The Future of Piano Teaching
What technology gives teachers the ability to improve their sight and hearing a thousand-fold and students the ability to learn faster than ever? No, it's not a reboot of "The 6 Million Dollar Man"...it's a technology called "Asynchronous Pedagogy".
What in the world is "Asynchronous Pedagogy"? No, it's not some weird new Star Trek device for time travel (although it does aid in bypassing the limitations of time and space...more on that later...) Let's start with its opposite, "Synchronous Pedagogy". Synchronous Pedagogy is what happens when a teacher and students are working together at the same time simultaneously, either in a classroom or studio setting in person, or over a distance using a live technology like Skype for video lessons. "Asynchronous Pedagogy" happens when the teacher posts material at one time, the student receives and works with the material at a different time, and the teacher responds to students at a later time, and so forth. In the case of piano lessons, Asynchronous Pedagogy - better known as Video Exchange© Learning - is the model that my online piano school uses, where my students post videos of their playing, and I respond with a separately recorded video response.
In this video interview on the Tim Topham Show, I share the reasons why I believe Asynchronous Pedagogy is superior to traditional Synchronous Pedagogy, and how it gives piano teachers "superhuman powers" to teach more effectively, and conversely, for students to learn faster and more effectively.
To learn more about the benefits of Asynchronous Pedagogy for learning to play the piano, be sure to visit my online piano school at http://artistworks.com/hugh-sung
In the midst of our current pandemic and state mandate to close all non-essential businesses and maintain “social distancing” practices, I’ve been focused on helping piano teachers make the transition to become online teachers and learn how to teach one-on-one live lessons online through video conferencing apps, like Zoom. I, myself, have had several years of experience. I started out in 2009, creating a YouTube series called Clair de lune From Scratch. I am still presently to this day, teaching Online Popular Piano at ArtistWorks. Last night, I got an interesting question from someone who was asking for my help, to help a choral teacher in Canada. Is there a way that she could still meaningfully work with her students, even though she’s restricted to staying at home, and restricted to using online collaboration tools like Zoom? Is there a way that a choral teacher can still work with her chorus, when they can’t be in the same room together at the same time?