Music Education Using Assistive TechnologyDAVID BARKER

Topic: There is an increasing need for inclusive music education as more an more countries create mandatory music curricula while simultaneously requiring all course be adapted to all students. This requires creative thinking, assistive technology, and new approached to inclusive education.

This presentation will introduce some of the research on the subject and resources to to help educators as they work to make music education available to all of their students.

Research overview There is not a tremendous amount of research on music education and assistive technologies. But there is promising research on how to adpat computer programs for the blind and descriptive articles to help educators find additional resources and develop strategies for their classrooms.

Article 1: On the use of a multimedia platform for music education with handicapped children: A case study

Cano and Sanchez-Iborra sought to determine if a specific technology tool (that they developed) would be effective in helping children with cognitive impairments effectively participate in a music education program. They named the tool Platform for the Integration of Handicapped Children in Music Education (PLAIME).

The study had three objectives Determine whether students would benefit from the technology while learning a musical instrument Measure the students' increase in ICT skills Observe behavior while learning with PLAIME

They split the 15 students, aged 8 to 19, into 2 groups based on intellectual ability. Then they conducted 10 one hour sessions over a 10 week period. The students worked with the teachers and the software to learn how to play a recorder. At the end of the 10 weeks the data was complied and it showed that all but three students had improvement in musical ability. Also, six of the students had marked improvement. All of the students improved their ICT skills and were able to use the software without supervision by the end of the 10 sessions. Finally, the students showed enjoyment while using the software. These three observations showed that the software was effective.

Article 2: Teaching Music to Blind Children: New Strategies for Teaching through Interactive Use of Musibraille Software Borges and Tome present a methodology to address an accessibility concern in Brazilian schools. Brazilian schools require all students to take music classes but they do not provide the tools to support students with vision impairments. To address this the authors suggest using prior software and modifying its use to meet the needs of classrooms. The software is Musibraille and it provides a way for people with vision impairments to transcribe music in braille. The paper details what braille music is, ways to teach braille music with technology, what Musibraille is, and the methodology tying it all together. The authors conclude that Musibraille can be effective in teaching learners of multiple ability levels in the same class setting. But that there needs to be formal research to back up the conclusion.

Article 3: Incorporating Assistive Technology for Students with Visual Impairments into the Music Classroom Rush focuses on providing a descriptive report on available technologies. He posits that access to accessible music curriculum is not as big of an obstacle as teachers gaining access to accessible technology. To address this he provides a list of technologies that can help music educators make curriculum accessible to students with visual impairments. Additionally, he provides advice and examples to support the technologies. Rush also addresses the concern from music students concerning music literacy versus learning by ear and comes down on the side of literacy.

Article 4: Enriching the Ensemble Experience for Students with Visual Impairments Siligo writes from the perspective of an experienced music educator who has worked with student with vision impairments and also happens to have a vision impairment himself. The article is focused on practical concerns that arise when attempting music education with people with vision impairments. He goes through a series of concerns and addresses them one by one with advice and instruction. Of particular note was the concern with braille literacy. Even if students start class with basic literacy few of them will have braille music literacy and there will have to be immediate accommodations to address that.

Article 5: Development and Evaluation of Computer-Aided Music-Learning System for the Hearing Impaired The researchers developed a tool and did research to see if the tools was effective.

The study had two objectives Develop a Computer-Assisted Music Learning System (CAMLS) Evaluate whether the students could properly use the system and increase musical proficiency

The research subjects consisted of 14 boys and 12 girls all with hearing impairments. They were split into two groups of 13. One group received traditional instruction and the other group used the CAMLS system. Quantitatively the results were conclusive that the students utilizing CAMLS showed significant improvement compared to the traditional group. Qualitatively there was a significant difference in enthusiasm. They were more likely show more interest, have a higher musical self-worth and more motivation to study. As a small study there are apparent limitations and the authors suggest utilizing more educators and students and also conducting a longitudinal study.

Web Resources While there is a lack of specific research there is a wealth of information for teachers available on the internet. This information ranges from specific cases, list of resources, specific products, to vendors. The information also varies in its quality but with some digging it is possible to find enough information to begin developing curricula.

Websites A Rough Guide to Assistive Music Technology

The Rough Guide is produced by the Youth Music Network and provides a short overview of assistive technology and a list of tips for integrating assistive technology in music.

Music Technology & Special Needs: Part 1

This site is focused on how to integrate music technology in situation that call for assistive devices. The author details specific steps to integrate technology into music making providing a guide for others. At the end of the article are links to additional resources.

Assistive Technology for Students in Music Class

The author provides a general overview of devices and software that can be used for assisting people with various impairments learn and make music.

Hardware Enabling Technologies Inc.

Enabling Technologies manufactures braille embossers. These embossers are used for braille printouts. These printouts can include braille scores for music (with the right software)

Humanware

Humanware sells a wide variety of products designed to help people with vision impairments. The devices are for the full spectrum of vision impairments. They include braille embossers, braille keyboards, and magnifiers.

Viewplus

Enabling Technologies manufactures braille embossers and software. The embossers are standard but the software is interesting. Specifically, the IVEO hands-on learning system. This system could be helpful for students learning music but who are not able to read braille music notation.

Software CERL Sound GroupThe CERL Sound group are the curators and developers for Lime Music Notation Software. Lime is a helper

program that gives educators the ability to produce music notation that can be transcribed into braille. The software is not easily usable by people with vision impairments but does help teachers provide support.

GOODFEEL Braille Music TranslatorGOODFEEL is the sister software for Lime. GOODFEEL can take the music nation output from Lime and produce a braille score. This score can have verbal and musical queues and also be printed using an embosser.

BrailleMuseBrailleMUSE is a free web application that takes MusicXML files and converts them to .brl braille files. The software is free but may require paid software to produce the source MusicXML files. This software is not user friendly but does have some powerful tools.

Braille Music NotatorDeveloped by educator Toby Rush the braille music notator allows musicians to directly create braille scores without the need for transcribing. It is an online tool that is freely available and provides option to save the output in .brm files. The software also works with screenreaders

Duxbury DBTA two-way braille translation software. It is quite expensive but does allow for a variety of translation tasks including music notation. It also includes formatting for braille.

Tocatta Braille Music Translation SoftwareTocatta is a braille music transcriber. It has all of the standard features and a number of unique features. It allows import from midi file and also is able to transcribe one instrument from a large score.

Miscellaneous American Print house for the Blind

Provides resources (not free) for people with vision impairments, specifically printed materials. There a re number of music specific materials designed to provide resources for people playing music, reading, music and learning braille music notation.

Adaptive Gear

Provides a list of adaptive gear (provided by cyber-friends) that can be used for music. This gear is a mixture of amateur design and professional production. The gear can be used in classrooms to increase accessibility beyond computers.

Conclusion There is a theme that runs through the resources, vision impairment. It is easiest to find resources to address vision impairments but it is important to keep digging to facilitate as much diversity as possible. This might require some creative thinking and tinkering as seen on the Adaptive Gear page.

But keep looking and you will either find what you need or who can help you create what you need.