156 SOCIAL MEDIA IN MUSIC PEDAGOGY: AID OR IMPEDIMENT? Emelda C. Nnanyelugo Abstract usic education incoporating social media is one of the most recent trends in the history of formal education system. This has faced a lot of criticism as to whether it is an aid or impediment; taking into consideration the economic situation of the country. Adopting historical and survey designs, this paper seeks to ascertain the challenges and prospects associated with music education using social media, as it affects the students and lecturers alike. For the purpose of continuity or discontinuity, the paper suggests ways of critical examination of the right choice of social media platforms to either use or not in music education. The findings of this paper are hoped to add to the existing facts as it relates to the use of social media in music education. Introduction Music education in a formal school setting is an old practice which sprang out during the colonial era whereby structures were erected for the purpose of teaching and learning that involves the students and teachers. Teaching and learning in those days under this given principles is what is known as formal learning setting. Recently, there emerged a platform in which such teaching and learning also take place with little or no commitment on the part of both the students and the teachers. This paper seeks to identify the stand in the use of these social media platforms in the teaching and learning environment as they concern music education and to know actually whether the use really aids or impedes the learning process. M Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts (AJRMA) Vol. 13 2019 Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 157 Concept of Music Education Education is the aspect of teaching and learning either in a semi- formal or a formal setting. It is a basis or foundation of learning. Okafor 1992 in Alu and Ugwu 1999 states that education is all those experiences of the individual through which knowledge is acquired, the intellect enlightened or they will be strengthened p85. Nnanyelugo (2014) stipulated that “Education is the impacting and acquiring of knowledge through teaching and learning especially…..in schools or institutions.” It is also a process by which a person begins to learn how to learn. In summary, Education involves a teacher and a student in either formal or semi-formal environment with the aim of impacting knowledge into the learners from the teacher. Music which is a compound of societal cultural demonstrative practice involves a group of societal cultural materials and elements which portrays the identity of a particular community. Music according to Adeogun (2012): is a product of people and societies. Musical knowledge is a transmittable constellation of enduring socio-musical traits which codify, articulate and validate the unique practice of human group; its organisation depends largely on the use of society widely recognized theories of tonality and/or modality thematic structures, rhythmic patterns, tempo, timbres, use of language and musical instruments.In communicating ideas, thoughts contacts and meaning to members of the society. p85. Music Education deals with inculcating and transmitting the musical knowledge into the leaners from the teachers. According to Ezeani (2004): it reflects the psychomotor domain which is the development of musical skills, the cognitive domain which focuses on the acquisition of musical knowledge and finally the effective domain which involves musical appreciation and sensitivity p 17. Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 158 Therefore, music education is the impacting of musical knowledge and the essence of developing musical skills out of the students by the teacher and forcing and instigating the student‟s interest willingness into effectiveness to learning. Music education recently could no longer be dependent on the physical human teacher and the familiar class room setting but look far beyond that therefore, the need to introduce the recent development in music education which involves the use of social media in music education. Concept of Social Media The word „social‟ deals with human society and the individual or groups interactions as to what relates and concerns them and the rest of the individuals in the society whereas „media‟ is a platform whereby information and messages are passed or interacted or issues are discussed. Media according to business dictionary.com; is a communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data or promotional messages are disseminated. By implication, social media is a platform for communication and interaction of a group or between individuals or group. Social media is a forum whereby people come together in one community which is the medium to discuss and interact issues concerning them as in the case of music, these social gathering and interaction with the aim of music learning, involves selection of favourable medium or platform which is most suitable for learning environment. There are several platforms which aim at teaching and learning; these platforms are not selected randomly for purposes of effective utility and services. Its selection depends on the course of study and functionality as well as relevance to a target problem solving. Methodology This work adopted historical and survey designs using in-depth interviews technique whereby questions pertaining to the problem under study were asked the students and music teachers in the tertiary education were music is thought for their candid opinion and observations. Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 159 Population The population for this study is both the music students and teachers in the tertiary education in the eastern part of Nigeria. With a target population of 350 social media users which includes the students and teachers from a selected undergraduate level which is between 300 to 400 level. The Situation: Challenges Based on the present situation and trend, there are challenges which hinder the proper selection of social media platforms for proper music education as highlighted below: 1. Risk of lifting unwanted materials which could cause obstructions in the teaching and learning environment. 2. Wrong information on issues have become the order of the day on social media platform 3. Laziness in investigating over things and issues before reaction or rather before jumping into conclusion and acceptance of wrong information without proper investigation 4. Educational degradation; which implies improper scrutinization of the materials often uploaded on social media platforms and serious use of grammatical error in most of the social media platforms. 5. Exposure to immoral views/practices and corruption. How do the above specified issues affect and address the problem of music education using social media: an aid or impediment? Highlighting the challenges above will be most appropriate for a better understanding of the problem under study. Let us take a closer look at these challenges listed above. Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 160 Wrong information about issues and things Social media is one of the new media platforms which allow the interaction between persons, groups, communities, societies and so on; to communicate and discuss issues concerning them. This privilege has been very beneficial to many and has erqually been misused by many users; by using it as an avenue for dissemination of wrong information. Music is not left out of this menace as many aspects of music including historical aspects of music, musical practices, trends and performances have suffered great deal of misinformation. This ofcourse has led to students and teachers going by what some of the wrong information say without further consultation and investigation for authentication. This brings and causes displacement of knowledge; causing lots of contradiction of facts. It creates room for misunderstanding amongst the teachers‟ opinion and that of the students. Laziness in investigation Social media in music education provides quick answers to questions. But going by the issues earlier raised, it requires critical screening and a closer marking, because, a teacher who stumbles on some wrong information and posts without consulting an authority in the area; assumes quickly that his/her opinion is concrete. On the other hand, a student may stumble on it first and will end up having a contradictory opinion about what the teacher teaches. This brings about discrepancies in the teaching and learning as it concerns the subject of study for as long as it is not resolved and proper consultations made. It is therefore, advisable to prepare lectures with authentic backups from an authority (ies) in the area one teaches to avoid such incidents because it is very common with the advent of social media, new technology and modernization. Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 161 Educational degradation This is a very crucial aspect which poses lots of harm and danger to the teaching and learning. The rate at which grammatical errors fly around on social media platforms has become unbearable and demands urgent intervention. In some cases, due to over familiarization within the group members, people post all manner of things in the name of short cuts and this has affected the way they write in serious academic settings and learning environments. It is disheartening that one would not find up to 10% of students and even teachers who take time to have a second look at what they write. It is also evident in some official write ups due to lassitude they have groomed themselves to, via social media platforms communication. Another instance is when assignments are given and meant to be submitted through social media. Teachers witness all kinds of grammatical blunders; such that they wonder if the students are not aware of the implications - as marks attached to assigments involve the logic and the grammatical interactions. This is very serious and common these days with the use of social media unlike when things were done manually using paper and ink. The level of education is going down by the day and requires serious checkmating and restoration. Also there are no room for editing and scraping what has been in view as scam news and fake information or even past events which are not supposed to still be in circulation are there. It is indeed a big problem which is gradually outgrowing the positive influence of social media on the teaching and learning environment. Exposure to immorality and increase in corruption Immorality has become the order of the day and this is widely circulted by social media usage whereby uneducative music and dance steps are spread like virus via this platform. Instead of students logging in to search for useful educative documents, they stumble on those kinds of music to waste their time and data. Youtube platform Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 162 has been misused by students as site for having access to contra- banned music which in turn does great harm to their mental and psychological