Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Orchestrating tangible music interfaces for in-classroom music learning through a fairy tale: The case of ImproviSchool

  • Published:
Education and Information Technologies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Ubiquitous music is a relatively new research area which seeks ways to involve novices in music learning, playing and improvisation. Despite the ambitious goals, ubiquitous music is still unknown territory in schools. In this study, we have tried to identify whether ubiquitous music environments can enable novice music students to participate in meaningful learning activities in a short period of time inside the school classroom. The proposed approach, named ImproviSchool, consists of two basic elements: a) a set of tangible music interfaces, and b) a fairy tale for which the students are asked to compose a soundtrack. The fairy tale is broken down into smaller episodes and for each one, the students are asked to compose a music score and dramatize the narration. At the end, students have to perform their creations in front of an audience. The whole process is aimed to last only two sessions of 2 school hours. ImproviSchool was applied in two 4th grade school classrooms of 15 students each, with the aim of evaluating both the set of the music tangible interfaces and the instructional approach. Data were collected through questionnaires and focus groups with the students as well as an interview with the music teacher. Students found the “music images” for playing and composing music easy, attractive, expressive, and enjoyable, and within a very short time frame, they created their own musical arrangements. Students showed enthusiastic with what they had produced and with their performance while at the same time achieving music learning objectives regarding instrument recognition, rhythm, pitch, volume and execution style. The realization of such a demanding activity in just 2 sessions shows that ubiquitous music can radically change the way in which musical learning evolves in schools.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Antle, A. N., & Wise, A. F. (2013). Getting down to details: Using theories of cognition and learning to inform tangible user interface design. Interacting with Computers, 25(1), 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, S., van den Hoven, E., & Antle, A. N. (2011). MoSo tangibles: Evaluating embodied learning. In Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction (pp. 85-92). ACM.

  • Bean, A., Siddiqi, S., Chowdhury, A., Whited, B., Shaer, O., & Jacob, R. J. (2008). Marble track audio manipulator (MTAM): A tangible user interface for audio composition. In Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Tangible and embedded interaction (pp. 27-30). ACM.

  • Bergstrom, I., & Lotto, R. B. (2016). Soma: Live musical performance in which congruent visual, auditory and proprioceptive stimuli fuse to form a combined aesthetic narrative. Leonardo.

  • Birchfield, D., Ciufo, T., & Minyard, G. (2006). SMALLab: a mediated platform for education. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Educators program. ACM.

  • Clair, M. S., & Leitman, S. (2009). PlaySoundGround: An interactive musical playground. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2009) (pp. 293-296). Carnegie Mellon University.

  • Costanza, E., Shelley, S. B., & Robinson, J. (2003). Introducing audio d-touch: A tangible user interface for music composition and performance. In Proceedings of the 6th Int. Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFX-03).

  • Diao, W., Momeni, A., & Kelliher, A. (2010). NoteCubes: Learning notes and rhythms with spatial sense. Retrieved from http://idc2014.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/idc20140_submission_190.pdf Accessed 27 Dec 2016.

  • Erkut, C., Serafin, S., Fehr, J., Figueira, H. M., Hansen, T. B., Kirwan, N. J., & Zakarian, M. R. (2014). Design and evaluation of interactive musical fruit. In Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Interaction design and children (pp. 197-200). ACM.

  • Funk, M., Hengeveld, B., Frens, J., & Rauterberg, M. (2013). Aesthetics and design for group music improvisation. In International conference on distributed, ambient, and pervasive interactions (pp. 368–377). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grønbæk, J. E., Jakobsen, K. B., Petersen, M. G., Rasmussen, M. K., Winge, J., & Stougaard, J. (2016). Designing for children's collective music making: How spatial orientation and configuration matter. In Proceedings of the 9th Nordic conference on human-computer interaction (p. 60-69). ACM.

  • Jakobsen, K. B., Stougaard, J., & Petersen, M. G. (2016). Expressivity in open-ended constructive play: Building and playing musical lego instruments. In Proceedings of the The 15th International conference on interaction design and children (pp. 46-57). ACM.

  • Jørgensen, M. H., Knudsen, A. S., Wilmot, T. M., Lund, K. D., Serafin, S., & Purwins, H. (2015). A mobile music museum experience for children. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2015) (pp. 36-37). Louisiana State University.

  • Keller, D., Flores, L. V., Pimenta, M. S., Capasso, A., & Tinajero, P. (2011). Convergent trends toward ubiquitous music. Journal of New Music Research, 40(3), 265–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, D., Otero, N., & Costalonga, L. (2015b). Aesthetic heuristics in ubimus. In Proceedings of the conference on electronic visualisation and the arts (pp. 64-71). British computer society.

