Framing Learning Perspectives in Computer Music Education

This article presents a discussion of approaches to learning and teaching computer music, with a particular focus on pedagogical design and the use of learning technologies among nonspecialists and young people in secondary and upper secondary school levels. This article begins with a framing of computer music as a discipline taught at secondary and upper secondary levels and provides an overview of its core areas or knowledge domains. Furthermore, it discusses learning perspectives and presents a frame for conceptualizing learning with digital technologies. It then discusses recent approaches to designing and implementing computer music technologies, with a particular focus on digital signal-processing (DSP), an online learning platform designed by the Norwegian Network for Technology, Acoustics, and Music that adopts an exploratory instructional approach to computer music. The technology design and pedagogical approach have been further developed through several years of work with DSP in workshops for upper secondary school students in Norway.