Regena Parrish, The University of Alabama

Pre-service elementary and early childhood teachers are usually required to receive training which will allow them to function musically in the classroom. Although many N-6 education majors at universities have little or no previous training in music, there is a dearth of educational software to assist in teaching music to this audience. This project involved development and testing of software to teach music fundamentals to prospective N-6 teachers to help meet this need. Another issue common to these classes is the lack of knowledge that these students possess about America’s folk song heritage. As another aid in teaching future educators about music, this software is designed to present musical topics using folk songs as examples, whenever possible; thus, students are provided with a repertoire of songs to sing with children and an explanation of different aspects of the music at the same time.

HyperCard/HyperTalk was chosen as the development platform because of its highly interactive features and built-in music capabilities. The software was written to function without add-on equipment such as speakers or MIDI keyboards. The only external materials needed to use the program are keyboard covers painted to look like piano keyboards. Headphones may be used with the program so that multiple stations can function concurrently.

The software, entitled MusiCard, provides aural and visual musical examples, often presented using the "bouncing ball" format. That is, musical examples are visually displayed with a cursor highlighting the note currently being played. The program’s initial screen checks to see if the user’s name and identification number have been entered into the system. If students have not been registered as legal users or they enter an incorrect password, access to MusiCard is denied. After successful admission to the program, a screen of instructions appears which explains how to manuever in the lessons and the function of the various buttons on each screen within the lessons. This screen also has a button-actived menu of the lessons with which students may work (see Figure 1). Clicking on the Lessons button causes a menu of lessons from which the student may select to appear (see Figure 2). Lessons on treble clef, bass clef, rhythm, compound meter, ledger lines, major scales, minor scales, major key signatures, minor key signatures, triads, intervals, and musical terms are available.

Figure 1

Figure 2

The modules of the program provide textual explanations of music concepts and then allow users to interactively see the concept in a piece of music. The lessons always are always presented in the following sequence: (a) an explanation of what is about to be presented (see Figure 3), (b) a sequential explanation of the topic with examples of each step in the sequence (see Figure 4), and (c) an unlimited opportunity to practice the concept (see Figures 5 and 6).

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

When each module has been completed, users can choose to take a variable-length mastery test on that topic . The mastery test screens and practice screens are identical except for hints provided on the practice screens when a problem is answered incorrectly. Information about the length of users’ sessions, as well as the number of questions answered correctly and incorrectly on the mastery tests, is kept.

CAI is not intended to completely supplant classroom instruction but to supplement the instructors’ efforts and free time for other important tasks. By giving students the freedom to structure their own learning, more productive use of time, both in the classroom and for individual students, is allowed. Instructors are able to provide more guided practice in an effort to bolster performance skills. MusiCard allows students to adjust time spent with each lesson based on previous knowledge or difficulty encountered with subject matter. MusiCard is also effective in standardizing curriculum materials across multiple course sections and instructors, due to well-defined, repeatable presentations of material. Introducing music theory topics using a workbook derived from the module screens, followed by having the students use the computer modules, further standardizes the material covered in multiple sections of the course.

This software package has been tested to determine its effectiveness in a course for prospective teachers. Results showed that MusiCard was effective in reducing classroom music theory instruction with no reduction in students’ acquisition of knowledge about music fundamentals. Students found that using common folk songs as examples of the topics being studied was quite helpful. Computers can and should be used to enhance the learning process and to free music teacher-student contact hours for more aesthetic pursuits.