City Music Center Launches Online Musicianship Program
The City Music Center (CMC) has launched a new mobile musicianship program for students in grades 8-12, in conjunction with its successful music technology program.
The program and its curriculum were developed by Adjunct Professor of Musicianship Jordan Mroziak to fit into CMC Director Christopher Bromley’s vision of a more modern education method for today’s youth. “Chris and I began the discussion of shaping an entirely online musicianship program that would provide grounding in both written theory and aural/oral skills,” Mroziak said. “In my ongoing education, I focus on implementing educational technology in studies of music and the arts. This seemed like a fantastic opportunity to create an innovative program for students that would leverage culturally relevant and state-of-the-art technologies for their learning experiences.”
Unlike what is experienced in the traditional classroom, students in the mobile musicianship program utilize the Blackboard online learning platform to participate in classes and to complete coursework from anywhere, at any time. The classes are taught by CMC faculty who post class materials, online videos and iPad apps to help students learn the material while answering questions along the way.
According to Bromley, the online program’s curriculum and delivery methods can be tailored for use as supplemental learning in the traditional classroom or to provide a cost-effective option for public schools with financially struggling music programs. Other options include offering the program to home-schooled and cyber school students who may not have music courses as a standard part of their curriculum.
The CMC’s musicianship program represents an overall shift in education practices from a brick-and-mortar classroom to a mobile education solution that is easily molded to fit any schedule, learning ability or location. These themes move to decentralize learning from the classroom, allowing students to complete coursework on their time as they are able.
According to Mroziak, “this type of learning, where the student is increasingly self-directed while having a wealth of educational experiences in the palm of their hand, promises to become a standard way of learning as we move into the future. Helping students learn how to learn is a foundational goal of the program and a necessary skill for education in the 21st century.”
There are 10 CMC students enrolled in the online musicianship program for the 2012-2013 school year.