Rethinking Secondary Music Education: Embracing DAWs as Distinct Student-CenteredLearning Tools

Digital technologies are more important in musicallearning than ever before. The global covid-19 crisis of 2020 has uprooted bands, orchestras and choirsfrom their classrooms and rehearsal spaces, and left teachers pondering effective ways for students tocreate, perform, and respond musically. The global pandemic in conjunction with rapidly evolving musicaltechnologies has provoked the rethinking of secondary music education traditions. This paper servesa philosophical exploration into digital audio workstations (DAWs) as distinct student-centered toolsfor musical learning. Both epistemological and learning style (VAK) theories are applied within astudent-centered framework in effort to reveal the software’s full potential in catering to students'needs. Moreover, DAW’s capacity to provide musical scaffolding, support creativity, and enable formativeassessments for teachers are discussed. Conclusions suggest thatDAWs may have the potential to play atransformative role in secondary music educationin times of online learning and beyond. Keywords:digital audio workstation, music education,music technology, student-centered learning