music education shared between blind and sighted students
TRANSCRIPT
A technological proposal to support musical education shared between blind and sighted
students
José Antonio Borges - Rio de Janeiro Fed. Univ. - BrazilDolores Tomé – Porto Univ. - Portugal
Ana Margarida Almeida – Aveiro Univ. - PortugalArmando Malheiro da Silva - Porto Univ. – Portugal
ICCHP/ULD 2026 LinzJuly 13-15, 2016
First of all...A bit about Brazil
• Brazil - a country with great musical variety– Multiple influences: European, African, American
• Brazil - a country with great musical variety– Multiple influences: European, African, American– Sensational composers, internationally renowned
Heitor Villa Lobos Zequinha de Abreu João ToméTom Jobim
Blind, 800+ compositions
• Brazil - a country with great musical variety– Multiple influences: European, African, American– Sensational composers, internationally renowned
Heitor Villa Lobos Zequinha de Abreu João Tomé
Played byDolores and me
Tom Jobim
Music education in schools
• Since 1988 musical education is mandatory in all schools
– 2001 - inclusive classrooms as standard
• Serious pedagogical problems in teaching musical writing and reading for blind children
• Music teachers do not know Braille music
Music education in school:half-inclusion of blind students
• "Learning music by ear" is the most widely used method with blind students
• Perceptive activities: ok• Reading and writing: almost nothing
A bit of Braille Music
Braille Music is conceptually simpleSymbols have one toone equivalence inBraille Music
Note
Duration
Braille Music is conceptually simpleSymbols have one toone equivalence inBraille Music (some extras)
(Octave indicator)
• Yes, it is simple but
IN BRAZIL VERY FEW TEACHERS EVEN KNOW THAT THIS EXISTS!
All over the world?
Can computers help?
Computer music and blind musiciansa) access to conventional music building
programsFinale, Sonar (music editors)
– access via Jaws + specialized scripts– command via keyboard and shortcuts– use requires huge ability with computers
Example: Finale
Computer music and blind musiciansb) Braille transcribers
GoodfeelTocattaBraille Music Editor (BME)
They allow you to create and interact with Braille representation
Play what is writtenTranscribe to /from Music-XML and MidiAutomatic transcription of conventional scores
Musibraille - brazilian braille music transcriber(from ourselves)
Free software
Hundreds of people trained
Library with basic works
It has revitalized the use of Braille music in Brazil
What exists today…– Good automatic transcription tools– The emphasis of these products is not music
education, but the production of texts in Braille to be used by blind musicians.
– And teachers don't know how to use them!
At least in Brazil...
It is about time to build a brand new Computer Tool!
• be focused on the essence of music writing– Regardless of how it is written
• provide independent musical output for the input– Ink, braille, sound…
• provide several distinct forms of input– Computer keyboard + Midi keyboard + music files
• provide shared interactive learning– What a student (blind or not) writes should be read
immediately by another student.– Include real-time and distance communication.
Technology for inclusive teaching music should…
Features of the tool that is being proposed
- Should not be conceived as a musical editor for melodies.
- Should be primarily a basic teaching tool- Sound, conventional writing and Braille have
the same operational importance.- What is stored and what flows is music,
regardless of how it is entered and written.
We decided to create a prototype
• A very complex problem with many development possibilities– It is not easy to materialize the premises– Experiment to find the best ways of operation– Enable the pedagogical experimentation
• Limitations– Design and programming time shouldn't be very big.– We had to eliminate major programming difficulties to
get an usable program.
Appearance of our first prototype
Normal
Slow
Names
Tatata
2 voices
Multimodality• Multimodal outputs:– Conventional score on the screen– Braille on the screen and on a Braille display– printing in ink and Braille– Sound (music, textual music…)
• Multimodal entry via:– computer keyboard– musical keyboard and Midi– Music-XML
Real-time communicationbetween connected devicesin a local area networks (LAN)
Real-time communication
• What is produced or selected in a computer may be immediately transmitted to other computer located at the same LAN.– what is typed in a midi keyboard of a certain computer, can be
immediately read in the Braille display on the partner computer.
• Connection via simple internet protocols (TCP/IP)
• Possibility of transmission of voice and texts for non-local interaction (chat).
Main modules listing
Development• Prototype is under construction.– Much more complicated than expected.– A lot of reprogramming to accommodate experiments– Big experimental changes in the interaction model
• First experiments with blind and seers colleagues – Not yet with children
• Technological challenges– Network performance constraints– Timing restrictions in interactive generation of Midi
Early criticism about the project
• use of expensive items of technology– Braille display & Braille printer
• We know it is too daring for Brazilian reality but…• Program is able to run in more simple environments
• Prototype should be done in JavaScript for easy multi-platform, including mobile– Heritage from Musibraille code– Delphi IDE makes the program much easier to be modified
• It should be multilingual– It will be… in the future.
Positive points noticed
• Creates educational opportunities, so far unavailable– Allows experiment with the most common elements of music– It seems to help developing musical intuition
• Interaction between blind and seers has been flowing well in the preliminary tests.– It looks good also when applied only to seers
• As development continues, it is becoming more intuitive and easily understood
Future perspectives• Training courses in 2 inclusive schools in Rio de Janeiro
(2nd. half of 2017)
• Experiments in a specialized institute for the blind - Benjamin Constant Institute (2017)
• Bachelor's and master's theses
• Future project of introduction of Braille Music in other Portuguese-speaking countries (including Africa)
Final acknowledges
• Dolores Tomé is a doctoral student Granted by MEC / CAPES-Brazil.
• This research is being partially funded with resources from CNPq project 458633 / 2013-5.
José Antonio [email protected]
Dolores Tomé[email protected]
Ana Margarida [email protected]
Armando Malheiro da [email protected]