  • Keller, D., Miletto, M., & Otero, N. (2015c). Creative surrogates: Supporting decision-making in ubiquitous musical activities. In Proceedings of the third conference on computation, communication, aesthetics and X xCoAx 2015 (pp. 168-183). xCoAx.

  • Keller, D., Otero, N., Lazzarini, V., Pimenta, M. S., de Lima, M. H., Johann, M., & Costalonga, L. (2015a). Interaction aesthetics and ubiquitous music. In Creativity in the digital age (pp. 91–105). London: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kostandinidis, G. (2011). Kapote stin Melodioupoli. Agira Publishing.

  • Malcangi, M., & Ludovico, A. L. (2014). Meta-instrument and natural user Interface: A new paradigm in music education. In 13th International Academic Conference. International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.

  • Marshall, P. (2007). Do tangible interfaces enhance learning?. In Proceedings of the 1st International conference on tangible and embedded interaction (pp. 163-170). ACM.

  • Miletto, E. M., Pimenta, M. S., Bouchet, F., Sansonnet, J. P., & Keller, D. (2011). Principles for music creation by novices in networked music environments. Journal of New Music Research, 40(3), 205–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montessori, M. (1949). Childhood education. Illinois: Henry regency Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Papert, S. (1993). The children's machine: Rethinking school in the age of the computer. New York: Basic books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patten, J., Recht, B., & Ishii, H. (2006). Interaction techniques for musical performance with tabletop tangible interfaces. In Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGCHI international conference on Advances in computer entertainment technology (p. 27-33). ACM.

  • Piaget, J. (1972). Intellectual evolution from adolescence to adulthood. Human Development, 15(1), 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pimenta, M. S., Keller, D., & Lazzarini, V. (2014). Ubiquitous music: A manifesto. In D. Keller & V. Lazzarini (Eds.), pp. 9–22. Springer.

  • Price, S., Rogers, Y., Scaife, M., Stanton, D., & Neale, H. (2003). Using ‘tangibles’ to promote novel forms of playful learning. Interacting with Computers, 15(2), 169–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Resnick, M., Martin, F., Berg, R., Borovoy, R., Colella, V., Kramer, K., & Silverman, B. (1998a). Digital manipulatives: New toys to think with. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 281-287). ACM.

  • Resnick, M., Martin, F., Berg, R., Borovoy, R., Colella, V., Kramer, K., & Silverman, B. (1998b). Digital manipulatives: New toys to think with. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 281-287). ACM.

  • Stiny, G. (1980). Kindergarten grammars: Designing with Froebel's building gifts. Environment and planning B, 7(4), 409–462.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tidjani, A., Cho, E., & Lee, P. (2016). MuSme: A tangible skin suit for music creation. In Proceedings of the TEI'16: Tenth international conference on tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction (pp. 743-748). ACM.

  • Triantafyllakos, G., Palaigeorgiou, G., & Tsoukalas, I. A. (2011). Designing educational software with students through collaborative design games: The we! Design& Play framework. Computers & Education, 56(1), 227–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turkle, S. (2011). Evocative objects: Things we think with. MIT press.

  • Van Troyer, A. (2012). DrumTop: Playing with Everyday Objects. In Proceedings of the 2012 Conference on new interfaces for musical expression, (NIME). University of Michigan.

  • Volpe, G., Varni, G., Addessi, A. R., & Mazzarino, B. (2012). BeSound: Embodied reflexion for music education in childhood. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 172-175). ACM.

  • Waranusast, R., Bang-ngoen, A., & Thipakorn, J. (2013). Interactive tangible user interface for music learning. In 2013 28th International Conference on Image and Vision Computing New Zealand (IVCNZ 2013) (pp. 400-405). IEEE.

  • Zigelbaum, J., Millner, A., Desai, B., & Ishii, H. (2006). BodyBeats: Whole-body, musical interfaces for children. In CHI'06 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1595-1600). ACM.

  • Zuckerman, O., Arida, S., & Resnick, M. (2005). Extending tangible interfaces for education: Digital montessori-inspired manipulatives. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 859-868). ACM.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Primary Education, University of Western Macedonia, 3rd klm. National Road Florina – Niki, GR-53 100, Florina, Greece

    George Palaigeorgiou

  2. School of Science & Technology, Hellenic Open University, Patra, Greece

    Christos Pouloulis

Authors
  1. George Palaigeorgiou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christos Pouloulis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to George Palaigeorgiou.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Palaigeorgiou, G., Pouloulis, C. Orchestrating tangible music interfaces for in-classroom music learning through a fairy tale: The case of ImproviSchool. Educ Inf Technol 23, 373–392 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-017-9608-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-017-9608-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation