Associate Professor of Musicology Peter Loewen flips between sound bytes and sheet music.
If the history of music (musicology) begins with weird music notation and extinct instruments, how can it be taught to students today? Using multimedia tools and other high tech resources, Peter Loewen, Associate Professor of Musicology, breathes life into his course material at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
Loewen specializes in teaching the history of Western music from antiquity through the Renaissance. Although his academic focus is the Middle Ages, he has utilized 20th-21st century technologies since he began teaching in graduate school. Realizing at that time that “he was spending too much time writing and drawing on the chalkboard” during his lectures, Loewen has since sought to maximize teaching efficiency with the latest technologies.
Loewen’s drive for using technology began when he wanted a “moveable chalkboard” that he could re-use. When PowerPoint was introduced, Loewen saw its potential and attended workshops to learn how to use this tool. After he integrated the slides into his curriculum, his students asked him to provide copies of his presentations as study aids. In those days, copies were strictly paper, so Loewen left an original set of his slides in the library that students could check out and copy. When online university portals became available, Loewen began uploading his presentations to the portal, eliminating trips to the library.
Podcast Lectures
Interested in remaining at the forefront of educational technology, Loewen started recording his lectures in podcasts–published through iTunes University– to include with the slides in his portal site. He says, “I thought it was a good idea, because if students missed class, they could catch up, or, if they needed to review a lecture they could listen through iTunes. They had my PowerPoint notes and my lectures.”
Arriving at Rice in 2006, Loewen was thrilled to discover Owl-Space. He states, “I used it [Owl-Space] to the max as soon as I got here.” Early in his Rice career, Loewen became frustrated with wasted class time during his lectures as he flipped back and forth between PowerPoint slides and sound recordings, all the while trying to keep his students following along in their sheet music anthologies. Once again, he turned to technology to integrate the notes and listening samples. After trying out document cameras, Loewen began uploading CDs for the music samples plus his annotated sheet music to Owl-Space. He found that if he assigned listening to these pieces as pre-class homework, the resulting class discussion was much better. Loewen eventually embedded mp3 files directly into his pdf copies of annotated scores. Now, he can show annotated sheet music, discuss the points he wants to make, and play the listening samples without leaving his projected music. He also began capturing his lectures using Panopto and then Camtasia, which improved on the podcast because it included the audio of his lecture and showed video of whatever was on his computer screen (PowerPoint slides, sheet music, etc.). He uploaded the captured lectures to Owl-Space right after class.
The Flip
However, Loewen still felt he could further improve his class experience with the help of new technologies. “So much in the classroom is all about me, my lecture, my examples. Some students are engaged, others maybe not so much. Some students stopped coming to class because they could see my lectures on the captured recordings.” How could he solve this problem, which is prevalent in many university lecture-style classes? By flipping his class. “I’m prerecording all my lectures and uploading them through Camtasia [linked to his OWL-Space site so students can view them before class]. Students come to class…and know the historical circumstances, which leaves more time in class for discussion and to talk about the music.”
Bring Your Own Examples and Share the Screen
Not only did Loewen utilize technology by making his recorded lectures assigned homework, but he also chose to incorporate his students’ personal technology devices inside the classroom. After viewing his lectures, his students are expected to find and bring new examples of that style of music on their own mobile devices. Students’ devices range from laptops to tablets, but smart phones could be used as well. Using Gateway connections, students project sheet music and other images onto the classroom screen from their wireless devices. The result? Loewen excitedly says, “Students got engaged this semester!” Instead of merely looking at one example of each kind of music, Loewen and his class are looking at multiple examples, which Loewen believes better helps his students understand the material.
While there are many advantages to this innovative style of classroom, there are unforeseen challenges for professor and students alike. For Loewen, the process of distilling his material for his PowerPoint slides and lectures and perfecting his slides and recordings has taken an extensive amount of time. He says, “It’s a lot of work, but I’ve always tinkered with my lectures. I like teaching.” He may continue to edit his lectures each year, but he does feel this year’s projects will be reusable.
Students Pushed Back
For students, Loewen says, “They did originally complain that it [his flipped class] was more work outside of class” because they were completing at least one and a half hours of preparation before even coming to class. In response, Loewen dropped the required textbook reading for his class.
“My lectures covered the textbook’s material,” he explained, adding that he hoped to make his class slightly less onerous since “music students already have so much time each week committed to practicing their respective instruments.”
Now, students seem to enjoy sharing their examples with Loewen and their classmates. Since Loewen’s avant-garde approach and high tech classroom flipping minimizes lecture time in class, there is more time to dig deeply into the material, which enlivens peer discussions. It is not surprising that he intends to extend this method to his other undergraduate and graduate level courses.