Dynamics of digital media in school music contexts

This study focuses on participants’ behaviours and practices as they discovered, produced and shared music using digital devices. Three broad areas of engagement include students’ perception of digital music reception, self-production and transmission. A constructivist–interpretivist viewpoint frames the theoretical perspective of the study. Interviews and observations of four high school students and their music teacher comprise the data. Detailed accounts illustrate the perceptions of the participants, building a thick description. The study also considers what a music teacher understood about her students’ out-of-school musical interactions. The findings are represented in a visual model demonstrating the convergence and divergence of digital music engagement in a high school setting. Themes of experiencing music for personal identity, creativity and popular culture intermix in classroom and informal learning contexts. The outcomes may suggest possible paths for connecting in-school and out-of-school music learning with digital devices.