MPAME-GE 2035 – 3 Units – Technological Trends in Music Education
Designing Technologies & Experiences for Music Making, Learning and Engagement
Thursdays – 4:55pm-6:35pm – EDUC 877 – Fall 2013
In this course students will work individually and in teams in the design of music technologies and/or experiences for music making, learning and engagement. The course will begin with an introduction to emerging trends in music technology and education, especially related to web- and mobile-based musical experiences and principles of making music with new media. Innovations in and applications of music production, musical interaction, technology design, musical experience design, user-centered design & engagement, scaffolded learning, musical metadata, pedagogies of play and making, and music entrepreneurship will also be explored.
Students will identify an audience of end users (e.g., students, fans, friends, adults, community members, professional musicians, etc.) with whom they will collaborate in the design of their technology and/or experience. Students will participate in an iterative design process with their chosen audience, moving at least twice through a prototyping, implementation, and revision cycle of their music technology and/or experience design.
At the end of the semester, students will present their projects to the class and to an external panel of educators, technology developers, music industry professionals, and venture capitalists. This panel will provide feedback on each project and award small seed-funding grants to selected students and/or teams to work with Dr. Ruthmann in the Spring 2014 semester to potentially license, commercialize or distribute their projects with community and industry partners.
About the Instructor
S. Alex Ruthmann is a researcher, educator, and musician whose research and practice explores new media musicianship, creative computing, the creative processes of young musical creators, and the development of music and media technologies for use in school- and community-based youth programs. He and his collaborators are the recipients of two National Science Foundation grants exploring the interdisciplinary teaching of computational and musical thinking. Ruthmann currently serves as President of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction, Past Chair of the Creativity special research interest group of the Society for Research in Music Education, as Co-Editor of the International Journal of Education & the Arts, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Music, Technology, and Education. He also serves on the editorial/advisory boards of the British Journal of Music Education and International Journal of Music Education: Practice. Ruthmann received an interdisciplinary B.Mus. degree from the University of Michigan in Music and Technology, and M.Mus. and Ph.D. degrees in Music Education from Oakland University. Active in social media, you can follow his curated posts on music learning, teaching and technology as @alexruthmann on Twitter and on his research blog http://experiencingaudio.org/.
Any questions about the course may be directed to alex.ruthmann@nyu.edu.