Gestural communication of music structure during solo classical piano performance

The production and perception of music is a multimodal activity involving auditory, visual and conceptual processing, integrating these with prior knowledge and environmental experience. Musicians utilise expressive physical nuances to highlight salient features of the score. The question arises within the literature as to whether performers’ non-technical, non-sound-producing movements may be communicatively meaningful and convey important structural information to audience members and co-performers. In the light of previous performance research (Vines et al., 2006, Wanderley, 2002, Davidson, 1993), and considering findings within co-speech gestural research and auditory and audio-visual neuroscience, this thesis examines the nature of those movements not directly necessary for the production of sound, and their particular influence on audience perception. Within the current research 3D performance analysis is conducted using the Vicon 12- camera system and Nexus data-processing software. Performance gestures are identified as repeated patterns of motion relating to music structure, which not only express phrasing and structural hierarchy but are consistently and accurately interpreted as such by a perceiving audience. Gestural characteristics are analysed across performers and performance style using two Chopin preludes selected for their diverse yet comparable structures (Opus 28:7 and 6). Effects on perceptual judgements of presentation modes (visual-only, auditory-only, audiovisual, full- and point-light) and viewing conditions are explored. This thesis argues that while performance style is highly idiosyncratic, piano performers reliably generate structural gestures through repeated patterns of upper-body movement. The shapes and locations of phrasing motions are identified particular to the sample of performers investigated. Findings demonstrate that despite the personalised nature of the gestures, performers use increased velocity of movements to emphasise musical structure and that observers accurately and consistently locate phrasing junctures where these patterns and variation in motion magnitude, shape and velocity occur. By viewing performance motions in polar (spherical) rather than cartesian coordinate space it is possible to get mathematically closer to the movement generated by each of the nine performers, revealing distinct patterns of motion relating to phrasing structures, regardless of intended performance style. These patterns are highly individualised both to each performer and performed piece. Instantaneous velocity analysis indicates a right-directed bias of performance motion variation at salient structural features within individual performances. Perceptual analyses demonstrate that audience members are able to accurately and effectively detect phrasing structure from performance motion alone. This ability persists even for degraded point-light performances, where all extraneous environmental information has been removed. The relative contributions of audio, visual and audiovisual judgements demonstrate that the visual component of a performance does positively impact on the over- all accuracy of phrasing judgements, indicating that receivers are most effective in their recognition of structural segmentations when they can both see and hear a performance. Observers appear to make use of a rapid online judgement heuristics, adjusting response processes quickly to adapt and perform accurately across multiple modes of presentation and performance style. In line with existent theories within the literature, it is proposed that this processing ability may be related to cognitive and perceptual interpretation of syntax within gestural communication during social interaction and speech. Findings of this research may have future impact on performance pedagogy, computational analysis and performance research, as well as potentially influencing future investigations of the cognitive aspects of musical and gestural understanding.

Sonic Movie Memories: Sound, Childhood, and American Cinema

Though the trend rarely receives attention, since the 1970s many American filmmakers have been taking sound and music tropes from children’s films, television shows, and other forms of media and incorporating those sounds into films intended for adult audiences. Initially, these references might seem like regressive attempts at targeting some nostalgic desire to relive childhood. However, this dissertation asserts that these children’s sounds are instead designed to reconnect audience members with the multi-faceted fantasies and coping mechanisms that once, through children’s media, helped these audience members manage life’s anxieties. Because sound is the sense that Western audiences most associate with emotion and memory, it offers audiences immediate connection with these barely conscious longings. The first chapter turns to children’s media itself and analyzes Disney’s 1950s forays into television. The chapter argues that by selectively repurposing the gentlest sonic devices from the studio’s films, television shows like Disneyland created the studio’s signature sentimental “Disney sound.” As a result, a generation of baby boomers like Steven Spielberg comes of age and longs to recreate that comforting sound world. The second chapter thus focuses on Spielberg, who incorporates Disney music in films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Rather than recreate Disney’s sound world, Spielberg uses this music as a springboard into a new realm I refer to as “sublime refuge” - an acoustic haven that combines overpowering sublimity and soothing comfort into one fantastical experience. The second half of the dissertation pivots into more experimental children’s cartoons like Gerald McBoing-Boing (1951) - cartoons that embrace audio-visual dissonance in ways that soothe even as they create tension through a phenomenon I call “comfortable discord.” In the final chapter, director Wes Anderson reveals that these sonic tensions have just as much appeal to adults. In films like The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Anderson demonstrates that comfortable discord can simultaneously provide a balm for anxiety and create an open-ended space that makes empathetic connections between characters possible. The dissertation closes with a call to rethink nostalgia, not as a romanticization of the past, but rather as a reconnection with forgotten affective channels.

