive in scope and rich with possibilities.
Research Interests: Music Education, Music Technology, Inquiry Based Learning, Hybridity, Digital Culture, and 12 moreDigital Media & Learning, New Literacies, Digital Media And New Literacies, Music Technology in Music Education, Elementary Music Education, Project-Based Learning, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), TPACK (Education), Digital Media and Learning, General Music Education, Project Based Learning (PBL), and Secondary Music Education
This chapter addresses collecting, generating, and analyzing data contextualized through two key aspects of contemporary society and research: 1) the notion of multimodality as a way of expanding beyond text as the sole or primary way of... more
This chapter addresses collecting, generating, and analyzing data contextualized through two key aspects of contemporary society and research: 1) the notion of multimodality as a way of expanding beyond text as the sole or primary way of situating, recording, and analyzing data and 2) the mediation of research through digital media and technology. Each section situates qualitative research as occurring within an increasingly digitized society, where even phenomena and data unconnected to technology might be understood through digitally mediated research methods. The potential for leveraging multimedia and multimodal data to better understand existing and evolving musical engagement is explored in depth. The chapter addresses possibilities and challenges related to developing systems and strategies for generating, archiving, organizing, accessing, and analyzing data ranging from video clips to participant-created imagery. Potential future developments and directions related to techno...
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At its core, project-based learning is based on the idea that real-life problems capture student interest, provoke critical thinking, and develop skills as they engage in and complete complex undertakings that typically result in a... more
At its core, project-based learning is based on the idea that real-life problems capture student interest, provoke critical thinking, and develop skills as they engage in and complete complex undertakings that typically result in a realistic product, event, or presentation to an audience. This article offers a starting point for music teachers who might be interested in using project-based learning as a teaching strategy and also interested in “building” student competency and “bringing to life” student engagement in the music curriculum. To help music educators enact project-based learning in their classes and ensembles, we outline a process for designing and facilitating projects, provide vignettes that situate theory in practice, and discuss projects in relation to curriculum, standards, assessment, and teacher evaluation.
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Thiessen and Barrett (2002) speak to the importance of music teacher education programs supporting, partnering with, and learning from reform minded educators as they “renew their practice by engaging in cycles of inquiry, action, and... more
Thiessen and Barrett (2002) speak to the importance of music teacher education programs supporting, partnering with, and learning from reform minded educators as they “renew their practice by engaging in cycles of inquiry, action, and reflection” (p. 776). This article is the result of such a partnership and ongo- ing inquiry, action, and reflection. We, a music teacher educator (Evan) and two practicing music educators (Abbie and Catherine), reflect on how our classrooms and perspectives on general music have evolved in the context of digital and participatory cultures. The following two foci guide our exploration of digital and participatory cultures’ transformative potential in music education: 1) transformation in terms of the structure(s) of the music classroom and program and 2) transformation in terms of our perspectives on music teaching and learning.
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Music educators seeking to address contemporary society might look to existing and emerging ways that people engage with music. Participatory culture(s) as discussed primarily in media studies and related fields offers a fruitful context... more
Music educators seeking to address contemporary society might look to existing and emerging ways that people engage with music. Participatory culture(s) as discussed primarily in media studies and related fields offers a fruitful context for expanding music education. This study addresses graduate music students’ perspectives on integrating expressions and circulations related to participatory culture in music education settings. Participants described musical expressions such as appropriating or transforming existing music as having creative and learning potential. Participants also expressed how students’ creative expressions in the form of appropriating music could be meaningful and empowering. Participants experienced challenges ranging from difficulty envisioning concrete applications of participatory culture in existing curricular structures such as large ensembles, to unresolved perspectives of related ethical, legal, philosophical and pedagogical issues. Findings suggest that media and musical skills specific to participatory culture along with related understanding and dispositions are important for its realization in music education.
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This study applies secondary analysis to amplify the voices, perspectives, and experiences of young women in a high school songwriting and technology course along with related research to address the production and performance of music... more
This study applies secondary analysis to amplify the voices, perspectives, and experiences of young women in a high school songwriting and technology course along with related research to address the production and performance of music and gendered identities and implications for popular music pedagogy. While each participant had idiosyncratic experiences and perspectives, several common themes emerged in relation to gender. Each young woman participant negotiated and had varied perspectives on collaborating, compromising, and accommodating for others on the final project. Participants identified and discussed issues of control in relation to technology and intersections between gender in the music course and society, however, had differing perspectives on these issues with implications for curriculum and pedagogy. Informed by findings, analysis, and related scholarship I propose four foci with potential for future research and praxis: broadening beyond gendered norms, goals of popular music programs, uncomfortable conversations, and popular music programs as springboards and hubs.
