The Global Soundtrack: Enhancing Online Learning with Music Listening — Banyan Global Learning

Guest Author: Dr. Giuliana Conti, Director of Professional Development at Music Workshop

While the challenges for metropolitan and rural educators may differ, many share a common goal: bridging cultural gaps and helping students connect with communities beyond their own. In large cities, students may live near culturally distinct neighborhoods but have limited access to explore or understand them. In rural areas, students may rarely meet people from different backgrounds. But wherever they are, students are often curious, and that curiosity can be a powerful starting point.

Imagine taking students on a virtual field trip to Los Angeles, a city whose history is shaped by people from around the world, including Spain, Mexico, and Japan. As they learn about LA’s past, the sights and sounds of the city come alive through the speakers, sparking curiosity and deeper engagement. How can you expand on what they’re learning through the Banyan program in a fun, meaningful way?

Through music.

Students can learn about artists who reflect LA’s cultural richness and history—like Richie Valens, whose groundbreaking Chicano legacy gives students a window into Mexican-American identity, or the LA Koto Ensemble, which celebrates enduring Japanese traditions in Little Tokyo, a neighborhood rooted in Japanese culture since the 1800s. With music as a guide, students can connect more deeply with topics like WWII, the Gold Rush, the Mexican-American War, Hollywood, Western Expansion, and contemporary LA culture. Music becomes a bridge, making complex histories more tangible and accessible across grade levels.

For students in metropolitan areas, music can help develop the interpersonal skills needed to engage more meaningfully with the diverse communities that surround them. For rural students, it offers a powerful way to encounter and explore other cultures, even without direct access. In both cases, music listening lays a foundation for intercultural competence and global citizenship—skills that are essential in our increasingly connected world.

The Power of Music in Virtual Learning

Combining music listening with online learning creates a uniquely robust teaching approach. When technology is already a main ingredient in everyday life, joining students in their digital worlds is a natural step to building interest and investment in their own learning. Furthermore, as students are often already music listeners and collectors, integrating music listening into the virtual classroom offers immersive experiences that tap into students’ existing interests while encouraging deeper understanding of diverse topics and cultures.

With the right guidance and access to technology, music becomes much more than a listening activity. It’s a time machine, a field trip, a party, a textbook, and a conversation starter all in one. As Travis Moyer emphasizes in Why Culture Comes First in Virtual School, cultivating a positive and inclusive culture is paramount for online learning success. Music can play a pivotal role in shaping this environment, as expressing oneself and representing others through music communicates ideas, emotions, relationships, and traditions, helping to cultivate a classroom culture rooted in compassion, curiosity, and meaningful engagement across subjects.

Nurturing Character Through Music

Integrating music into online learning can foster various character traits that are crucial in our interconnected world:

Intercultural Competence: Exposure to diverse musical genres and traditions cultivates an appreciation for different cultures and equips learners to interact respectfully with people from various backgrounds.
Empathy and Open-Mindedness: Music has the power to evoke emotions and provide glimpses into the experiences of others, fostering empathy and a willingness to embrace diverse perspectives and values.
Critical Thinking: Analyzing lyrics, musical structures, and cultural contexts stimulates critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding of the world.
Creativity and Self-Expression: Music can ignite creativity and offer a channel for self-expression, enabling learners to connect with their own cultural identities and explore new artistic avenues.

Other-Orientedness: Learning about others through music forces the listener to process the lyrics and sounds outside and inside their own lived experience. Comparison is a positive tool when students can make connections to others and find differences in life experience in a way that promotes understanding and compassion towards others.

Strategies for Incorporating Music into Online Learning

Online educators can implement various strategies to integrate music listening into their curriculum and promote global learning:

Diverse Playlist Curation: Curate playlists featuring music from various cultures and genres, ensuring representation from different regions and historical periods. For instance, a playlist could include traditional music from Tanzania, classical compositions from Chinese Opera, and contemporary pop music from Argentina. Students could be given a goal to find songs with certain characteristics for a cohesive playlist, and the class evaluates the song list together until they have created an enjoyable and educational collection of songs.
Contextualization and Discussion: Provide historical and cultural context for the music, encouraging students to share their interpretations and personal connections. This could involve discussing the social and political climate in which a particular song or genre emerged, as well as the background of the artists, instruments, and lyrics.
Comparative Analysis: Encourage students to compare and contrast musical styles, instruments, and lyrical themes across cultures. This could include analyzing the use of specific instruments in different cultural contexts or comparing the lyrical themes of protest songs from different countries.
Creative Projects: Assign projects that allow students to express their understanding of music and culture through creative mediums like writing, art, or music composition. This could involve writing a song inspired by a particular culture or creating a visual representation of a musical piece.
Virtual Field Trips: Utilize virtual reality or online resources to explore musical performances, museums, and cultural sites worldwide. This could include taking a virtual tour of a famous concert hall or visiting a museum exhibit on the history of a particular musical instrument.
Guest Speakers and Musicians: Invite guest speakers or musicians from different cultures to share their knowledge and experiences with students. This could involve a virtual Q&A session with a musician or a presentation by a cultural expert.
Collaborative Projects: Facilitate collaborative projects where students from different backgrounds can work together to create music or explore a cultural theme. This could involve composing a piece of music that incorporates elements from different cultures or creating a multimedia presentation on a shared cultural experience.

By integrating music listening into online learning, educators can transform the virtual classroom into a global stage where students can explore diverse cultures, develop essential character qualities, and cultivate a deeper understanding of the world. Online, self-paced professional development like Music Workshop’s Music Listening for Well-Being or Integrating Music for Well-Being courses is a great next step to learning how music can be applied by any subject teacher into their curriculum for increased student engagement and outcomes.

Through the power of music, online educators can create a more engaging, inclusive, and culturally enriching learning experience for their students, especially when students are driving the musical choices, discussions, and personal music contributions for contrast and comparison. Including more information about genres, cultures, instruments, and careers in music (offered for FREE by Music Workshop) in which students express interest further enhances the learning experience and years-long ripple effect of investment in music, understanding of their place in the world, and sense of self. When music is already a daily ingredient in students’ lives, it becomes a seamless entrypoint to learning about the world around them and becoming caring, responsible, and global citizens.

Delving Deeper:

For more in-depth discussions on these topics, check out our latest podcast where we dive into the real-world applications and cultural impact of AI in education.

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