Crossing borders: issues in music technology education

Music technology can be construed in a variety of ways, ranging from the design to the use of technologies for musical purposes, thus involving skills across the traditional disciplinary divide that polarizes art and technology. This creates a conundrum for curriculum developers who are aiming to create learning opportunities that are relevant and exciting for students with widely varying backgrounds. This paper examines some of the issues that arise in music technology curriculum development, illustrated with examples taken from the experience of the team responsible for the production of the UK Open University course TA225 The Technology of Music and its expanded version TA212. The paper discusses the rationale negotiated by the team to guide course-related decision making, while bearing in mind the fundamental question of how to create an interesting learning context for students with very different educational experiences and reasons for studying.