Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-qc88w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-05T16:33:14.679Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interactive music video games and children's musical development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Lily Gower  and
Janet McDowall
Lily Gower
Affiliation:
Department of Education and Children's Services, South Australian School for Vision Impaired, 1B Duncan Avenue, Park Home, South Australia, Australialily.gower@sasvi.sa.edu.au
Janet McDowall*
Affiliation:
University of South Australia, St Bernards Road, Magill, South Australia, 5072, Australiajanet.mcdowall@unisa.edu.au
*
Corresponding author: Janet McDowall.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Interactive music video games are a readily available, mainstream technology but they are not generally seen as educative tools. Nor are they established within school teaching and learning environments. This study investigated children's use of these games from a music education perspective. Nine children, aged 9–11 years, and two specialist music teachers each participated in an individual semi-structured interview. The child participants were drawn from four metropolitan schools and the teachers were from different metropolitan schools. Results indicate that the games may help to develop some music skills and knowledge and that the games are of high interest and importance to students. The music teachers acknowledged the potential of interactive music video games to be incorporated into traditional music curriculum but they each expressed a belief that ideally the technology needs further development, including a greater capacity to compose and create using the programs. These findings suggest that, based on constructivist learning theories, there may be a place for these games in music education.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 91 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

AARSAND, P. (2007) Computer and video games in family life: The digital divide as a resource in intergenerational interactions. Childhood, 14 (2), 235–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ACTIVISION (2009) Guitar Hero. Retrieved 23 October 2009, from Guitar Hero Web site: http://hub.guitarhero.com.Google Scholar
ALEXA, D. N. (2008) Guitar Hero Statistics: $1 billion worth of sales, 14 million copies sold. Retrieved 8 April 2009, from Playfuls.com Web site: http://www.playfuls.com/news_12155_Guitar_Hero_statistics_1billion_worth_of_sales_14_million_copies_sold.html.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ARSENAULT, D. (2008) Guitar hero: ‘Not like playing guitar at all’? Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, 1 (2).Google Scholar
BROWN, A. (2007) Computers in Music Education: Amplifying Musicality. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
COHEN, L., MANION, L. & MORRISON, K. (2000) Research Methods in Education, 5th edn. London: Routledge Falmer.Google Scholar
COPE, B. & KALANTZIS, M. (2000) Multiliteracies: The beginning of an idea. In Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (Eds), Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures (pp. 3–8). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TRAINING (DEST) (2005) National Review of School Music Education: Augmenting the Diminished. Canberra: Department of Education, Science and Training.Google Scholar
DILLON, S. C. (2004) Music, Meaning and Transformation. Paper presented at the 26th International Society for Music Education Conference, Tenerife, Spain.Google Scholar
DURRANT, C., & GREEN, B. (2000) Literacy and the new technologies in school education: Meeting the l(IT)eracy challenge? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 23 (2), 89–108.Google Scholar
ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION (2008) 2008 sales, demographic and usage data: essential facts about the computer and video game industry. Retrieved 8 April 2009, from esa Web site: http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2008.pdf.Google Scholar
GEE, J. P. (2004) What Video Games have to Teach us about Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
GEE, J. P. (2007) Good Video Games and Good Learning: Collected Essays on Video Games, Learning and Literacy. New York: Peter Lang.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GOBLE, J. S. (2009) Pragmatism, music's import, and music teachers as change agents. In Regelski, T. A. & Gates, J. T. (Eds), Music Education for Changing Times: Guiding Visions for Practice (pp. 73–84). New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GREEN, L. (2002) How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education. Hampshire: Ashgate.Google Scholar
GREEN, L. (2006) Popular music education in and for itself, and for ‘other’ music: Current research in the classroom. International Journal of Music Education, 24 (2), 101–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HARGEAVES, D. & NORTH, A. (1997) The Social Psychology of Music. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HORNER, C. & RYF, V. (2007) Creative Teaching: English in the Early Years and Primary Classroom. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARSH, C. (2004) Becoming a Teacher: Knowledge, Skills and Issues, 3rd edn. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.Google Scholar
MCINERNEY, M. & MCINERNEY, V. (2006) Educational Psychology: Constructing Learning, 4th edn. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.Google Scholar
MISSINGHAM, A. (2007) Why console-games are bigger than rock ‘n’ roll: What the music sector needs to know and how it can get a piece of the action. Youth Music. Available at www.youthmusic.org.ukGoogle Scholar
MISSION, R. (1998) Theory and spice, and things not nice: Popular culture in the primary classroom. In Knobel, M. & Healy, A. (Eds), Critical Literacies in the Primary Years (pp. 53–62). Newtown, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association.Google Scholar
NEW LONDON GROUP. (2000) A pedagogy of multiliteracies: designing social futures. In Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (Eds), Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures (pp. 9–37). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
PATTON, M. (2002) Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, 3rd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
RICHARDS, L. (2005) Handling Qualitative Data: A Practical Guide. London: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
RUSSELL-BOWIE, D. (2009) MMADD about the Arts: An Introduction to Primary Arts Education, 2nd Edn. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.Google Scholar
SANGER, J., WILLSON, J., DAVIES, B. & WHITTAKER, R. (1997) Young Children, Videos and Computer Games: Issues for Teachers and Parents. London: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
SEEL, J. (2001) Plugged in, spaced out, and turned on: Electronic entertainment and moral mindfields. Journal of Education, 179 (3), 17–32.Google Scholar
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC. (2007) SingStar. Retrieved 23 October 2009 from SingStar website: http://www.singstargame.com/en-au/.Google Scholar
STALHAMMAR, B. (2004) Music – Their lives (The experiences of music and view of music of a number of Swedish and English young people). Action, Criticism and Theory for Music Education, Electronic Article, 3 (2).Google Scholar
WEBB, M. (2007) Music analysis down the (You) tube? Exploring the potential of cross-media listening for the music classroom. British Journal of Music Education, 24, 147–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WEBSTER, P. (2002) Computer-based technology and music teaching and learning. In Colwell, R. & Richardson, C. (Eds), The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning (pp. 416–442). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
WEBSTER, P. & HICKEY, M. (2006) Computers and technology. In McPherson, G. (Ed.), The Child as Musician: A Handbook of Musical Development (pp. 375–398). New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
YOUNG MEDIA AUSTRALIA (2003) Overview of Computer and Video Games. Retrieved 9 April 2009, from Young Media Australia Web site: www.youngmedia.org.au.Google Scholar