Project Lovelace research is divided into two main components: research in gender and music technology and research into music-technology's place in new music education programs and classes.

Gender and Music Technology

A growing body of research has uncovered a gloomy reality of life for many adolescent girls: Girls are often plagued with a notable drop in self-esteem that may be coupled with a pre-occupation with physical appearance (American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, 1992). As early as 1994, the National Center for Educational Statistics reported that boys are more likely than girls to enroll in computer courses. Another issue relevant to education is the decline in the number of students in performance-based music programs as teens move from middle school to high school.

Research suggests that reasons for this decline include attitudes towards school music programs, friendship patterns, societal expectations, institutional structures, and teaching practices (O’Neill, 2002). O’Neill states that negative attitudes evolve as a result of a mismatch between the needs of the students and the opportunities offered by the school music programs.

The field of music technology, although still in its infancy, has been dominated by males presumably because of the double penalty that results from the intersection of reduced participation by girls in computer science and a growing disinterest in school music programs. A complex cascade of filters, some imposed by society, others by our schools, diminishes the number of women who consider careers in music technology (Simoni, 1995). Poised on the threshold of this new field, we are presented a unique opportunity to thwart issues of gender equality and equity. Music technology should not be plagued by a musicology of “compensatory history” (Solie, 1997), but should equally showcase the contributions of both men and women. Intervention and change should occur in both elementary and secondary education to seize the threatened destiny of music technology (Simoni, 2006).

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A Music Education Focus on Non-Performance Based Programs

Public school-based music programs grew out of a variety of practices in the late 1800s and early 1900s, including military bands, European-based orchestras and conservatories, and singing schools. These were performance-based programs whose curricula were  guided by the activity of the ensembles and repertoire, thus shaping the knowledge and skills, and musical experiences that students acquired. General music programs, which began appearing in elementary schools during the early to mid 1950s provided opportunities for musical experiences that were grounded in performance, movement, and listening. Organization of the curriculum was inspired by conceptual considerations, thus concepts (i.e., musical elements) shaped the sequence of the knowledge and skills acquired, This, in turn, provided a variety ways to experience music: singing, moving, playing classroom instruments, and listening.

Inquiry about the kinds of musical engagements and repertoire students experienced lead to a variety of symposia and programs during the late 1950s and1960s including the Young Composers Project, Yale Symposium, Julliard Repertory Project, Tanglewood Symposium, and the GO Project. These symposia and programs provided fuel for thinking about how students interacted with music in school-based music programs. During the 1970s and 1980s, MENC created a task force that brought together thinkers in the field to determine components of what music education should look and feel like. As a result, documents were created outlining (1) ways in which students should be engaged, (2) characteristics of quality music programs from K-12, and (3) physical spaces that were needed for such programs to exist. Extensions and refinements of this thinking culminated in The National Standards for Arts Education (MENC, 1994), a document that suggests all students should experience music in a variety of ways, which collectively define nine standards. One way is composing with and without technology.

These documents required music educators to think about ways to engage students in music making, including, but not limited to, the rich performance-based musical experiences (i.e., band, choir, and orchestra) that, for the most part, have defined high school music programs throughout the country. While these experiences are rich in musical expression, the total population typically enrolled in these programs account for 15-25% of high school students. One wonders, then, about those students who elect not to participate in the ensembles throughout their high school experiences. What musical experiences do these students encounter, where do those experiences occur and with whom? What kind of learning occurs, and could it be captured for analysis? If so, what might such analysis show? An body of research literature is emerging in which teenagers have been studied while engaged in other forms of music making, including composition, with and without technology. Some of that literature is presented as part of this project.