Concurrent Collaborative Analysis: Integration of Technology for Peer-Learning

In order to capitalize on the characteristics of the Millennial generation, faculty members at Appalachian State University and Washington College created two separate analysis assignments in the Spring of 2013 and the Spring of 2014. It was imperative that the assignments be collaborative and interactive, include the latest technologies, and enable students to create a new experience that broke the barriers set out by our brick and mortar classroom walls. The assignment had to serve a wide range of students from very different backgrounds with differing levels of analytical abilities. The ultimate goal and purpose of the project was to have a wide range of students find commonalities between themselves, identify analytical strengths and weaknesses, and take initiative to relate their thoughts to the rest of the group. All of this interaction was to happen solely through technological resources. The study sought to answer three main questions: How would students from two extremely different institutions, taught with two different theoretical approaches, begin a musical analysis; how would students embrace the social and technological applications involved; and how would students work through any disagreements in terms of analytical discoveries.