What is the music educator’s role when students engage with participatory culture? 

​

For this question the article mostly talks about the music educator supervising, but not overstepping. The article states, “Educators might first act as ethnographers, investigating and identifying their students’ interests along with how they and others engage with music outside of school.” I think this is important because it gets the students interested in music as a subject also it helps them to bridge the gap between “school music” and “everyday music.” The article suggests that teachers do this by “conducting surveys and discussions of students’ musical interests and practices.” It also talks about asking important questions. These questions help students make connections between music from the past and current music. They also help the students come to conclusions about their own work. The article sums this up by saying “When using understanding by design for unit development, an educator might work with students to pose big ideas and essential questions about what it means to be a musician” This will most likely help students to have a greater appreciation and understanding for the music they play in class as well as the music they regularly listen to.

​
 

How might ensembles and music classrooms be modified or restructured to allow for new and emerging contemporary musical practices?

The article gives a few suggestions for how teachers can do this. I really liked the suggestion that “providing opportunities for students to cover, remix, or create mashups of existing music can take place in the same setting where they create their own original music or perform the music of others on voice or instrument.” I think this is a great way to tie in contemporary musical practices because it gives reason to why students still need to play an instrument, but also ties into their everyday musical interests. If teachers only focus on remixing songs, etc. than the students would not see the need to keep practicing or playing their instruments. But, if they combine both into one project then there is still a need for playing and it also ties into the current musical interests of the students.