ABSTRACT
When musicians, teachers, software designers and education researchers get together to introduce a new music technology system for young children, numerous understandings, ideas, considerations, challenges and beliefs inevitably arise around the role of technology in musical creativity development. Though technology should not be considered a remedy for all educational ills, it nevertheless allows us to question current music education curricula, review the meaning of creativity, reassess the role of the teacher in the educational process and reconstruct a more inclusive pathway for the twenty-first-century music learner. The MIROR Project sought to explore the ways in which Reflexive Interaction technologies support young children when improvising and composing in a range of educational contexts. Reflexive Interaction technology is mindful of children’s need to develop a sense of agency and ownership through musical creation and hence aims to build intelligent systems that form a kind of partnership with the user in the process of creative music-making. Through the range of practice-based, data-driven and theoretical considerations presented in this book, several key understandings applicable not only to the MIROR software but to a wider spectrum of music technology applications can arise. This chapter will revisit and expand on some of the key concepts arising from this publication and work towards further unravelling of how technology can impact on children’s musical creativity development; moreover, what we might learn about musical creativity development beyond the technicalities of a particular technology.