Virtuellt lärande på distans : en intervjustudie med finländska gymnasiestuderande.

The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the learning experiences of upper secondary school students in a virtual learning environment. The focus of the study is younger students aged 16–18. Virtual learning environments are defined as collaborative, interactive and communicative digital environments. The main research question was to distinguish the meaning of learning given by the participants. Did the participants perceive learning potential in the virtual learning environment, and if so, what signifies learning potential? Sub-questions were: What enhances learning? What might inhibit learning in a distance course? How do the participants relate to their role as distant learners? Four upper secondary schools in Finland took part in the study. Thirteen upper secondary students were interviewed after a distance course in social studies. During the analysis, four main categories were identified: responsibility, freedom, time and communication. A constructivist approach to learning was adopted while analysing the interviews, and the categories were understood through cognitive, affective and social dimensions of learning. The implications of the study are that a student-centred pedagogy and a social constructivist course design have the potential to motivate students to interact to learn, while the software, such as Second Life, Google+ and Wikibooks, offers them the possibility to do so. The study introduces an empirically supported concept, virtual learning. Virtual learning assumes an active learner who manages different learning spaces while communicating with people and metacognitively assessing the learning process. At the same time, students get used to the virtual and everchanging nature of information and knowledge.

Didáctica do francês : Perigueux-Vienne

Formação - Professores

Serviço de Apoio à Inclusão em eLearning (SAIeL) : educação para todos : contributo para a inclusão de cidadãos com necessidades educativas especiais no ensino superior a distância em regime de elearning

A proposta de um Serviço de Apoio à Inclusão em eLearning (SAIeL) surge da necessidade de promover o eLearning como uma ferramenta importante para que os cidadãos com Necessidades Educativas Especiais possam aceder e ter sucesso no Ensino Superior. O trabalho desenvolveu-se em torno da seguinte pergunta de partida: Cumprindo o seu papel social de Educação para Todos, de que forma podem as instituições de ensino superior facilitar ativamente o acesso e o sucesso de cidadãos com Necessidades Educativas Especiais que desejem estudar em regime de eLearning? Constituindo o ensino a distância de nova geração, uma opção com características bastante vantajosas para os cidadãos com Necessidades Educativas Especiais, pretende-se também atrair mais cidadãos para esta modalidade de educação, através da oferta e divulgação de condições mais apelativas e que encorajem as pessoas com Necessidades Educativas Especiais a prosseguir os seus estudos ao nível superior, reduzindo as barreiras e promovendo os fatores de inclusão. Procurou-se delinear um projeto de serviço que possa responder às necessidades identificadas a partir de um conjunto de fatores: i) da investigação sobre a resposta a esta problemática por parte dum conjunto de universidades de Ensino a Distância, ii) das boas práticas já existentes em instituições de ensino superior portuguesas e iii) do estudo das perceções recolhidas junto dos vários intervenientes: estudantes, professores e cidadãos com NEE. Neste quadro, foram definidas 3 fases para a elaboração do trabalho: (1) auscultação dos intervenientes e levantamento de necessidades; (2) enquadramento do projeto de serviço na orgânica das instituições de ensino superior a distância e (3) organização e estruturação de um projeto de serviço através da elaboração de um Regimento, no qual são estipulados os seus objetivos, valências, competências e forma de avaliação, de maneira a dar resposta às necessidades identificadas previamente e a prevenir situações futuras.

