“Music is one of the most powerful, the most compelling, and the most glorious manifestations of every cultural heritage”, music represents a common language across the world, and music is one of the main reasons for the success of the Internet among young people, as a means for socialising and having fun, and as a creative activity. Thanks to advancements in Web 2.0 technologies, music education is extending beyond the classroom with the help of software that allows for virtual, real-time music lessons and collaboration online. These technologies can supplement and reinforce the traditional teaching that occurs during private music lessons or school classes. Online social networking is motivating for students, and is also a promising tool to promote and support the development of most of the competences identify as key competences for lifelong learning, as the digital competence, the communication in mother tongue, as well as in a foreign languages, the interpersonal, intercultural and social competences. However, music education is still suffering from a lack of integration in the education curricula, often designed without taking into account the new generation of musicians and the new tools for creating music. The two experiences of MusiNet and MODEM projects, both addressing the pedagogical value of creating and sharing of music within students through digital technologies and the internet, have provided an integrated online environment to exchange open source music projects, and  learning pathways for secondary schools students. Those successful experiences have identified a lack of interaction among the stakeholders involved (research, education, enterprises in the field), and it is envisaged that this knowledge sharing would enable the full exploitation of the so-called knowledge triangle (research, education, innovation).

For that reason, the NET SOUNDS project aims to:

-    foster the collaboration among stakeholders both private and public in the field;
-    promote mutual understanding and collaborative synergies among the actors involved;
-    promote music education through new technologies and social networking based tools;
-    share best practices in music education through new technologies and the internet;
-    allow educational institutions, centres of research, association of teachers and students and to industry to be kept informed of new developments in music education through new technologies;
-    raise awareness of politicians in the EU about developments in music education through new technologies.

To reach the above listed aims, the following activities are planned:

-    to build a web environment conceived as a “meeting point” for the actors in the field, and a pool of resources of music in education through ICT;
-    to organise a yearly conference devoted to music education through ICT and the internet;
-    to organise national workshops directly addressed to teachers and policy makers in order to directly involve representatives of the target groups in the networking action;
-    to organise devoted workshops in the frame of the already existing events;
-    to support the transnational cooperation and promote consensus building through networking and animation on music education through ICT and online education and training.

The action is expected to impact directly on the target groups addressed during the project lifespan; the long term impact is expected to involve the systems of Education and Training, thus on the subjects thereby concerned (students, teachers, professionals, learners).

The key results of the project action will be:

-    a public, online based database of good practices, inspired by the principles of learning patterns, to be used by teachers, educational institutions and educational/music software providers to integrate music education through ICT;
-    3 yearly European seminars for ICT use in Music Education, especially addressed at the online activities (social networking and online education and training);
-    at least 1 national workshop in at least 4 countries (IT, FR, SE, UK) addressed to music teachers;
-    at least 1 policy seminar in at least 4 countries (IT, FR, SE, UK) addressed to decision and policy makers in the field of music education;
-    at least 4 workshops in the frame of existing events (music related and education/pedagogy related) on Music Education through ICT;
-    at least 2 papers/articles published on the project aims and subjects;
-    the network website, which will be the meeting point of the network, and will include the online database of good practices, other web based resources, the download area, the news section, and collaborative tools if needed;
-    a quarterly online newsletter starting from month 12;
-    paper based dissemination materials, to be used during the fairs and other events (the partners of the consortium are already actively participating the major events in the field);
-    the exploitation plan and the related masterplan for the network sustainability;
-    a set of quality criteria for evaluating the network and its outcomes/outputs.

Project consortium:

P1     IT    Istituto Tecnico Commerciale e per Geometri “A. Deffenu”- Lead Partner
P2    BE    MENON NETWORK EEIG
P3    BE    ESIB – The National Unions of Students in Europe
P4    FR    Lambrakis Foundation  
P5    GR    Steinberg
P6     IT    Midiware
P7    SE    MI-Seven AB
P8    UK    Brightonart Ltd

Duration:
15.01.2009 – 14.01.2012