The document describes a tool called MusiCards that aims to teach music to children using tangible and bodily interaction. It is a redesign of computational cards (c-cards) that incorporates playing notes and spawning new cards. The cards can be used to represent musical sequences and instructions. Actions like playing notes are written on the cards and triggered when cards are reached. This allows children to learn music concepts through an active and physical gameplay experience involving movement, singing, and tracking a song's structure.

1. Learning music via tangible and
corporeal interaction
Andrea Valente av@aaue.dk
Kristoffer Jensen krist@aaue.dk
Aalborg University Esbjerg

2. Learning music
Many methodologies to teach in primary school
We wanted a tool to support
– multimodality
– learning by doing
– children active participation
Re-design of existing teaching tool c-cards, with:
– fewer and simpler cards
– specific support for music
– extension to corporeal (bodily) interaction

3. Learning music
Many methodologies to teach in primary school
We wanted a tool to support
– multimodality
– learning by doing
– children active participation
Re-design of existing teaching tool c-cards, with:
– fewer and simpler cards
– specific support for music
– extension to corporeal (bodily) interaction

4. Learning music
Many methodologies to teach in primary school
We wanted a tool to support
– multimodality
– learning by doing
– children active participation
Re-design of existing teaching tool c-cards, with:
– fewer and simpler cards
– specific support for music
– extension to corporeal (bodily) interaction

5. Let's play cards
MusiCards is a re-design of computational cards (c-cards)
can express instructions with sequences and (random) choices
A computational card is as a square piece of paper, with a port
on each of its four sides
There are 5 types of cards, and together they form the a basic
deck (below):
– peg-pit card
– forward card and the jump card
– random and the switch card
– the 4 small puppets are pegs
The deck Pegs

6. Let's play cards
MusiCards is a re-design of computational cards (c-cards)
can express instructions with sequences and (random) choices
A computational card is as a square piece of paper, with a port
on each of its four sides
There are 5 types of cards, and together they form the a basic
deck (below):
– peg-pit card
– forward card and the jump card
– random and the switch card
– the 4 small puppets are pegs
The deck Pegs

7. Let's play cards
MusiCards is a re-design of computational cards (c-cards)
can express instructions with sequences and (random) choices
A computational card is as a square piece of paper, with a port
on each of its four sides
There are 5 types of cards, and together they form the a basic
deck (below):
– peg-pit card
– forward card and the jump card
– random and the switch card
– the 4 small puppets are pegs
The deck Pegs

8. Semantics
Forward Pit
& Jump
Random Switch
1/2
1/2

9. A card circuit
Structure Dynamics
?
Note on real-time: 1 step always takes same time!

10. Let's play music too!
A
An action is an annotation, written on top of a card
The action will be executed when the peg lands on the card
There are 2 kind of actions:
– play-a-note actions (indicates which note to play)
– spawn actions (causes a new peg to be placed on some card)
Silence is the default action, so every card always has one
associated action

11. Let's play music too!
An action is an annotation, written on top of a card
The action will be executed when the peg lands on the card
There are 2 kind of actions:
– play-a-note actions (indicates which note to play)
– spawn actions (causes a new peg to be placed on some card)
Silence is the default action, so every card always has one
associated action

12. Let's play music too!
An action is an annotation, written on top of a card
The action will be executed when the peg lands on the card
A
There are 2 kind of actions: !x
– play-a-note actions (indicates which note to play)
– spawn actions (causes a new peg to be placed on some card)
Silence is the default action, so every card always has one
associated action
x

13. Let's play music too!
An action is an annotation, written on top of a card
The action will be executed when the peg lands on the card
There are 2 kind of actions:
– play-a-note actions (indicates which note to play)
– spawn actions (causes a new peg to be placed on some card)
Silence is the default action, so every card always has one
associated action

14. Musical circuit
E D
Possible outcomes
ABCF
A B C ABCDEABCF
...
F As a regular expression
A B C (D E A B C)* F

15. Mapping music to circuits and back
The Frere Jacque's example
Open problems and tricks
● represent duration properly (½ notes?)
● how complex can an action be?
Can we really express all notes/any music piece?
● how many pegs required to play?
● spawn takes care of cycles with odd number of steps

16. Multimodality
● Java
Software ● Greenfoot
Table-top
(Blackboard)
Corporeal

17. Multimodality
● Java
Software ● Greenfoot
Table-top
(Blackboard)
Corporeal

18. Multimodality
● Java
Software ● Greenfoot
Table-top
(Blackboard)
Corporeal

19. Multimodality
● Java
Software ● Greenfoot
Table-top
(Blackboard)
Corporeal
● kid=peg
● traffic

20. Software Demo

21. Conclusion
● Music learning thru play and multimodal implementations
● Corporeal interaction = free movement within a rule system
– classical example is hopscotch
– actions are realized by one or more participants (here: singing notes)
– advantage is that children are physically moving, singing, and keep track of the structure of
the music. Play with 3 basic elements of music: rhythm, melody and structure
● Corporeal environment
– is playful,
– encourages non-formal learning
– the layout of the circuit can be drawn directly on the ground or using giant cards
– actions can be drawn using non-permanent markers (re-use of cards), and even definition
of new alternative actions or navigations drawn on blank cards.
● MusiCards are
– simple and expressive, game-like, very cheap, extendible and easy to deploy both in a
classroom and at home

22. Thanks
Andrea Valente http://aaue.dk/~av
Kristoffer Jensen http://aaue.dk/~krist
Questions?