Musical Futures is a not-for-profit music education program, pedagogy and resource platform built for teachers, children and youths. It was started in the United Kingdom in 2003 by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and is now an internationally recognised enterprise.
The Musical Futures journey began in 2003 when the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, an independent grant-making foundation, instigated an initiative to find new and imaginative ways of engaging all young people, aged 11–18, in meaningful music activities. The starting point for Musical Futures was to understand the factors affecting the apparent disengagement of young people with sustained musicmaking activities, at a time in their lives when music is not only a passion for many young people, but plays a big part in shaping their social identity. A year of consultation was followed by two years of ‘Pathfinder’ action research projects, where teams in Leeds, Nottingham and Hertfordshire trialled a number of learning models to find ways of engaging all young people in music-making, both in and out of school. The pathfinders were Music Services working in partnership with young people, schools, universities, professional music organisations and community music organisations. Alongside this, a number of research and development projects were also commissioned. Following the development of tried-and-tested models, the first set of teacher resource materials were published in 2006 and made available free of charge. The following provides a brief outline of the pathfinders, research and development partners, and where to find further information.
In 2018, Musical Futures were selected in HundrED's top 100 Global education innovations [1] .
In January 2021, Musical Futures unveiled their new resource platform, Musical Futures Online. The subscription-based website contains thousands of audio & visual learning resources built for classroom and home use. Teachers and music professionals can subscribe to the platform though any of the 3 membership plans, Standard (ideal for Primary teaching), Premium (ideal for Primary & Secondary teaching) and Ultimate (ideal for Secondary teaching with technology).
The platform features a wide range of resources to support teachers in delivering music from ages 7 – 16 (Key Stages 2 – 4 in the UK). All resources are developed, tested and refined by teachers and practitioners in their own settings.
Lucy Green, the Institute of Education and Hertfordshire Music Service developed a self-directed, independent learning music education program. Students work in small groups on a series of musical tasks. This draws on the real-life learning practices of professional musicians.
Nottingham City Music Service developed a program for Year 7-8 students. It puts the students in real musical activities and environments. It aims to draw together practice from classroom, instrumental and extra-curricular music into an integrated package for students.
Education Leeds Artforms created a program to help young people to make choices about the music they engage with beyond the classroom.
Pedagogy, most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as an academic discipline, is the study of how knowledge and skills are imparted in an educational context, and it considers the interactions that take place during learning. Both the theory and practice of pedagogy vary greatly, as they reflect different social, political, and cultural contexts.
The Orff Schulwerk, or simply the Orff Approach, is a developmental approach used in music education. It combines music, movement, drama, and speech into lessons that are similar to child's world of play. It was developed by the German composer Carl Orff (1895–1982) and colleague Gunild Keetman during the 1920s. Carl Orff worked until the end of his life to continue the development and spread of his teaching method.
Project-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy that involves a dynamic classroom approach in which it is believed that students acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world challenges and problems. Students learn about a subject by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to a complex question, challenge, or problem. It is a style of active learning and inquiry-based learning. PBL contrasts with paper-based, rote memorization, or teacher-led instruction that presents established facts or portrays a smooth path to knowledge by instead posing questions, problems or scenarios.
Educational technology is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, EdTech, it is often referring to the industry of companies that create educational technology.
Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do original research on ways of teaching and learning music. Music education scholars publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals, and teach undergraduate and graduate education students at university education or music schools, who are training to become music teachers.
Technology integration is the use of technology tools in general content areas in education in order to allow students to apply computer and technology skills to learning and problem-solving. Generally speaking, the curriculum drives the use of technology and not vice versa. Technology integration is defined as the use of technology to enhance and support the educational environment. Technology integration in the classroom can also support classroom instruction by creating opportunities for students to complete assignments on the computer rather than with normal pencil and paper. In a larger sense, technology integration can also refer to the use of an integration platform and APIs in the management of a school, to integrate disparate SaaS applications, databases, and programs used by an educational institution so that their data can be shared in real-time across all systems on campus, thus supporting students' education by improving data quality and access for faculty and staff.
"Curriculum integration with the use of technology involves the infusion of technology as a tool to enhance the learning in a content area or multidisciplinary setting... Effective integration of technology is achieved when students are able to select technology tools to help them obtain information in a timely manner, analyze and synthesize the information, and present it professionally to an authentic audience. The technology should become an integral part of how the classroom functions—as accessible as all other classroom tools. The focus in each lesson or unit is the curriculum outcome, not the technology."
Audiovisual education or multimedia-based education (MBE) is instruction where particular attention is paid to the audio and visual presentation of the material with the goal of improving comprehension and retention.
