The Innovation and Gamification of Music Pedagogy
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Mark Laughlin is a 3-time GRAMMY® nominated music educator, and currently serves as Associate Professor of Music at Georgia Southwestern State University where he was the recipient of the 2012-2013 President’s Excellence in University Service Award. His research and teaching strategies on improvisation, and video game music have been featured at over 45 blind peer reviewed conferences including the national conferences of the National Association of Schools of Music, the College Music Society, the National Association for Music Education, Humanities Education and Research Association, Music Teachers National Association, National Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Forum (GP3), and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. Dr. Laughlin has also presented at the International Conference of the College Music Society in Bangkok and Ayuthaya, Thailand, the International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research in Music Pedagogy at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, and the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Association’s National Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Dr. Laughlin serves on the Editorial Board for the Piano Pedagogy Forum, located at the Francis Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy, and has written articles for American Music Teacher, Music in a Minuet, Orchestrating Success, and the Piano Pedagogy Forum. He also has received numerous grants including The National Endowment for the Arts, MENC Teaching Improvisation: Learning & Leadership Grant (Washington, D.C.), and an Affordable Learning Georgia grant for $30,000 to create open educational resources for all music appreciation students at Georgia Southwestern State University.
Type of Presentation
Individual presentation
Brief Description of Presentation
From the first beeps and bleeps of Pong in 1972 to the world’s most-subscribed massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, video games are part of our lives and culture. This presentation will highlight the successes and failures of teaching an online video game music course to the student-at-large. Video Game Music offered a unique pedagogical approach by allowing faculty and students to meet in-game through various MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), and to interactively explore music of various regions within the gaming world in real-time.
Abstract of Proposal
From the first beeps and bleeps of Pong in 1972 to the world’s most-subscribed massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, video games are part of our everyday lives and culture. The presentation will highlight the successes and failures of teaching an online video game music course to the college student-at-large.
Video Game Music offered a unique pedagogical approach by allowing faculty and students to meet in-game through various MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), and to interactively explore music of various regions within the gaming world in real-time. Yes, you read that correctly. Online class meetings were held in-game, in real-time! There is nothing more exciting than escorting 40 students through an untamed harsh world with the ever looming threat of being attacked by a bear or random Orc, all the while discussing the musical elements of a non-diegetic symphonic score set to the background of a mythical world.
The course also required weekly game play, viewing and analysis of music from various gaming zones, written assignments which emphasize analysis and synthesis of music in game-world concepts, discussion boards, exams, critical listening reports, and collaboration (peer-to-peer, faculty-to-student, and faculty-to-class).
Start Date
2-24-2018 8:10 AM
End Date
2-24-2018 9:40 AM
Recommended Citation
Laughlin, Mark, "The Innovation and Gamification of Music Pedagogy" (2018). International Critical Media Literacy Conference. 44.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/criticalmedialiteracy/2018/2018/44
The Innovation and Gamification of Music Pedagogy
From the first beeps and bleeps of Pong in 1972 to the world’s most-subscribed massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, video games are part of our everyday lives and culture. The presentation will highlight the successes and failures of teaching an online video game music course to the college student-at-large.
Video Game Music offered a unique pedagogical approach by allowing faculty and students to meet in-game through various MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), and to interactively explore music of various regions within the gaming world in real-time. Yes, you read that correctly. Online class meetings were held in-game, in real-time! There is nothing more exciting than escorting 40 students through an untamed harsh world with the ever looming threat of being attacked by a bear or random Orc, all the while discussing the musical elements of a non-diegetic symphonic score set to the background of a mythical world.
The course also required weekly game play, viewing and analysis of music from various gaming zones, written assignments which emphasize analysis and synthesis of music in game-world concepts, discussion boards, exams, critical listening reports, and collaboration (peer-to-peer, faculty-to-student, and faculty-to-class).
