The Efficacy of Service Learning in Students’ Engagements with Music Technology

In this action research, 10 undergraduate pre-service students majoring in music education participated in a service-learning project teaching music to elementary school children. Service-learning is a teaching and learning framework incorporating experiential learning and connects to theories of Dewey, Schön, and Vygotsky. University students apply knowledge and skills they are learning in the classroom through authentic teaching experiences as a service to the community. Students were charged with teaching children between the ages of 6 and10 music using Makey Makey boards. MaKey MaKey boards are an invention kit that turns ordinary objects into touch pads that when coupled with computer coding allow students to create and perform on ordinary objects that they have designed to function as instruments. The constructs of experiential learning provided a theoretical framework and the basis for the following research questions:

1. In what ways does service-learning assists college music education students in connecting theory to practice?
2. In what ways does incorporating Makey Makey boards into the elementary music classroom foster an environment of creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking among the children?

To collect data, the researcher interviewed the college students at the mid-point of the study and again at the conclusion. Information from the interviews constituted the primary source of data. Themes emerged from open, focused and axial coding of the data. The college students found the Makey Makey boards helpful in fostering an environment of creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking among the students they were teaching. They also noted that by participating in service-learning they were able to make meaningful connections between what they were learning in their college classes and what they were teaching the elementary school children in the after-school program. Observations of the elementary school children revealed that when using Makey Makey boards to design and create musical instruments learning emerged through problem solving, collaborating, and creating new ideas.