THE USE OF MOBILE DEVICES IN TEACHING MUSIC EDUCATION

RIA M. SORIANO

Music matters. Music is both an aural and temporal art. Music education prepares students to learn, facilitates student academic achievements and develops the creative capacities for lifelong success. DepEd is expected to produce students who have learned how to “hear”, “speak” and “listen” in the medium of music. Music education in the Philippines embodies the best practices through spiral, multicultural and integrative approaches. The changes in the Philippine educational setting from the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) to K-12 Curriculum increases pressure in its implementation. The use of mobile devices includes portable wireless devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, I-pads and tablets to support continuously situated learning and can also improve levels of literacy, numeracy and participation in education amongst young adults. Utilization of mobile devices has pros and cons, but focused on its benefits, challenges, and its barriers to support teaching and learning. By using the communication features of any mobile devices learning can become as a part of a larger learning activity, e.g.: sending media or text into a central portfolio or exporting audio files from a learning platform to phone. Similarly, studies have found that tablets, smartphones and other portable devices have applications that serve as study aides and productivity tool to students. e.g.: music videos and musical applications can be downloaded ahead of time and can be used inside the classroom in absence of any musical instruments in teaching music. In some cases, mobile applications like Edmodo, and Google classroom can be a tool for teachers to facilitate teaching and learning process. The use of mobile devices in education can become learning more flexible, interactive, potentially more rewarding and fun-filled experience. (Crescent and Lee, 2011). In addition, visual and tactile learning opportunities can be presented by these devices made learning experiences more “hands-on” and can be an equalizer in education that provides equal access to every learner.

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The author is Teacher I Pampanga High School