judgements. Manwhile this is a site where one can download useful musical videos for analysis, performances and tutorials of various musical instruments. You could now imagine what kind of person/student he/she will grow up to be; as it is said that “you are what you view.” Aristotle (nd) in Nnanyleugo, (2017) foundations of music education, informs that a person is what he/she watches. In his words, he stipulates that “if one listens to the wrong type of music he would become the wrong kind of person, on the other hand, if one listens to right kind of music he would become the right kind of person” Therefore, social media with the aim of promoting education has not been able to attain this goal perfectly due to its porous and unchecked activities. It allows any sort of interactions, visual and audio displays without properly scrutinizing the educative implications of that which is uploaded for public view and consumption. Also because of the corrupt nature of the heart of man, who sees every opportunity as one to introduce negativity to satisfy his/her quest for perpetration of evil. With reference to what has been observed by some researchers and scholars like Masood Badri, Alliahl Nauaimi, Yang Guang, Asma Al Rashedi the negative effects of social media in pedagogy can come in many ways. According to informationparlour.com/article.ed. on the negative effects of social media in music education, students glue so much to their phones which makes them lose their sense of quick remembrance or recognition and assimilation to the physical class activities. Such a student becomes a distraction and disturbance not just to him/herself, but to other students sitting beside them. Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 163 Other instances specified is nonpayment of attention to details and research in the sense that, the utility of students retentive memory has declined tremendously recently to the disadvantage of their educational career. Also abbreviations and shortcuts have displaced the usual way of writing while affects the students‟ performances and general educational standards. Also, students‟ grades suffer and probably drop every time in the recent studies carried out as a result of constant and extensive use of social media platforms. (Malaney, 2005, Banquil et al, 2009, Gafni and Deri, 2012, Junco, 2012,2011, Ndaku, 2013, Roius et al, 2011, Paul et al, 2012, Burak, 2012). Prospects Some scholars who have carried out similar investigations regarding the problem under study have some contrary views in terms of the importance of incoorparating social media in teaching and learning. In their views, Borja (2005) notes that “teacher use blogs as teaching tools and reinforcement of skills, expressions and creativity;” while Boyd (2008) supports that it is connectivity between students/teachers for academic purposes. English and Duncan – Howell, (2008) observes that social media help the teacher to be able to share course related materials with their students, create student groups, collaborate on projects, providing peer support and facilitating teaching. In addition, Nnanyelugo (2017) believed that; social media is a platform that is conducive for teaching and learning especially the learning environment as regards music which helps in the strengthening of the students‟ interests in continuous struggle to develop themselves in musical instrument skills and also in compositional skill development for the betterment of the students and for a better presentation of musical ideals to the society‟s consumption. (p.144). These and many more are the expectations and the benefits of social media which authors have reported as positive and progressive; but its Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 164 unchecked and unsupervised nature has led to lots of lapses and misuse that has brought about negative utility. Data Presentation The data collected was analysed and presented in tabular form as seen below; S / N Positive use of social media Over 100% AG S. AG. Negative use of social media Over 100% AG S. AG 1 Teacher use blogs as teaching tools and reinforcement of skills, 20 44 Risk of lifting unwanted materials which could cause obstructions in the teaching and learning environment 34 61 2 For expressions and creativity. Providing peer support and facilitating teaching. 15 56 Wrong information about things and issues have become the order of the day on social media platform 39 58 3 to share course related materials with their students, create student groups, collaborate on projects, 29 44 Laziness in investigating over things and issues before reaction or rather before jumping into conclusion and acceptance of wrong information 42 67 Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 165 This means that the percentage average of the negative influence of the use of social media in music education is of the ratio of 60% to 40% as against the positive influence of the use of social media in music education for strongly agreed analysing from the opinions of the interviewees. Summary Music education using social media has been seen and proven to be more of the negative than the positive in the sense that in as much as it is an aid to learning which could be positive or negative; it is also an aid to negative practices which impedes learning and is against the without proper investigation 4 helps in the strengthening of the students interest in continuous struggle to develop themselves in musical instrument skills and also in compositional skill development 23 41 Educational degradation. This implies improper scrutinizing of the texts materials often uploaded on social media platforms and serious use of grammatical error in most of the social media platforms. 