Abstract

The difficulty in successfully applying technology to education lies in two directions: (1) correctly identifying an educational problem that has proven difficult or impossible to solve using traditional approaches and media, and (2) correctly identifying a specific attribute of a particular technology that, by its very nature, renders that educational problem solvable by its application in an appropriate fashion. This paper presents some typical examples of such specific problems and illustrates how they can be effectively solved by the application of particular attributes of specific media. The examples chosen focus on the problems of learning music and the technological attributes selected in the illustrative solutions focus on computer-based multimedia. To present a broader situational picture than might be suggested by musical learning examples alone, some examples from other educational areas are also included. To present a broader insight into correctly identifying the most appropriate attributes of media, some instances of other than computer-based multimedia are also included.

Introduction

In applying computer-based media to education problems, if one hopes to successfully solve, or partially solve the problems involved, a number of important things must be done. This paper only deals directly with three, and they are closely related. The applier must :

(1) clearly identify the exact educational problem for which a solution is sought;

(2) clearly identify the attribute or attributes of a particular medium which uniquely address that exact problem; and

(3) design a solution that brings the two together.

Neither(1) nor (2) alone can yield a successful solution. If one does not know what problem is being addressed, how can one know when the solution is in hand? This seems so obvious as to be trivial, yet many educational applications being proposed, described in the research literature, or even marketed address no problem more specific than that education is not succeeding in some subject or other, or (vaguer yet) that education is not succeeding in general.

Similarly, if one does not thoroughly know the attributes of the medium proposed, how can one tell how use of that medium will affect the problem. Typically, one is encouraged to believe that simply because the remedy incorporates new technology, it will inevitably improve education or solve the general problem of learning in some subject or other.

Finally, if the solution designed does not specify exactly how to bring the attribute of medium to bear on the problem spcified, how will any solution be effected?

In presenting these particular tasks, this paper focuses on a specific curricular area, music, and a particular medium, computer-based media, to make the presentation concrete. It then takes the following form. First, it lists and elaborates some exemplary specific problems associated with learning music. Second, it lists and elaborates some specific attributes of computer-based media applicable to learning problems. Third, it suggests a foundation for bringing the two together by listing and elaborating characteristics of some narrow educational problems that are addressable by the attributes listed. Fourth, it presents a number of solutions which bring together music problems and computer-based media attributes. Fifth, it concludes by briefly suggesting extensions to other curricular areas and to broader educational problems.

(2) Specific attributes of computer-based media applicable to learning problems.

While a full catalogue is well beyond the scope of this brief essay, several unique attributes make computer based media powerful and capable of addressing specific, focused educational problems. Ten of the most important are:(1) event suspension, (2) event resurrection, (3) image and event stacking, (4) time alteration, (5) alternative representation,(6) modularity, (7) direct access, (8) feedbacksensitive iteration, (9)state transformation, and (10) multiple parallel transformations, Others exist, have been discussed elsewhere, and should continue to be discussed as teacher training is redefined to incorporate computerbased technology, but we will restrict ourselves to these ten here. None, I think, is appreciated as fully as it should be, in terms of its contribution to education. In the third section of this paper, several of these attributes, though not all, will be applied to solve the musical problems such as those just raised.

(1) Event suspension. One of the most useful and farreaching characteristics of a computerbased system is its capability to suspend a particular event or process in midstream, preserving all the essential information necessary to resume that event at some later time, exactly from the point at which it was suspended. Since this capability depends upon extensive, high-speed memory , the potential for this characteristic has increased steadily as computer technology has developed. This characteristic underlies many of the other unique characteristics attributed to computerbased media, especially state resurrection and image and event stacking. It is through those characteristics that the power of event suspension reveals itself.

An example is provided by someone is in the process of writing an email message about a fax recently sent, who wishes to include a paragraph from the fax in the email message. They suspend the email writing, and activate their wordprocessing package and the file containing the fax. Every detail of the email system is suspending while this person activates the wordprocessing package, finds the file containing the fax text, and retrives a copy of the relevant portion of the text, to copy into the email message.

