Katsuko T. Nakahira

Verification of the Effectiveness of Blended Learning in Teaching Performance Skills for Simultaneous Singing and Piano Playing

While difficulty in acquiring a skill in simultaneous singing and piano playing is attributable to both instructors and students, instructors have been taking a variety of approaches to remedy the situation at least in the piano playing skill. One hardware-based approach to improving teaching has been to develop a system that is installed in a music laboratory (ML) and enables the instructor to check the level of skill of each student even in a group lesson. A music laboratory is usually equipped with some tens of keyboards. In an ML, the instructor can listen to the piano playing of individual students, and give private advice to each student. As such, an ML was considered a pioneering educational system for group training of music. MLs have been used for the training of not only piano playing but also elementary music theory, including harmony, which can be tried out using keyboards. It was thought that an ML, in which each keyboard is used by one or two students, was effective in teaching elementary music theory and piano playing because the instruction through an ML can efficiently substitute for private lessons in these areas. However, the use of ML equipment is so complicated that it imposes a considerable burden on the instructor. Also, since studentsĄf performance can be checked only during the class hour, an ML is not practical at all for classes with a hundred or so students. Consequently, there is still considerable reliance on face-to-face training when it comes to the teaching of music. Research efforts to improve teaching using software have mainly focused on a combination of two approaches: the development of appropriate computer software and the improvement of the teaching method itself. Approaches that involve the development of computer software include the following. In 1990, (Dannenberg et al., 1990) developed Piano Tutor, a computer-based piano tutoring system for beginner-level piano students. In 2000, (Hosaka, 2001) used audio-visual material. In 2001, (Matsumoto, 2001) used piano instruction material for computer-assisted instruction (CAI). In 2005, (Suzuki, 2005) developed Net-CAPIS, which introduced a connection to a network in a music laboratory (ML). Attempts to improve teaching methods include the use of practice record cards ((Imaizumi, 2004)) and observation of others ((Nakajima, 2002)) . (Ogura, 2006) introduced blended learning using MIDI audio sources. 11

Design of a multilinguistic Problem Based Learning learning environment in the metaverse

There is a growing interest in teaching people to acquire a global perspective. For this purpose, educational institutions are encouraging intercultural exchanges, such as short-term overseas study programs and internships. However, such programs are so expensive that students cannot take them easily. In this paper, we have built a multilinguistic learning environment in cyber-space. We have designed a learning environment that is optimal for Problem Based Learning (PBL). PBL allows intensive exchanges. Unlike ordinary PBL, this environment enables students to learn in a group consisting of students with diverse senses of value. Students can develop a new sense of value through exchanges with people with different cultural backgrounds, and the teacher can cultivate new perspectives in training students with diverse cultural backgrounds.

Geographic locations of web servers

The ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain) in a URL does not necessarily point to the geographic location of the server concerned. The authors have surveyed sample servers belonging to 60 ccTLDs in Africa, with regard to the number of hops required to reach the target site from Japan, the response time, and the NIC registration information of each domain. The survey has revealed the geographical distribution of server sites as well as their connection environments. It has been found that the percentage of offshore (out of home country) servers is as high as 80% and more than half of these are located in Europe. Offshore servers not only provide little benefit to the people of the country to which each ccTLD rightly belongs but their existence also heightens the risk of a country being unable to control them with its own policies and regulations. Offshore servers constitute a significant aspect of the digital divide problem.

Multilingual problem based learning in metaverse

The authors have established an e-learning system by utilizing Second life and language grid system where virtual and multilingual discussions would be possible. To investigate the possibility of PBL in virtual engineering class, the virtual infrastructure was used for PBL in materials science and engineering. In this study, a learning environment for both the lecture and PBL discussion in a virtual space was built and the effectiveness and possibility for the application of e-learning was evaluated from the viewpoint of engineering education. The questionnaire and the sentence analyses indicate that the language grid system brought the class more beneficial effects and suggest that the system could be used effectively for the virtual problem based learning in Metaverse.

Virtual STEM activity for renewable energy

Abstract A project about renewable energy was successfully carried out in Second Life (SL) by a team of Japanese students with a U.S. instructor who used English to communicate. This was a challenging task, especially since the students’ first language is Japanese. To improve the learning environment, a teaching assistant was available to translate information from English to Japanese when necessary. This paper describes the successful STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) activity in SL where the Japanese students designed and built a special airplane for wind energy. It also mentions other contributions of our work, such as the incorporation of an Engineering Design Process into the lesson and the advantages we found by carrying out the renewable energy project in a virtual reality environment.

