Learning Theories and Technology-Based Learning Approaches

This chapter introduces the most relevant learning theories and their implications for the design of music education applications. Understanding learning theories means analyzing in depth the processes that lead to obtaining information and deriving meaning from it. There are important relationships between the goals to be achieved and the application’s instructional design, which depend also on the available technologies. All these interconnections are the core of the present chapter, which encompasses psychological research, learning theories, application design, and actual examples. The final section focuses on the changes that occurred between the actors of the learning process (students, teachers, and knowledge mediated by technological means) as a consequence of the advent of communication technologies. Formal and informal learning, online and blended learning form a composite ensemble of educational possibilities which teachers are called to confront.