34 63 5 Exposure to immoral views and immoral practices. 35 62 6 Enables increase in Corruption 26 72 Total percentage 40% 60% Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 166 intended benefits of social media platforms for teaching and learning especially when music is concerned. This research found out the results of the previous researches of some scholars and researchers in the area of social media usage in music learning in which the results found were of negative influences. Some of such findings like laziness on the part of both the students and teachers to actually investigate trends and happenings around the educational environment before putting up assumption and drawing conclusions on the matter, educational degradation, continuous drop of students grades, poor performance of students etc. These bad influences have more impact and are felt so strongly on education than the positive as was found in the cause of this investigation as reagrds teaching and learning music using social media platform. Conclusion This paper concludes that social media in music education should be applied with caution and people should actually know that it is just a platform that only guides and should not be depended on totally for every fact. One should cultivate the habit of investigating properly into situations and events of society and not to forget the natural embellishment in human brain formation and the ability to always make reference to the formal educational ways. Finally from the observations and information derived so far in the course of the study, this research work concludes that, music education using social media is an aid to an extent if applied with caution and an impediment when applied without any form of moderation and caution. References Adeogun, A. O. (2012). Musical integrity and the teacher in the Nigerian community. Nsukka Journal of Musical Arts Research vol.1. Pp 81 – 95. Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 167 Alu B. E. & Ugwu J. C. (1999). The essential of philosophy of education Vol. I. Nsukka: Prize Publishes. Aristotle, (nd). Introduction, why study foundations of music education? History of music education. Retrived March 14th 2018 from http://www.history.music.edu. Banquil, K. Chinua, N. A., Leano, G. A., Rivero, M. A., Bruce, C. A., Dianalan, S. N., Matienozo, A. R. & Timog, N. U. (2009). Social networking sites affect one‟s academic performance adversely. Retrived March 23rd 2018 from http://www.ust.edu.ph. Borja, R. R. (2005). “Blogs‟ catching on as tool for instruction. Education week 25 (15), 1–17” Retrived from http://www.education. Boyd, D. (2018). Taken out of context: American teen sociality in networked publics Ph.D. dissertation. School of information, University of Nigeria. California: Barkeley, CA. Burak, L. (2012). Multitasking in the University classroom introduction. Journal of Scholarship Teaching and Learning. 6 (2), 1 – 12. English, R. M. & Duncan–Howell, J. A. (2008). Facebook goes to college using social networking tools to support students undertaking teaching practice from J.onlinelearn.tech.4 (4),595-601. Retrieved 02-05-2018 from http://joit.merlot.org/vol4no4/english-1208pdf. Ezeani, L. U. (2004). Principles and methods of teaching Vol. 2. Onitsha. West and Solomon Publishing Co. Ltd. Gafni, R. & Deri, M. (2012). Costs and benefits of facebook for undergraduate students. Interdisciplinary Journal of Informal Knowledge Management. 7, 45 – 61. Junco, R. (2011). Too much face and not enough books: The relationship between multiple indices of facebook use and academic performance. Conput.Hum. Behave.28 (1)187 -198. Junco, R. (2012). The relationship between frequency of facebook use participation in facebook activities and student engagement.conput.edu. 58, 162 – 171. Malaney, G. D. (2005). Students‟ use of the internet.Journal of EducationTechnology System. 33 (1), 53 – 66. http://www.history.music.edu/ http://www.ust.edu.ph/ http://www.education/ http://joit.merlot.org/vol4no4/english-1208pdf Social Media in Music Pedagogy... Emelda C. Nnanyelugo 168 Ndaku, A. J. (2013). Impact of Social media on the students‟ Academic performance. Asian, J.Hum. Soc. Sci. 2 (2), 1 – 7. Nnanyelugo, E. C. (2017). Music students‟perceptions of social media as a learning environment evidence from university of Nigeria Nsukka. International Journal of Communication. No, 2. Nnanyelugo E. C. (2017). The Negative influences of pop music on children. Paper presentation at the Asscociation of Nigeria Musicologists‟ Conference, in the Department of Music University of Nigeria Nsukka. 2017. Nnanyelugo, E. C. (2014). Teachers factors military against the proper implement of the music aspect of the cultural and creative arts curriculum in Nigerian secondary schools: A survey of Nsukka Urban, Enugu State. Unpublished M.A project in the Department of Music, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Paul, J., Baker, H. & Cochran, J. (2012). Effect of online social networking on students‟ academic performance. Computer human behaviour. 28, 2117 – 2127. Rouis, S., Limayem, M. & Salehi–Sangari, E. (2011). Impact of Facebook usage on students‟ academic achievement: role of self – regulation and trust. Electronic Journal Research Education Psychology 9 (3), 961 – 994. www.bussinessdictionary.com www.informationparlour.com/article.ed. http://www.bussinessdictionary.com/ http://www.informationparlour.com/article.ed