Artifact 4: Elementary Music Literature Review

Executive Summaries

The At-Risk Students and Using Technology in Elementary Music was a literature review done for the ETEC 5203: Foundations of Technology course. The literature review was done so I could see what literature was out there about the topic of my choice. I decided to research literature surrounding at-risk students, but specifically focused on how there might be hinderances to what technology can be used in the elementary music classroom. For this assignment, I worked by myself and this was not part of a group project. The assignment was completed in the Spring 2021 semester between the months of January to April.

After conducting my research, it opened my eyes as to why at-risk students may not get the same opportunities to use technology that is available as students at other schools. The studies I looked into included several different topics that I then grouped together based on how they related to one another. The articles I read were about at-risk elementary students, teaching elementary music in general, integrating technology into music, and how using technology motivates at-risk students to learn. Not only that, it was important that I identify any gaps in the literature and I discussed this in the literature review as well. Like I stated in the abstract of the literature review, at-risk students don’t learn in a music classroom the same way as their peers. Teachers when wanting to integrate technology in their music classrooms need to remember this.

Personal Reflections

While looking at the literature that was already published, it motivated me to continue to educate myself and also the music teachers I work with about the topic of at-risk students in the music room. A lot of times, at-risk students don't have access to technology at home or at school. This is especially common at school in the music classroom. While in the classroom, it was one of my goals to make sure my students were able to learn, even if it meant only having access to one total student computer in my classroom. One of my biggest takeaways from completing the literature review is that there is more professional development needed for music educators on how to help their at-risk students succeed in their classrooms.

During my research, I focused on who is identified as being an at-risk student and how technology can help them learn in the music classroom. I also researched the fact that although traditional methods of teaching and learning take place in the music room, integrating technology helps at-risk students to stay motivated in the learning process. All of the literature in my study was peer reviewed and it took me a lot of time to read through the thirty plus articles. But, while reading and deciding what literature to include in the study, I definitely realized that there is future research that needs to be done, especially in the field of music education. A lot of the literature is about general education, which of course is helpful, but more content specific content is needed.