Digital technology in Music Education: a review of the literature

Abstract

Music education is characterized by a constant transformation in which many teachers have joined the different proposals offered by digital technology in the teaching-learning process and the approach to new possibilities and new students, also responding to the needs of this. This paper makes a descriptive review of the most relevant scientific literature of the last ten years focused on the use of educational technology. This revision is essential because is an educational topic in constant evolution and change due to advances related to digital technology. The results show how all the educational cycles have been investigated. Thus, in the case of early childhood education, the design of specific software is detected; In primary school it has been detected that students with certain previous knowledge of music
have significantly developed their skills; In secondary school, there is a transversality of learning,
despite the fact that some use is detected to reinforce traditional content, wasting the new possibilities,
the teacher’s use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in their continuing education is
also shown; in higher education, online teaching stands out as a new educational business model and a
constant attempt to include experiences from outside the classroom within it; in professional education,
emphasis has been placed on the use of portfolios as a formative evaluative tool, and in overcoming the
unidirectionality of the first proposals; and in educational settings with special needs, greater emphasis
is placed on the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.