(2) Event Resurrection. A second interesting property of computers that permeates computer based media, a property totally dependent upon event suspension, is event resurrection: the ability to resurrect, at will, an appropriately suspended event, state, or set of conditions from some earlier temporal point in the computing situation in which the user is currently engaged. Thus, providing the system has been designed appropriately, an earlier draft of a text, a stage of a program, or a version of a picture can each be resurrected and returned to by the user should she or he decide to. Given that fear of failure is a mighty inhibitor of bold creative moves, this reduction of risks is educationally highly desirable. The nature of most older media made every mistake permanent, multiplying both risk and its consequences, so this characteristic of computing carries great, new potential for improving the learning environment significantly.

An example would be the reverse of (1) above. The author of the email message has resurrected the email system from its suspension, has deposited the desired portion of the fax text in the email message, and is continuing with the writing of that message once more. Every detail of the email system has been resurrected, and everything is in tact, exactly as it was when suspended.

(3) Image and suspended event stacking. A third computing characteristic that contributes to fruitful applications in education is the capability to stack up suspended events or images2 and successively resurrect, in any order, any appropriate subset of them. This characteristic presupposes both state resurrection and event suspension but its power is much more striking. Stacking occurs whenever more than one event is suspended at the same time. If the supporting software is so designed, the user of the system may have considerable leeway at any time as to which event to resurrect next. This stacking is so routine that most users no longer take notice of it, but all systems depend heavily upon it in a variety of ways. Typical windows applications or the routine Macintosh desktop activity shows many events stacked up and waiting to be resumed at the user's will.

(4) Time alteration. A fourth attribute of computerbased systems is duration alteration: the ability to (a) compress into a short time either the actual or the simulated fullterm occurrence of an activity which otherwise would take prohibitively long, or (b) distend over a longer than normal time the duration of some activity that passes too quickly for analsysis or appreciation. Thus in minutes rather than hours or even days, the student or teacher can graphically and analytically explore the dozens of mathematical graphs and solutions to a particular type of equation that only in such abundance can reveal the generality and powerful elegance of mathematical expression and thought. Or, though their actual counterparts would take days, weeks, or even years, experiments and events can be simulated in seconds or minutes, thus bringing within a manageable time frame experiences that, without computer simulation, would be simply too time consuming to study at all.

(5) Alternative representation. A fifth interesting property of computerbased media is the support for alternative representation: the ability to easily and clearly represent and manipulate alternatives of all kinds for the textual representation of information  pictures, sound, and even tactile phenomena. Much of art and science have always been far more accessible to those who could visually represent and visually manipulate what they were trying to explain or understand. Through new color printing techniques, video, and other newer media have increased, any can visually represent things much more accurately and easily than has ever been the case before, even when dynamic motion is a component of the representation. And with digital sound, another form of representation is made accessible.

(6) Modularity. Another essential characteristic of computing that supports its productive application to education is modularity. The manner in which computer software and hardware have been designed seems to foster as well a discreteness between the modules so that each can be looked at and dealt with separately, with minimal interference with other component modules. Of course modularity is essential to the suspension and resurrection characteristics already mentioned. The ability to treat overall representation of each process underway as a separate, discrete module is crucial to the ability to suspend or resume the process. But such modularity is an important aspect of problem solving and of creation in general, too, modularity has other implications as well. In fact, to the extent that working with computerbased systems reveals and clarifies the nature of modularity to users, makes them more conscious of its implications, and encourages them develop a modular approach behavior and thought themselves, it fosters educationally productive behavior.

