Shhh, We're Recording The microphone motivates even the most disaffected students to achieve their potential, says Robert Legg In education, silence is a highly valued and much sought-after commodity. Hard to come by and hard to maintain, it is the stuff of most teachers' dreams. It's not that we're a bunch of old cynics who hate teaching happy and motivated pupils. It's just that from time to time, strange as it may sound, we long for that glorious moment when the giggles and guffaws, the scraping of chairs and the scratching of heads fade into blissful and hushed quiet.

So it's something of a professional boast for me to claim that I achieved this Holy Grail at least 10 times last week in my own classroom. But it happens to be true. Nor are we talking mere pianissimo here, because this was the genuine article: silence in all its splendour! You could have heard the dust settle.

Sad to say, it wasn't the charisma of their teacher that corralled my pupils into this peaceful state. Nor had these 13-year-olds become engrossed in an improving musicological text. In fact, these moments of absolute quiet occurred before and after recordings I made of my pupils' music-making. And what made these moments of almost unprecedented cooperation happen? They were the happy product of introducing a microphone into the learning environment.

Recording in the classroom is more than just a useful way of keeping track of pupils' work. It is a powerful and inspirational force that can motivate even the most disaffected student to achieve his or her potential. Given genuine performance opportunities, most pupils will perform well. But in the real world, where a concert hall and appreciative audience may not always be to hand throughout the working week, such opportunities can be few and far between.
It's lucky, then, that the prospect of being immortalised on minidisk gets the adrenalin pumping like it's never pumped before. Anyone who's ever stood in front of a microphone knows that feeling of exhilaration, heightened awareness and perhaps a little fear.
In return for that pain, the gains are huge. Earnest preparation and hours of practice are inevitably followed by vibrant performances, a sense of success and bolstered self-esteem. Ensemble work often improves significantly, with individuals each making a commitment to work together effectively for the good of the group. And if recordings are kept over time, they provide tangible proof of improvement. Offering pupils the chance to record their work, however, is more than just a substitute for live performance. It also allows a whole new seam of creativity to be mined. Some Year 9 pupils I taught last year, for example, elaborated on a historical topic about the classical era by turning it into a mock TV programme. Using audio-visual recording techniques that they'd learned in class they created a highly developed and highly amusing chat show in which a couple of ineffectual hosts made sofa-talk with Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The characterisation was impeccable – Beethoven drank from the water jug and swore crudely in German – but so too were the musical examples that members of the group had chosen, performed and recorded. None of this would have been achieved without the motivational boost given by the technology they used.

Importantly, bringing recording into the classroom allows pupils to make the connection between ‘classroom' music and ‘mainstream' music culture. It's not surprising, given my pupils' TV diet of Popstars and Pop Idol, that this perceived link brings about a businesslike – if slightly starry-eyed – attitude, and that it raises achievement. Maybe it's all down to that tantalising taste of stardom the microphone offers. Whatever the reason, more and more 16 to 19 year olds are opting to take music technology further, either as a traditional A-Level subject or as a vocational qualification such as the BTEC National Diploma. I put it to one sixth former that a career in pop music might not be a realistic goal. ‘I'm determined to be a singer,' she told me, ‘and even if I don't make it, I'm still learning stuff that'll help me find a job as a studio technician or sound engineer.'

Stevie Pattison-Dick of exams giant Edexcel assured me that dreams of pop stardom aren't always pie in the sky. ‘Our vocational and academic qualifications in music technology are a well-trodden route into the business,' she said. ‘Nowadays you need technical skills as well as talent if you're going to succeed. And we've had to adjust our qualifications to meet the changing needs of the industry.'

Clearly, a certificate in music technology is by no means an automatic passport to fame and fortune. But Edexcel's roll call of stars is pretty impressive. David Gray, Speedway 's Tom Swann, and Emma Bunton all studied music technology before fame came knocking. James Walsh and James Stelfox of Starsailor met on their music tech course and Justin Hawkins of The Darkness holds a BTEC National Diploma in the subject. Other former technology students include Katie Melua, Blur's Graham Coxon and sultry jazz-soul singer Sade.

But let's face it: most English students won't write a Middlemarch, most artists don't paint a Mona Lisa and – karaoke notwithstanding – most A-Level musicians do not become pop stars. The beauty of using recording technology in the classroom is that this doesn't really matter: it's a life-enhancing, fun activity that nurtures all kinds of worthwhile qualities in children and adults alike. As for my staff room boast about the brief moments of classroom serenity, I don't think anyone's impressed. Total silence it may have been – but the music department is proud to be the loudest in the school, so in the silent stakes I've got some serious catching up to do.

Robert Legg is an Advanced Skills Teacher and head of music at a large comprehensive in Oxfordshire