Democratização do acesso ao ensino superior: os cursos de graduação à distância na UFRN

This thesis pursuits to contextualize the theoretical debate between the implementation of public education policy of the Federal Government focused in a distance learning and legal foundations for its enforcement, in order to raise questions and comments on the topic in question. Its importance is back to provide scientific input and can offer to the academy, particularly in the UFRN, and elements of society to question and rethink the complex relationship between the socio-economic and geographic access to higher education. It consists of a descriptive study on the institutionalization of distance education in UFRN as a mechanism for expanding access to higher education, for both, the research seeks to understand if the distance undergraduate courses offered by the UAB system and implemented at UFRN, promote expanding access to higher education, as it is during implementation that the rules, routines and social processes are converted from intentions to action. The discussion of this study lasted between two opposing views of Implementation models: Top-down and Bottom-up. It is worth noting that the documents PNE, PDE and programs and UAB MEETING reflect positively in improving the educational level of the population of the country It is a qualitative study, using the means Bibliographic, Document and Field Study, where they were performed 04 (four) in 2010 interviews with the management framework SEDIS / UAB in UFRN. The data were analyzed and addressed through techniques: Document Analysis and Content Analysis. The results show that the process of implementation of distance education at UFRN is in progress. According to our results, the research objective is achieved, but there was a need to rethink the conditions of the infrastructure of poles, the structure of the academic calendar, the management of the SEDIS UFRN, regarding the expansion of existing vacancies and the supply of new courses by the need for a redesign as the Secretariat's ability to hold the offerings of undergraduate courses offered by the Federal Government to be implemented in the institution. It was also found that levels of evasion still presents a challenge to the teaching model. Given the context, we concluded that the greatest contribution of UAB and consequently UFRN by distance learning for undergraduate courses (Bachelor in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Geography and Biological Sciences, beyond the bachelor's degrees in Business and Public Administration ) is related to increasing the number of vacancies and accessibility of a population that was previously deprived of access to university

Irakurketa zailtasunei aurrea hartzeko software didaktiko baten diseinua eta ebaluazioa.

369 p.

Desenvolvimento de um modelo de mineração de dados educacionais para identificar a ocorrência de colaboração online

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, 2016.

O trabalho com a oralidade em um curso de licenciatura em língua espanhola (EAD) : realidades e necessidades

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Línguas Estrangeiras e Tradução, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística Aplicada, 2016.

Formação continuada a distância para o professor de Ciências Naturais do Ensino Fundamental : educação em Geologia

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Instituto de Física, Instituto de Química, Faculdade UnB Planaltina, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ensino de Ciências, Mestrado Profissional em Ensino de Ciências, 2016.

El uso de la documentación audiovisual en los programas informativos diarios de televisión

[SPA] El objetivo de la investigación es conocer cual es la aportación cuantitativa y cualitativa de la documentación audiovisual en la información que ofrece diariamente la televisión. El marco temporal de la investigación de campo se sitúa en los años 1993 y 1994, en un marco geográfico constituido por los canales que emiten en el estado español. El estudio parte de una aproximación teórica a la documentación periodística, a la documentación audiovisual y a los estudios sobre la comunicación de masas, y lleva a cabo una investigación de campo en tres áreas: 1) Análisis de programas informativos diarios de seis cadenas de televisión (ETB, TVE, Canal Sur, TV3, Antena 3 y Canal+), a través de tres muestras independientes. 2) Análisis de las peticiones de documentación audiovisual realizadas desde las redacciones de programas informativos a los servicios de documentación. 3) Estudio de las funciones, tareas, estructura y organización de los servicios de documentación de televisión, basado en encuestas, visitas y entrevistas. En anexo se ofrece el análisis detallado de 620 noticias, así como la información de los centros de documentación. La investigación concluye afirmando que la documentación audiovisual es uno de los elementos constitutivos de la información de actualidad, tanto por su presencia cuantitativa (más de un 40% de las noticias emitidas la emplean), como por su aportación cualitativa y su utilización generalizada en todas las secciones informativas. Las conclusiones señalan que la importancia de las noticias incide positivamente en el empleo de documentación audiovisual, sintetizan las funciones de esta documentación y las características específicas de su uso. Confirman el carácter de retroalimentación de la documentación informativa en televisión. Señalan un empleo de esta documentación como documentación puramente visual. Y afirman que la documentación audiovisual, además de contribuir en la producción, coadyuva a la calidad de los programas informativos, en la medida en que facilita la tarea de ofrecer una información más completa y contextualizada.

