Abstract:

In 2015 World Economic Forum defined what they consider to be the 16 most critical 21st century skills needed for a student to thrive in an ever faster evolving technology mediated world. The challenge is how higher education can provide the students with these skills by delivering foundational literacies, supporting the competence and character qualities needed in a lifelong learning environment.

The student’s acquirement of these skills needs a new type of learning/teaching environment and consequently, The University of Oslo (UiO) and The Norwegian University of Science and technology (NTNU) are cooperating on the development of a common master's programme in Music, communication, and technology. In this programme you will learn to use and develop music technological methods and tools, and reflect on how technology shapes human communication. You will be educated to use your music technology skills also in non-musical settings, taking on complex societal challenges in multidisciplinary teams.

The framework of the master programme has a strong foundation, based on the existing complementary human and technological resources located on each campus. There is a climate for cooperation between industry, government, and the university, where innovation and student creativity are nurtured.

However, there are many challenges in how to design a framework which safeguards the development of the 21st century student skills. Many factors need to be taken into consideration: Learning space, pedagogy and methodology, technology, communication and collaboration, resource allocation, infrastructure, curriculum, assessment.

Not to forget that the student group is physically split between Oslo and Trondheim, 500 kilometers apart. The communication between the two campuses will be supported by a "Portal" designed with LOLA - a low latency, high quality audio/video transmission system for network musical performances and interaction. In addition, it is up to the students to find, develop, evaluate, and maintain the tools which fulfills their need for communication, collaboration, and interaction.

All these factors and more, needs to be taken into consideration to create the new framework for a joint learning environment between the two universities.

In this paper, we will present some of the models and ideas to develop the student’s personal skills and provide the technical tools and methodes required to work out solutions to contemporary societal challenges in international and interdisciplinary teams.
This is a different Master’s programme. Music is at the core, but the scope is larger. You will be educated as a technological humanist, with technical, reflective, and aesthetic skills. We believe that the solutions to tomorrow’s societal challenges need to be based on intimate links between technological competence, musical sensibility, humanistic reflection, and a creative sense.

Keywords:

Music technology, learning space, collaboration, communication, interaction.