(7) Direct access. Another characteristic that can appear in computerbased materials to sharply distinguish them from more traditional educational material is direct access. This refers to the possibility of easily accessing any particular segment of information in a collection, regardless of its actual physical beginning, middle, end, top, bottom, left, right, and so forth). Traditional material is typically arranged in an organization dominated by sequence that assumes the user will go from A to D by passing through B and C. For example, material in a book can also be assessed directly by page, or via the index or table of contents, but the time required is noticeable different depending on where in the book the desired information is, and shockingly different if instead of a single book, the information is in a multivolume set of books. Information on a video tape is even more difficult to access directly, without physically accessing at least some of the information immediately adjacent to the desired segment. Similar problems occur when accessing information on audio tape.

(8) Feedback-sensitive iteration. A very useful capability is certainly the one that allows a computerbased device to repeat a given set of actions exactly. But a far more powerful dimension is added by the capability of setting the device to repeat this process of iteration only if, and only so long as, a particular condition or fact of some sort is true. If, as in its most powerful instance, the fact is some feature of the entity which is an element in the iteration activity, then the options for the device to be "selfregulating" are astounding. Spelling checkers in word processors, for example, iteratively search for cases of a particular spelling in a dictionary, until the right spelling or a closest one is found, then they stop to ask for the writers intention. They repeat, until the feedback (spelling) of a particular word is found in the dictionary.

(9) State transformation. Being able to apply a clearly defined and predictable transformation to some particular entity or state is another powerful characteristic of computerbased technology. Such transformations may be one of many types: geometric, temporal, order, scale, auditory volume, and so forth. Each can be very useful because they are clearly defined and the results exactly predictable. Since the transformation is clearly defined, it can itself be altered to produce a more satisfying result, when an earlier transformation is unsatisfactory.

For example, a particular value may have to be multiplied by a specified amount, like 2.2%. The result will be exact and identical each time that particular value is so multiplied. Or in using a word processor, one can can transform the occurrence of a particular word to some other specified word (the typographically misspelled teh to the). Or one can transform the sending of an email message to one individual, to the sending as well to a second person, simultaneously, merely by using a provided CC (carbon copy) transformation typically provided by most email systems.

(10) Multiple parallel transformation. One of the most powerful characteristics of computerbased technology is certainly the capability to apply a particular transformation, in parallel fashion, to a number of distinct digitized entities. These entities might be images, states or events, or merely single data values. The capability is powerful and important because it turns out to be very useful and can be applied in a wide variety of situations. Once a given transformation is completely worked out and programmed into the computerbased device, it can be applied over and over again, against any appropriate set of entities.

For example, one can use a multiple transformation such as that provided by Lotus 1-2-3 to multiply every value in a file by 2.2%, even if there are hundreds of such values! Or one can send copies of an email message to tens or even hundreds of additional recipients, merely by any of the typical multiple CC transformations provided by most email systems. And one could transform an entire document from a Macintosh to a DOS Windows format, through the powerful multiple transformation provided on many systems now, that rapidly examine every text and every format character in an entire file and transform each according to an exact set of rules for each type of transformation!

(3) Characteristics of narrow educational problems addressable by computer-based technology

Given thoughtful familiarity with these particular attributres of computer-based media, it is possible to conceptualize what sorts of educational problems in many areas of learning, including music, that might be addressable by media with such attributes. The relatively narrow educational problems likely to be addressable would be characterized by one or more of the following. The problem involves:

(1) multiple representations -- text and graphics, graphics and sound, text, graphics, and sound;

(2) integral and structural links to time -- events represented endure for specified time(s) and the effects of the passage of time are refelcted in the way the events develop and in the result that transpires;

(3) switching from one event to another and back again, while the events under consideration are under way, requiring for their understanding that each be easily interruptable, maintainable in a frozen state, and subsequently fully resumable;

(4) transforming data from one form to another, following specific rules and producing absolutely predictable products;

(5) events too complex and intertwined to easily grasp as they simultaneously occur, but if separated from each other, much more easily grasped;

(6) risking the loss of one effort at solution in order to producer another.