Blogging transforming music learning and teaching: Reflections of a teacher-researcher

There has been much recognition that blogging can develop writing skills, foster reflective thinking, enable higher-order learning, including the development of critical thinking skills, and facilitate collaborative knowledge building. In the area of music teaching, blogging has been particularly used to facilitate collaborative compositional projects. In this article, the teacher-researcher reflects on his five-year experiences of using blogging in his music theory and analysis classes to examine how the adoption of this particular piece of social software has transformed not only students’ learning of music theory but also his own teaching. In effect, we witness the extent blogging has become a ‘disruptive technology’ in a particular music-educational context. The discussion will heighten music educators’ awareness of some of the potential benefits of blogging (or similar social software) as well as possible pitfalls or tradeoffs pertaining to music learning.