Abstract
Online music communities offer a new context and culture for musical participation globally. This article, employing a socio-cultural theoretical lens, examines how the Online Academy of Irish Music (OAIM) functions as a teaching and learning online community for Irish traditional music. Findings from qualitative case study research present observations of practice from the OAIM website, forums, video tutorials, and Facebook posts over a 9-month period. In addition to these collective insights, findings from participant logs and interviews with the tutors offer individual insights into the online case study. Questions are posed regarding the pedagogy of e-learning, the development of a "shared practice" and the influence of roles and relationships within the community. The online medium of interaction raises important issues for the growing technological culture of music teaching and learning and the study seeks to understand this new context for musical participation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 239-253 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Research Studies in Music Education |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2013 |
Funding
The impact of roles and relationships emerges as central to the OAIM’s teaching and learning processes. This is seen from the personal investment and tutor support given, to the development of online dialogical interactions. Through the teaching style, chat forums, cyber session and Facebook page, the OAIM creates a teaching and learning environment that is casual and friendly and which facilitates dialogue. Relationships are built through musical and social practice where members can feel a sense of community and belonging. The research findings provide key perspectives in relation to online music teaching and learning contexts. The OAIM represents an emerging approach to Irish traditional music teaching and learning that broadens access globally and facilitates the building of a worldwide online music community. The participation in this community within a socio-cultural framework can be viewed, then, as “a way of learning—of both absorbing and being absorbed in—the ‘culture of practice’” ( Lave & Wenger, 1991 , p. 95). The fact that this music community meets in cyberspace extends the medium for immersion into “musical worlds” and the development of communities of practice to an emerging form of music participation. The findings highlight the importance of extending online learning opportunities where relationships and participation are promoted, genre-specific characteristics are maintained, and structured pedagogical approaches are employed, to build such communities. Continued research into other online music communities is imperative to build on the knowledge base in this field and realize the full potential of this fast-growing environment for music teaching, learning and participation. Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 1. A “cyber session” typically refers to any form of collaborative Internet usage. In this instance, the term is used to denote a traditional Irish music session that is streamed live over cyberspace. 2. These genres or different types of Irish traditional tunes all have varying time signatures and specific features associated with them. All of the modes have accompanying dances in hard or soft shoes except for the slow air, which is not traditionally danced to. 3. Live streaming is a method of broadcasting live over the Internet. It usually involves a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content as it is recording. 4. LiveTrad ( www.livetrad.com ) is a website dedicated to the live web streaming of traditional Irish music sessions, concerts and festival events. It is partly funded through the Irish Arts Council and tourism agencies as well as corporate sponsors.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Irish Arts Council |
Keywords
- collaborative learning
- Irish traditional music
- music community
- music education
- online learning
- shared practice