In the fall of 2019, a research question emerged and evolved, driven by teachers in the teaching practice, through teacher training and the university researchers, into a research project of both national and international interest. This question arose from a challenge and an ambition to develop teaching for pupils and students with the computer as an instrument. Here, pupils, students, teachers, and researchers from various levels in the education system have collaborated, contributing their diverse expertise.
From Moog's analog synthesizers in the 1960s to the trend towards digital synthesizers in the 1980s, and further to today's use of computers, digital controllers, and mobile devices, electronic digital instruments have long offered musicians a completely new range of musical expression. At Lund University and the Malmö Academy of Music, students in teacher training and independent courses have long been able to study music production and to become music producers. The education has prepared future teachers, anticipating the enormous digital development that has enabled students, starting in 2017, to use and later apply to the Aesthetic Art Program with the computer as an instrument. The demand from students, and therefore the need for competent teachers, is high. Since the fall of 2021, the teacher training program has started a specialization for students with computers as an instrument. When the project began, the two included Upper Secondary Schools were the only ones in the country offering the computer as an instrument. Two years later, the instrument is offered at the several Upper Secondary Schools across Sweden. The aim of introducing the computer as an instrument in the schools involved in the project was to create greater musical diversity in a modern music education that better reflects today's music industry and to broaden recruitment to a pupil and student group that had not previously been offered the same opportunities to apply to the Aesthetic Art Program and teacher training.
Teaching with digital tools is an area emphasized in the curriculum for primary and secondary schools. The teachers in the project team had initially identified both significant opportunities and challenges in teaching and working with pupils who use the computer as an instrument. Teacher training also faces the challenge of creating an education that supplies the school with the competencies needed in the vere-evolving digital landscape and the school's current needs. The conditions for working digitally differ somewhat between Upper Secondary Schools. Teaching with and about digital tools presents challenges for teachers and pupils. Teaching with and about the computer as an instrument poses entirely different challenges. Practically, this might mean that ensemble teachers face a group that includes both traditional ensemble instruments and pupils using the computer as an instrument, all of whom must achieve the course objectives.
Therefore, the project aimed to generate knowledge about what teaching with and about the computer as a primary instrument means for teachers and pupils in the Aesthetic Art Program as well as teachers and students in music teacher training. Since there are relatively few studies and little knowledge about the computer as an instrument as part of Upper Secondary School, the project is hoped to be relevant from both a professional and research perspective. There is every reason to draw synergy effects from the immense knowledge development tcurrently happening in schools and in higher education both nationally and internationally in a practice-based school research project.
Research around the computer as an instrument is in its infancy, and the field is relatively unexplored from a school perspective. The related field of music technology, linked to pedagogy, was established as a research field in 2017 with "The Routledge companion to music, technology, and education" (King, Himonides & Ruthmann, 2017) and "The Oxford handbook of technology and music education" (Ruthmann & Mantie, 2017). From a school perspective, the National Board of Education already asserted in 1980 that music technology was significant for creative music-making (Folkestad, 1996). Today, the landscape is different, primarily due to the access to technology, as many schools have participated in the 1:1 project since 2011, which means each student receives or borrows a computer from the school for use as a tool in their studies (Skolverket, u.å ). Jonasson's (2020) research overview shows that music creation with music technology is now an established research area within educational science, and technology has a clear place in school curricula and everyday practice. There is an articulated ambition in strategic plans and curricula for greater digitalization of schools and teaching. Additionally, all students have the opportunity to use computers and music programs through 1:1 teaching.
In 2019, the Swedish National Agency for Education proposed new curricula for all school subjects, suggesting that digital tools should also be used in performing and making music, not just in creating, recording, and processing of music. Despite computers being advocated in the curriculum since Lpf 94, Swedish school music education has not adapted to digital developments (Danielsson, 2012; Georgii-Hemming & Westvall, 2010). The goal of school digitalization and the subsequent strategy is for Sweden to become the best in the world at utilizing the opportunities of digitalization (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2020). The strategy focuses on three focus areas: (i) digitalization for everyone in the education system, (ii) equal access and use, (iii) research and follow-up on the possibilities of digitalization.
The government tasked the Swedish National Agency for Education with various professional development initiatives to meet the need and promote digitalization in schools and preschools (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2019). However, Player-Koro (2018) argues that digitalization has not significantly changed anything for teachers and pupils in classroom practice. The report In the Mind of a Digitally Competent Teacher. Blogging as a Tool for Reflection on Working with Digital Resources (Mars, Brännström & Brännström, 2017) highlights the need for cross-sector support and collaboration for digitalization to be meaningful as a tool for the school as an organization. The report shows that teachers' individual knowledge of digital resources, combined with good subject knowledge, was the most important success factor.