Anatomy of a Tone: A Highly Functional Web-Based Interactive Learning Module

Northeastern University’s Education Technology Advisory Committee (ETAC) consists of faculty who are specialists in bridging the gap between content development and instructional design. “Why does the note ‘A’ sound different on a flute compared to a violin?” is an interactive learning module that tackles the elusive concept of musical timbre. This is an example of an Embedded Learning Module (ELMO) that recently received a NSF (National Science Foundation) grant to explore a variety of methods to break down the barriers to teaching science to artists. Issues of planning, design, effective project management, interdisciplinary methodology and the integration of media are discussed, and the finished project presented. Anatomy of a Tone demonstrates an effective collaboration between students in Northeastern’s flagship multimedia studies program, faculty mentors, experiential learning and successful integration of content development and instructional design, the result of a 20-week long planning, design and implementation project. Anatomy of a Tone may be viewed at: http://elmo.neu.edu/elmo_html/demos/beta music.html. Planning, Implementation and Design The Multimedia Studies program is a state-of-the-art dual major combining skills in music technology, animation, graphic design and digital imaging at Northeastern University in Boston. Students attend for five years, and work on the job (called “co-op”) for up to eighteen months prior to graduating. As seniors, these students must complete a 20-week long experiential capstone program in order to satisfy their graduation requirements. Anatomy of a Tone is an interactive learning module based on current research in educational technology and learning behavior. It seeks to teach a complex and abstract concept via a series of integrative text -sound-image steps that allow the user (learner) to fuse difficult concepts in a manner that is extremely difficult to do in a lecture based setting. It is the process of student self-discovery that is investigated in this project. Students, or any successful instructional designer, must collaborate with experts in the field they are illustrating. In order to understand the concept of timbre, the instructional designer is challenged to illustrate supportive scientific concepts such as wave properties, vibration, amplitude, wavelength and frequency. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE’02) 0-7695-1509-6/02 $17.00 © 2002 IEEE Interactive Functionality Two of the most effective interactive pages of Anatomy of a Tone are the “Frequency as Pitch” and “Qualities of Timbre” modules.