E-Learning Environments, Opportunities and Challenges in Teaching and Learning to Play the Piano in Student Teacher Education

Digitalization has become a part of Finnish education from elementary schools to universities. Additionally, students have begun to participate in university administration, thus participating in course development and design. Blended learning has arrived on the education scene, providing solutions on how to create e-learning environments and how to make them useful for students as well as teachers. The purpose of this research is to study the possibilities and challenges of e-learning environments in student teachers’ piano courses. What is the position of e-learning environments compared to face-to-face or contact lessons? We want to know where students go to get information about piano playing and how students perceive autonomous learning, guided autonomous learning, and group contact lessons. The data was gathered from a large group lesson, from piano lessons in groups of different sizes, and from students’ assignments where they reflected on the relationship between e-learning environments and contact lessons for the development of their piano playing and musicianship. The e-learning environments had good design and content; however, students pointed out that it is important to possess some musical skills in order to fully benefit from these environments. Students need to be instructed on the benefits of and how to use e-learning platforms and blended learning to enhance their knowledge and skills through independent learning. © 2018 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +0-000-000-0000 ; fax: +0-000-000-0000 . E-mail address: jukka.enbuska@ulapland.fi eISSN: 2301-2218 Selection & Peer-review under responsibility of the Editors 2563