The music technology competence of the student teacher community: An eight-year longitudinal study

Computer technology has been developing at an extremely fast pace rendering it highly challenging for both music teachers and students to establish their competence in the area. According to Moore's Law (McCain & Jukes, 2001), the speed of development doubles about every two years thus exerting enormous pressure on teaching and learning to confront the change. But have technology competencies of student teachers risen at a similar speed and has the music technology curriculum been amended to meet the change? Data was collected for eight years from students in a music technology course. The data collected from a survey instrument (a questionnaire) included information about self-assessment of students' computer knowledge and skills in a generic sense and also those specific to computer-based music technology. A five-point Likert scale was used for students to indicate the ratings of their competence. Students' self-assessments from the eight years was compared to see whether there were differences and whether the differences were significant. The study exhibited a gradual rise in standards of student teachers over consecutive years. Differences were more obvious when the ratings of students from the first year were compared to the eighth year's study. The rise in standards of student teachers varied from year to year. Implications for music teacher education and music technology curricula are discussed.