Carol Johnson

Carol Johnson (Ph.D., M.M., B.Ed.) is a Senior Lecturer in Music (Online Learning and Educational Technologies) at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

She received her PhD in Educational Technology (Learning Sciences) from the University of Calgary (Calgary, AB), her Master of Music degree from Belmont University (Nashville, TN) and her Bachelor of Education (Secondary Music and Mathematics) from the University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB). She is the inaugural Werklund Doctoral Fellow (2014-2015). She has received over $90,000 in awards and scholarships for her research, academic achievement and music performance.

Carol’s career expertise covers three major arenas: saxophone performance, online music and technology innovation and pedagogy. An innovative and established music educator and professional recording artist (two solo saxophone instrumental releases), Carol has also given her leadership to assist local and international and international arts communities (e.g., CADA - Calgary Arts Development Association). She has assisted in the establishment of two music schools for rural music students in Resistencia, Argentina and Guazacapan, Guatemala. Carol's educational contributions focus on building resources for future musicians and music educators. She is the founder of The Virtual School of Music and her contribution to teaching young students (e.g., Music Discovery for Kids resources) have been recognized and endorsed by numerous Grammy award winners, including Robert Sterling, Chester Thompson, and saxophonist, Kirk Whalum.

Carol believes that supporting learners in developing their skills as active participants in their learning is key to developing our future musicians, and education leaders and researchers. As such, she has spent the majority of her teaching career supporting learners (both students and faculty) through experiential learning activities. This includes eight years of teaching post-secondary and three years teaching K-12. Her undergraduate music courses (i.e., Music Theory, Music Technology and Applied Saxophone), and masters level education courses (i.e., Inquiry and Society, Distributed Technologies in Education and Design-Based Assessment) supported students through the use of technologies and innovations through participatory and collaborative pedagogical scaffolding and learning tasks. Her earlier tenure as an Educational Consultant for a school board with 8,000 teachers, and eight years as facilitator/producer for the Online Learning Consortium (formerly known as Sloan-C) focused on creating online professional development courses for higher education faculty and administrators. These courses provided participants with resources they could immediately use and activities that they could develop for use with their own faculty and students.

Carol’s research is centred around online music education and teaching and learning online. This research explores teaching and learning in the online environment (i.e., teaching and learning music online, development of online music pedagogy) as well as researching innovations for teaching and learning through technology implementation and adoption (i.e., technology/innovation adoption for faculty, collaborative learning, online orientation programs for students, and makerspaces).

Building on her educational leadership and professional writing expertise to develop music curricula, Carol has witnessed how music education not only enhances the human experience, but how it can empower a community to rise above social inequalities. Seeking to provide music education for all people groups, whether geographically isolated or financially impoverished, Carol continues to research ways to use current technology to connect music students with expert music educators.

See https://research.carolj.net for more specific research detail.