Designing music composing software with and for middle school students: A collaborative project among senior computer science and music education majors

Abstract

What might be learned through a collaborative project bringing together middle school students, pre-service music educators and senior computer science majors in the development of new webbased music composing software for middle school students? This question framed a collaborative project undertaken by music education majors enrolled in General Music Methods II and senior computer science majors enrolled in GUI Programming II. Our demonstration will share examples of the software developed through the project as well as student compositions created by the middle school students who designed and tested the software. The challenges and surprises faced during the collaborative development process will be shared detailing our implications for future collaborations among our students. We will also present the rationale for our decision-making as professors. Finally, the lessons learned and insights gained by the middle school students and the music education and computer science majors will be shared and discussed.