Capturing Student Real Time Facial Expression for More Realistic E-learning Environment

With the development of information and communications technology, the growth of E-learning is rapidly increased. Environment is one of the major factors for E-learning performance specially. More realistic E-leaning surrounding is affected to achievement of effective learning environment. Facial expressions are assumed to have a great impact on behavior and also on learning behavior. This attempts to transfer real user facial feature into virtual learning place. Real time facial feature detection system is developed and it is continually extracted facial expression of E-learner. The appropriate person in virtual learning environment who represents real user called ‘Avatar’ changes when the real user changes the face. In the virtual environment, the appropriate face changes are prepared to visible real user face data. In addition, any other persons able to visible user face data through web component to observe the face behavior of the E-learner.

Develop a Monitoring Tool and Extract Facial Expression towards the Analyzing Student Behavior in Three Dimensional Virtual Environment

With the growing interest of global perspective, E-learning becomes an invaluable resource to share the knowledge. The effectiveness of E-learning can be enhanced with the integration of virtual world. Currently most of universities utilize it to conduct several courses, project and assignments etc. Although student activities analyze is important and valuable aspect, behavior analysis is difficult and very rare. In this research, student movement, communication and facial expression analysis system is developed to analyze the student behavior in virtual environment. Student activities were collected and recorded in database. Then develop a tool using those data to analyze the physical movement and communication behavior. Real user face image was extracted and identifies the facial expression by using a web cam. 2D appearance-based local approach is used for the extraction of intransient facial features and recognition of four facial expressions. The user defined avatar face which is in virtual environment is changed according to the real user expression.

The use of blended learning in the teaching of piano playing and singing in education faculties

One of the core performing courses in institutions for pre-school teacher training is simultaneous singing and piano playing. To ensure sufficient training hours, it is important to improve teaching methods. As a way to improve the teaching of simultaneous signing and piano playing in a large class, we have incorporated blended learning, in which students are required (1) to submit videos of their performance, and (2) to view and study e-learning materials. We have analyzed how each of these requirements improved students !Gperformance skills in singing and piano playing, and found that they substantially reduce the time required for individual lessons.

The Effectiveness of and Issues Relating to Remote Non-Face-to-Face Lessons on Singing with Simultaneous Piano Self-Accompaniment

Some 20 students were taught to sing and simultaneously accompany themselves on the piano using remote non-face to-face lessons assisted by the use of model performances recorded on DVDs. The performances of each student before and after the lessons were compared and analyzed. The analysis indicated that improvements were made in many aspects of performance on which the instructor had given advice. It also revealed that those students who had developed a good appreciation of their own performance, from the combination of the instructor’s advice and study of the model performances, had made dramatic progress.However, it was also found that in certain respects these remote non-face-to-face lessons were not fully effective. We concluded that, to ensure the quality of the learning of simultaneous piano playing and singing, it is necessary to: improve the non-face-to-face instruction method; to complement it with some face-to-face lessons; to help students develop their performance image and develop a better appreciation of music from the model performances of music in the e-learning educational material; to help them check their fingering from e-learning material, which includes annotated musical scores; and to update the e-learning material periodically.

Some Psychological Responses Measured by a Commercial Electrooculography Sensor and Its Applicability

Abstract Students’ psychological responses were evaluated by a commercial electrooculography (EOG) sensor. As psychological responses, we picked up two factors – concentration power and the impression about the simplicity for problem solving. A glass-type EOG sensor detected the electrooculogram and calculated the blink rate (focus), the blink strength (calmness) and the head posture (posture), constituting the final parameter called concentration power. In this study, we investigated the correlation between the two psychological responses and EOG parameters. We could confirm the qualitative correlation between the EOG parameter corresponding to concentration power and the psychological response. At this point, we presume that it could be applied to e-learning in virtual classrooms soon. As for the impression about the simplicity to solve problems, we could not found the reasonable correlation. However, the detailed analyses for all of the parameters and their time-dependent behaviors might make it clearer and also other relations with more psychological response.