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Many music educators address aural skills and analysis by drawing on strategies designed for the realm of Western classical music. Focusing solely on aural skills and analysis within paradigms of Western music can limit students’ musical... more
Many music educators address aural skills and analysis by drawing on strategies designed for the realm of Western
classical music. Focusing solely on aural skills and analysis within paradigms of Western music can limit students’
musical learning and engagement to particular ways of knowing music. To diversify and broaden the types of aural skills
and analysis that students learn and engage with, music educators might consider contexts beyond Western classical
music. This article outlines several ways that music teachers might situate aural skills and analysis in the context of
musical engagement related to popular music and culture. Designed with secondary students in mind, the included
approaches can be applied in any music learning context if adjusted for developmental appropriateness. The forms of
engagement in this article might broaden the types of aural skills and analysis we include in music programs and expand
popular music pedagogies that sometimes focus on performing
classical music. Focusing solely on aural skills and analysis within paradigms of Western music can limit students’
musical learning and engagement to particular ways of knowing music. To diversify and broaden the types of aural skills
and analysis that students learn and engage with, music educators might consider contexts beyond Western classical
music. This article outlines several ways that music teachers might situate aural skills and analysis in the context of
musical engagement related to popular music and culture. Designed with secondary students in mind, the included
approaches can be applied in any music learning context if adjusted for developmental appropriateness. The forms of
engagement in this article might broaden the types of aural skills and analysis we include in music programs and expand
popular music pedagogies that sometimes focus on performing
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In this co-authored chapter Alex Ruthmann, Clint Randles, Matthew Thibeault, and I provide multiple perspectives on the notion of technological determinism in relation to music education. Throughout the chapter I situate the issue of... more
In this co-authored chapter Alex Ruthmann, Clint Randles, Matthew Thibeault, and I provide multiple perspectives on the notion of technological determinism in relation to music education. Throughout the chapter I situate the issue of technological determinism and possibilities of technology in terms of the musical and learning goal of developing aural skills. I discuss the following themes: 1) Framing the integration of technology from a perspective of mediation to acknowledge interactions between technology and context, 2)Addressing potential affordances and constraints of technology, 3) Understanding contextual relationships between people and technology, 4) Engaging technology from a critical perspective
Other aspects of the chapter include: Ruthmann providing an introduction to the concept of technological determinism and how it might occur in music education, Randles discussing the tension between free will and technological determinism, and Thibeault explaining how technological determinism “makes sense” but is not necessarily “sensible.”
Other aspects of the chapter include: Ruthmann providing an introduction to the concept of technological determinism and how it might occur in music education, Randles discussing the tension between free will and technological determinism, and Thibeault explaining how technological determinism “makes sense” but is not necessarily “sensible.”
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This chapter outlines three key areas of digital and new media for music education: 1) multimedia, 2) intermedia, and 3) transmedia. The chapter situates these frameworks in terms of participatory culture and participatory musical... more
This chapter outlines three key areas of digital and new media for music education: 1) multimedia, 2) intermedia, and 3) transmedia. The chapter situates these frameworks in terms of participatory culture and participatory musical engagement.
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Music teacher educators face a critical challenge in preparing pre-service music educators to address twenty first century cultural milieux and the evolving ways people engage with music. Two aspects of contemporary society, 1) digital... more
Music teacher educators face a critical challenge in preparing pre-service music educators to address twenty first century cultural milieux and the evolving ways people engage with music. Two aspects of contemporary society, 1) digital media and 2) participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006), hold great potential for expanding, modifying, and potentially restructuring pre-service music education programs. Assisting pre-service music educators develop the skills, understanding, and dispositions to weave together musicianship with digital media and participatory culture necessitates an understanding of digital media’s characteristics, processes, and the cultural contexts in which they are situated. This chapter outlines and contextualizes aspects of participatory culture and five characteristics of digital media (digital, networked, interactive, hypertextual, and virtual) in terms of musical engagement, teaching, and learning with a focus on pre-service music education. The chapter provides a foundation for addressing twenty-first century musicianship, digital media, and participatory culture in existing curricular structures and through collaborative projects that span across undergraduate curricula.
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Excluding Hip Hop culture and rap music from music education misses opportunities for addressing key aspects of popular culture, society, and students’ lives. This article addresses intersections of Hip Hop, gender, and music education to... more
Excluding Hip Hop culture and rap music from music education misses opportunities for addressing key aspects of popular culture, society, and students’ lives. This article addresses intersections of Hip Hop, gender, and music education to forward potential Hip Hop praxis. After tracing related scholarship, I discuss and problematize representations of women in Hip Hop, including patriarchal, hetero-normative, and essentialized notions of Hip Hop that objectify and marginalize women. Through musicking, critical media literacy, and critical pedagogy young people might analyze and engage critically with Hip Hop and issues of identity, meaning making, representation, and agency in music education.