Morbidity and temporary cycles for the outpatient service at Universidad Estatal a Distancia in Costa Rica

No data has apparently been published on morbidity and outpatient service of faculty and staff of a distance university.  This report presents such data from the Universidad Estatal a Distancia (Costa Rican State University for Distance Education). The participants in this study were the employees who were outpatients between January 15, 2004 and December 15, 2006.  Instead of using a sample, the entire population was studied with a total of 1,526 medical records. Procedure: During the first stage all of the medical records were read and the morbidity data was tabulated.  Subsequently, this information was statistically analyzed using Statgraphics Centurion XV. The main findings were that 50% of the patients used the outpatient service only once during the study period and that most of them were between 20 and 50 years of age.  The days with the most consultations were Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.  The number of consultations was relatively stable throughout the year, with a slight increase in June. The three main causes for visiting the service were: upper respiratory tract diseases, muscular-skeletal disorders, and irritated digestive system problems. Main conclusions: Most of the consultations were from the departments with the more faculty and staff members; however, some departments had extremely high or low consultation rates per capita, maybe due to factors such as pathologies that require periodic control, geographical proximity, and psycho-social issues of patients who create a vicious circle due to the somatization of such problems.  The hypothesis that this population’s morbidity rate would differ from the national average because of its high educational level was rejected.  Nevertheless, the hypothesis that there are weekly and yearly cycles was maintained.

Satisfação na educação à distância em uma disciplina semipresencial na área de saúde

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde, 2016.

Poïétique de la création sonore au cinéma : la figure de l’artiste-poïéticien

Nous proposons, dans ce mémoire, d’explorer les possibilités pratiques et pédagogiques d’une approche autopoïétique de la création sonore au cinéma. Notre principal souci sera de saisir les modalités de l’ascèse propre aux artistes qui se livrent à une telle activité, comprise comme un « apprentissage de soi par soi » (Foucault), afin de faire celui qui peut faire l’œuvre (processus de subjectivation), et le rôle descriptif et opératoire de cet exercice - en tant qu’effort pour penser de façon critique son propre savoir-faire -, dans le faire-œuvre et l’invention de possibles dans l’écriture audio-visuelle cinématographique. Pour ce faire, d’une part, nous étudierons, à partir de témoignages autopoïétiques, le rapport réflexif de trois créateurs sonores à leur pratique et leur effort pour penser (et mettre en place) les conditions d’une pratique et d’une esthétique du son filmique comme forme d’art sonore dans un contexte audio-visuel, alors qu’ils travaillent dans un cadre normalisant : Randy Thom, Walter Murch et Franck Warner. D’autre part, nous recourrons à différentes considérations théoriques (la théorie de l’art chez Deleuze et Guattari, la « surécoute » chez Szendy, l’histoire de la poïétique à partir de Valéry, etc.) et pratiques (la recherche musicale chez Schaeffer, la relation maître-apprenti, les rapports entre automatisme et pensée dans le cinéma moderne chez Artaud et Godard, etc.), afin de contextualiser et d’analyser ces expériences de création, avec l’objectif de problématiser la figure de l’artiste-poïéticien sur un plan éthique dans le sillage de la théorie des techniques de soi chez Foucault.

A basic interpretive study of the experiences of university students who have dropped or failed an online course

Online courses have increased in enrollments over the past few decades. As the number of students taking online courses have increased, so has the number of students who have dropped or failed an online course. According to the literature, online courses may have higher drop rates than traditional, face-to-face courses. The number of students who fail an online course is, also, of concern. As online courses may continue to grow over the next few decades, studies on persistence in online courses may benefit students, administrators, instructional designers, educators, and researchers. Although previous research studies have addressed persistence in online courses, very few examine it from the perspectives of students who were unsuccessful in their courses. These students may have unique insights about the online experience that may have related to their lack of success. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of university students who have failed or dropped an online course through the lenses of transactional distance theory and Kember’s model of dropout in distance education. Transactional distance theory discusses the dialog, structure, and learner autonomy involved in an online course, while, Kember’s model presents categories that may relate to dropping an online course. Together, the theory and model may help in understanding the experiences of students who have dropped or failed an online course. In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants from a large Southeastern university in the United States. Based on the participants’ responses, the data was sorted and ranked according to the amount of transactional distance in their courses, as well as the categories of Kember’s model. Many of the participants who experienced low or high transactional distance have, also, expressed an issue with the goal commitment category of Kember’s model. Additionally, there were important differences in the student characteristics of those who dropped or failed an online course. Furthermore, suggestions for improving online courses were given by the participants. Some of these suggestions included more student-instructor interactions, the use of more technology tools in their online course, and for orientations to the online environment to be offered.^