Students doing the driving: How undergraduates use ICT to enhance reflective practice, peer review and collaborative learning

Abstract

The Internet offers 21st century artists new modes of production and communication. In higher education however, limitations are imposed upon the creative use of ICT through policies and products which are often in conflict with innovation by university arts faculties. This paper examines the ways in which a music technology department intervenes to allow undergraduates to take a central role in the development of, and responsibility for their learning. They do so in a learning ecology which supports collaboration, peer review and the Internet dissemination of original musical compositions, sound productions and self-reflective radio-styled programs. Rather than position students purely as receptors of teaching-as-delivery, eLearning is understood and leveraged in ways which acknowledge students as creators of content, owners of intellectual property, and drivers of their own learning.