An edublog is a blog created for educational purposes. Edublogs archive and support student and teacher learning by facilitating reflection, questioning by self and others, collaboration and by providing contexts for engaging in higher-order thinking. Edublogs proliferated when blogging architecture became more simplified and teachers perceived the instructional potential of blogs as an online resource. The use of blogs has become popular in education institutions including public schools and colleges. Blogs can be useful tools for sharing information and tips among co-workers, providing information for students, or keeping in contact with parents. Common examples include blogs written by or for teachers, blogs maintained for the purpose of classroom instruction, or blogs written about educational policy. Educators who blog are sometimes called edubloggers.
Synchronous conferencing is the formal term used in computing, in particular in computer-mediated communication, collaboration and learning, to describe technologies informally known as online chat. It is sometimes extended to include audio/video conferencing or instant messaging systems that provide a text-based multi-user chat function. The word synchronous is used to qualify the conferencing as real-time, as distinct from a system such as e-mail, where messages are left and answered later.
An educational video game is a video game that provides learning or training value to the player. Edutainment describes an intentional merger of video games and educational software into a single product. In the narrower sense used here, the term describes educational software which is primarily about entertainment, but tends to educate as well and sells itself partly under the educational umbrella. Normally software of this kind is not structured towards school curricula and does not involve educational advisors.
EdLab is an education research organization located at Columbia University's Teachers College in New York City. The EdLab attempts to create easier methods of education through communication and advancements in technology, and serves as both a university and community resource center.
The mission of EdLab is to engage in conceptual development, demonstration projects, and new educational research to explore and document diverse possibilities for the future of education.
Social learning tools are tools used for pedagogical and andragogical purposes that utilize social software and/or social media in order to facilitate learning through interactions between individuals and systems. The idea of setting up "social learning tools" is to make education more convenient and widespread. It also allows an interaction between users and/or the software which can bring a different aspect to learning. People can acquire knowledge by distance learning tools, for instance, Facebook, Twitter, Khan Academy and so on. Social learning tools may mediate in formal or informal learning environments to help create connections between learners, instructors and information. These connections form dynamic knowledge networks. Social learning tools are used in schools for teaching/learning and in businesses for training. Within a school environment, the use of social learning tools can affect not only the user (student) but his/her caretaker as well as his/her instructor. It brings a different approach to the traditional way of learning which affects the student and his/her support circle. Companies also use social learning tools. They used them to improve knowledge transfer within departments and across teams. Businesses use a variety of these tools to create a social learning environment. They are also used in company settings to help improve team work, problem solving, and performance in stressful situations.
Guitars in the Classroom (GITC)(`get-see`) is a non-profit organization that trains and equips classroom teachers to integrate singing and playing guitar into the daily school experience. Founded in 1998, GITC produces programs over 30 states and several foreign countries. To date, the organization has helped teach more than 100,000 students. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California.
A virtual learning environment (VLE) in educational technology is a web-based platform for the digital aspects of courses of study, usually within educational institutions. They present resources, activities, and interactions within a course structure and provide for the different stages of assessment. VLEs also usually report on participation; and have some level of integration with other institutional systems.
A flipped classroom is an instructional strategy and a type of blended learning, which aims to increase student engagement and learning by having students complete readings at their home and work on live problem-solving during class time. The USSR was the first country where a flipped classroom was proposed and implemented in practice.
Lucy Green is an Emerita Professor of Music Education at the UCL Institute of Education, UK. She had a key role in bringing the informal learning practices of popular and other vernacular musicians to the attention of music-educators, thus transforming classroom practice.
J. Chalmers Doane is a Canadian educator and musician who spearheaded the use of the ukulele for music instruction in the Canadian school systems.
Social media in education refers to the practice of using social media platforms as a way to enhance the education of students. Social media is defined as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content".
Education for justice is the process of promoting a culture of lawfulness through educational activities at all levels. Education for justice aims at teaching the next generation about crime prevention, and to better understand and address problems that can undermine the rule of law. It promotes peace and encourages students to actively engage in their communities and future professions. Education for Justice is a basic legal knowledge, in which educational activities at all levels seek to promote understanding of crime prevention, peace, justice, human rights, and problems that can undermine the rule of law. Education reportedly plays a key role in transmitting and sustaining socio-cultural norms and ensuring their continued evolution. As such, governments may seek to strengthen this promotion of a culture of lawfulness through education.
ArtistWorks, LLC is an online music learning education platform based out of Napa, CA. ArtistWorks was founded by David and Patricia Butler in 2008. The company developed a proprietary patented system for interacting with teachers based upon online Video Exchange Learning which students use to upload videos of themselves playing and ArtistWorks instructors respond with video feedback with both videos paired together and made visible for all students in the online course.