New Tech approach or Old School?

[Rue]

I am totally on the fence about this, and don't have enough personal experience to formulate a reasonable opinion.
 
I just watched a video of a teacher who is using iPads, e-pens and a camera to record her students' lessons.
 
The technology looks interesting.  The student plays...the teacher handwrites notes with an e-pen (which strikes me as somewhat ironic )...the entire session is recorded.  The student can later listen to themselves play the piece on an iPad and following along with the notes that the teacher made at each point in time.
 
I like technology.   So that isn't it.
 
But...there is just something about this I find rather off-putting.   The lesson itself looked more like a visit to a psychiatrist's office than a music lesson.  I don't think I'd be comfortable in that situation.  I might miss or forget something I learned in a lesson...and maybe this format addresses that issue...but I'd rather just be reminded of the issue in my next lesson.  Learning takes time - and often certain concepts need to be retaught and re-explained until the student is ready to grasp that concept.  I feel this is a bit of a cop-out in that regard.
 
Perhaps this isn't practical for beginners?  Perhaps this is very practical for advanced students?
 
Or perhaps part of what I like so much about the violin and classical music is the Old School take on it all - and new technology interferes with my romantic picture of it all?

 

I also find a reliance on new technology worrisome.  Using it as a tool to aid learning is one thing, but it seems that there is also an attitude that it is a must, rather than an aid.  If people are already becoming overly reliant on technology - should we be incorporating more and more of it into areas where it isn't necessary?

 

Just fishing for thoughts!

[Will L]

Good question.

 

One thing I'd like to point out is that the video shows the recording of a "performance" rather than a recording of a lesson= give and take.  When I was that kid's age, we had tape recorders, which I think was the first time a violinist could record himself and go back immediately and learn from it.  And for years we have had video available, IF we wish to use it.  So it seems the only new thing here is the "e-pen" thing.

 

I can't see anything wrong with it as it was used in the video.  I think it would get in the way in the middle of a lesson.  The teacher needs to be interacting with the student very closely, and to stop and immortalize the teacher's "brilliant insights" for every little detail sends the student home without having necessarily hashed out the details.  So I think HOW this technology is used is what makes it good or bad, safe or dangerous.  Fine teachers will figure it out and bad teachers will use it to make Batman's importance to Gotham obvious.

 

But always kids are going to learn in spite of us.  We just need to make our actions as teachers as harmless as possible.

 

I'm not enough of a teacher to do more than get the conversation going since no one has yet.