Volume III, No. 2 – April 2020
To our Augsburg Music community,
Welcome, once again, to our Occasional Updates for Augsburg University Music! Despite the frequent priority of solo work as a hallmark of musical achievement, most of us experience music-making as a social event. Meaningful music learning and experience derive from the shared act of preparing and executing performances.
Thus, the coronavirus has had an enormous impact on the “normal” work of the Department of Music and required us to think in creative ways about keeping our students engaged in active learning while practicing social distance and isolation. The typical final weeks of the semester, marked with concerts and recitals, preparation for commencement, juries, final exams, grading, and other rituals that mark academic transitions, have given way to exploring how today’s technology can be leveraged to support continuation of student learning. What we have learned, of course, is that technology has two dimensions. On the one hand, it provides avenues of staying in touch from our places of “distance” that can help us feel connected; on the other, it is a weak substitute for the necessity of face to face, real-time, feelingful interaction with others.
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