Now that the semester is finished, papers marked, and grades assigned, I am starting to clean out my office at Indiana State. However, instead of sorting, reorganizing and planning for next year, I am boxing everything up in preparation for my upcoming move to beautiful Lowell, Massachusetts.
Beginning September 1, I will join the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. I am so excited to join my good friend and colleague, Dr. Gena Greher, at UMass Lowell. Over the past 6 years, she has helped to build a phenomenal music teacher preparation program. One of the most impressive aspects of the program is the depth and breadth of the partnerships among the music department and local schools. In each music education course, students have extensive experiences in the local schools applying what they learn on campus to real-life situations with real students. During one of my campus visits, I was impressed by the number of local K-12 students on campus after school. Almost every night of the week there are local students participating in after school honor ensembles, creative sound play classes and the UML String Project. Many schools have similar programs, but none that I know of are infused so extensively in the local community. And, very few music education programs truly integrate hands-on field experiences as extensively as UML.
Also of note are the innovative general education courses that bring together the arts, sciences and local community. Students can take interdisciplinary courses like Performamatics, ArtBotics, and Radical Design. Each of these courses have major service learning components interfacing UML students with the local community. One project I hope to become involved with is their Assistive Technology Program. It would be great to work with the engineering students on developing music specific assistive technologies for special needs students. I wish I had these kinds of courses in my undergrad!
UML Music Education and GUI Programming students working together to create
original graphic notation software in the Spring 2008 Performamatics course.This Fall I will be teaching courses in music education research and technology in music education. I get a little bit of relief in my teaching load so that I can spend some time in the local schools getting to know the program and area. My Technology in Music Education students will be working closely with music technology classes at Lowell High School exploring innovative ways of using technology in their own teaching through working with real students and teachers in real classrooms. I’ll be updating this blog much more regularly as a part of that course in particular.
Dr. Greher and I are already starting to brainstorm new professional development and Masters-level courses in composing and technology for Summer 2009. Dr. Greher brings extensive experience in technology and creative musicianship as a former music producer for the advertising industry and from her work with the Teachers College Creative Arts Lab in New York City. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months!
With the change in job comes a change in contact information. My new email address is Alex_Ruthmann @ uml.edu. I will continue to check my ISU email through the end of the summer, however.