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In this case study, the author investigated intersections of secondary students’ musical engagement in a Songwriting and Technology Class (STC) and outside of school. The study traces the experiences of three individual participants and... more
In this case study, the author investigated intersections of secondary students’ musical engagement in a Songwriting and Technology Class (STC) and outside of school. The study traces the experiences of three individual participants and three participant groups (six embedded cases in total) in the creation, performance, recording, and production of original music over the course of a culminating class project. Findings suggest that the STC allowed students to experience smooth transitions between their musical engagement and learning in and out of school. Key factors that contributed to participants’ engagement in the STC were (a) their experience with instruments and software outside of school and (b) use of popular music. Participants’ engagement in the STC (a) informed and influenced the ways they listened to music outside of school, (b) broadened and deepened their aesthetic preferences, and (c) provided an environment in which participants could experience and negotiate their perspectives on issues related to popular music and the music industry. Participants also saw the STC as related and connected to their current and future lives as musicians. The study supports the inclusion of curricular offerings that allow for crossfading or overlap between students’ in-school and outside-school musical experiences.
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In considering how policy work might forward arts education, it is helpful to reflect on the present state of music and arts education while looking ahead at future challenges and possibilities. This response to Shuler’s (2001) set of... more
In considering how policy work might forward arts education, it is helpful to reflect on the present state of music and arts education while looking ahead at future challenges and possibilities. This response to Shuler’s (2001) set of predictions related to music education and policy in the twenty-first century addresses such work in the following three areas: (1) technology and musical engagement; (2) media, media literacy, and media arts; and (3) curricular structures and new types of music courses. Related issues ranging from tensions between specialization and generalization in curricular design to competing discourses involving technology in education are discussed along with implications for policy work in arts education.
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This chapter addresses collecting, generating, and analyzing data contextualized through two key aspects of contemporary society and research: 1) the notion of multimodality as a way of expanding beyond text as the sole or primary way of... more
This chapter addresses collecting, generating, and analyzing data contextualized through two key aspects of contemporary society and research: 1) the notion of multimodality as a way of expanding beyond text as the sole or primary way of situating, recording, and analyzing data and 2) the mediation of research through digital media and technology. Each section situates qualitative research as occurring within an increasingly digitized society, where even phenomena and data unconnected to technology might be understood through digitally mediated research methods. The potential for leveraging multimedia and multimodal data to better understand existing and evolving musical engagement is explored in depth. The chapter addresses possibilities and challenges related to developing systems and strategies for generating, archiving, organizing, accessing, and analyzing data ranging from video clips to participant-created imagery. Potential future developments and directions related to technology, digital media, and qualitative data are also explored.
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In forwarding comprehensive popular music pedagogies, music educators might acknowledge and address expanded notions of composition in popular music that include processes of recording, engineering, mixing, and producing along with... more
In forwarding comprehensive popular music pedagogies, music educators might acknowledge and address expanded notions of composition in popular music that include processes of recording, engineering, mixing, and producing along with the technologies, techniques, and ways of being musical that encompass these processes. This article advances a perspective of popular music pedagogy that is situated in the role production plays in contemporary music-making. Drawing upon a single intrinsic case study focusing on secondary students’ creation and production of popular music, as well as theoretical frameworks that highlight recording, mixing, and production processes, this article provides an expanded perspective of composition and songwriting within a popular music context and proposes related pedagogical considerations. Themes addressed include: developing a theoretical framework within music education that addresses the role of production in contemporary music-making, expanding notions of aural skills and music literacy appropriate for producing popular music, and incorporating production processes in music classrooms.
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Tobias, E. S. (2013). Reply to "Another perspective: A response to 'toward convergence'" Music Educators Journal, 99(4), 29-36. doi: 10.1177/0027432113483700 This is a rejoinder to Regelski's response to my article Toward convergence:... more
Tobias, E. S. (2013). Reply to "Another perspective: A response to 'toward convergence'" Music Educators Journal, 99(4), 29-36. doi: 10.1177/0027432113483700
This is a rejoinder to Regelski's response to my article Toward convergence: Adapting music education to contemporary society and participatory culture. Music Educators Journal, 99(4), 29-36. doi: 10.1177/0027432113483318
This is a rejoinder to Regelski's response to my article Toward convergence: Adapting music education to contemporary society and participatory culture. Music Educators Journal, 99(4), 29-36. doi: 10.1177/0027432113483318
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Knowing how students engage with music outside school music programs can help music educators and their programs evolve. This article offers a look at music teaching and learning in terms of how people are increasingly interacting with... more
Knowing how students engage with music outside school music programs can help music educators and their programs evolve. This article offers a look at music teaching and learning in terms of how people are increasingly interacting with music in participatory ways that involve digital technologies and media. This participatory culture offers a means for aligning music education more closely with how people engage with music in contemporary society. The article shows how convergence of older and newer media and such engagement as remixing, creating mash-ups, and interacting with others can provide students with exciting means of connecting to ways of being musical in contemporary society.
