Video Game Music: The Gamification of Music Pedagogy

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

Mark Laughlin, Georgia Southwestern State UniversityFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southwestern State University

Second Presenter's Institution

NA

Third Presenter's Institution

NA

Fourth Presenter's Institution

NA

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Scarbrough 5

Strand #1

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Strand #2

Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

Video Game Music: The Gamification of Music Pedagogy address the "HEAD": Academic Achievement & Leadership, and the "HEART": Social & Emotional Skills by providing examples of innovative approaches to teaching music at low to no cost to the students, teachers, and school system. It utilizes technology in a way that encourages intrinsic motivation and empowers students by fostering leadership skills, achievement motivation, communication skills, collaboration, cooperative learning, and helps to build self-esteem.

Brief Program Description

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

Summary

As music educators we are constantly re-evaluating our teaching approaches and techniques to find innovative ways to incorporate the National Standards for Music Education, and technology into the curriculum. Depending on what level of academia you teach, you may have additional standards or requirements which must also be addressed. For example, your additional standards may include Writing Across the Curriculum, STEM, STEAM, and/or specific Student Learning Objectives (SLO). I wanted to create an avenue that could be used to meet these goals, while creating a unique and interactive learning environment for my students that could occur outside the classroom. Thus, Video Game Music was born.

Why video games? First, video games by their very nature are intrinsically motivating. Games have built in goals, objectives, achievements, and rewards. Second, games have very effective pedagogical principles that are utilized: problem-solving, decision-making, application of abstract knowledge to authentic situations, and assessment of that learning and understanding through game progression.

Evidence

I have utilized video games in various courses that I teach over the past 3 years. Video Game Music was an extremely unique course in that it allowed class meetings between faculty and students to occur in-game in in-real time. This is one of, if not the first, course to offer in-game meetings in-real time.

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Mark Laughlin is a 3-time GRAMMY® nominated music educator, and currently serves as tenured 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, 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 a $30,000 grant from the Affordable Learning Georgia program of the University System of Georgia.

Mark and his wife Leigh, who is a full-time Lecturer in criminal justice at Georgia Southwestern State University, live in Americus with their two children: Robin (13), and Ian (2).

Keyword Descriptors

Video Game Music, Video Games, Music, Music Pedagogy, Technology, Innovation

Presentation Year

2018

Start Date

3-5-2018 3:00 PM

End Date

3-5-2018 4:15 PM

Recommended Citation

Laughlin, Mark, "Video Game Music: The Gamification of Music Pedagogy" (2018). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 52.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2018/2018/52