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This case study investigates how secondary students (three individuals and three groups) engaged with music and acted as musicians in a Songwriting and Technology Class (STC), a course involving the creation, performance, recording and... more
This case study investigates how secondary students (three individuals and three groups) engaged with music and acted as musicians in a Songwriting and Technology Class (STC), a course involving the creation, performance, recording and production of original music with instruments and music technology. The following research question guided the study: In what ways are students engaging with music in the STC? Findings suggest that students engaged as ‘hyphenated musician[s]’ by thinking and acting as songwriters, performers, sound engineers, recordists, mix engineers and producers in ways that were recursive and often overlapping. Students' engagement in these roles was particular to their individual and group contexts. Music education might broaden curricular offerings and reconceptualise classrooms as hybrid spaces to address the shared and idiosyncratic ways of knowing and doing music that students encountered through each role and holistically as hyphenated musicians.
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The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to examine the musical engagement and learning of secondary students in a songwriting and technology class (STC) that focused on the creation, performance, recording, and production of original... more
The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to examine the musical engagement and learning of secondary students in a songwriting and technology class (STC) that focused on the creation, performance, recording, and production of original music. Connecting aspects of music technology, production, and popular music, this study addresses the intersection between school and popular music as well as informal/formal learning practices in a music classroom.
Focused primarily on the work of select individuals and groups during a final STC project, data were generated through observations, video and audio recordings, computer screencasts, interviews, video-based shared reflections, and researcher memos. Analysis of data revealed that students, given an open environment to create music with minimal parameters or guidance as to aesthetic aspects of songwriting, enacted idiosyncratic creative practices and drew upon popular music influences. Students acted as musicians and embodied the roles of songwriters, performers, sound engineers, recordists, mix engineers, and producers—sometimes separately and other times in an overlapping fashion. Each role and associated use of tools and techniques provided students with specific ways of thinking through and engaging with music.
Findings suggest the importance for broadening notions of aural skills, music literacy, and musical thinking/doing to account for the processes and products involved in contemporary music creation and production. This would involve engaging in a discourse of composition in music education that addresses a conceptual framework of songs and tracks (Zak, 2001). Additional implications related to music educators’ roles, pedagogies, and curricula are discussed based on participants’ (1) development of aural skills and music literacies in the context of popular music studio production and digital technologies; (2) understanding of musical concepts but lack of standard labels to articulate their understanding; and (3) feeling that the STC was relevant and connected to their lives and future. Implications from this study lead to a recasting of curricular options beyond large ensembles to address needs of students marginalized from traditional music programs and the re-examination of K-12 and higher education music curricula and pedagogies in light of popular music, production, and traditionally excluded musical roles.
Focused primarily on the work of select individuals and groups during a final STC project, data were generated through observations, video and audio recordings, computer screencasts, interviews, video-based shared reflections, and researcher memos. Analysis of data revealed that students, given an open environment to create music with minimal parameters or guidance as to aesthetic aspects of songwriting, enacted idiosyncratic creative practices and drew upon popular music influences. Students acted as musicians and embodied the roles of songwriters, performers, sound engineers, recordists, mix engineers, and producers—sometimes separately and other times in an overlapping fashion. Each role and associated use of tools and techniques provided students with specific ways of thinking through and engaging with music.
Findings suggest the importance for broadening notions of aural skills, music literacy, and musical thinking/doing to account for the processes and products involved in contemporary music creation and production. This would involve engaging in a discourse of composition in music education that addresses a conceptual framework of songs and tracks (Zak, 2001). Additional implications related to music educators’ roles, pedagogies, and curricula are discussed based on participants’ (1) development of aural skills and music literacies in the context of popular music studio production and digital technologies; (2) understanding of musical concepts but lack of standard labels to articulate their understanding; and (3) feeling that the STC was relevant and connected to their lives and future. Implications from this study lead to a recasting of curricular options beyond large ensembles to address needs of students marginalized from traditional music programs and the re-examination of K-12 and higher education music curricula and pedagogies in light of popular music, production, and traditionally excluded musical roles.