Educational applications
EARCONS: short distinctive audio patterns to which arbitrary definitions are assigned; they can be modified in various ways to assume different but related meanings
people can understand trends, clustering, correlations, and other simple statistical features of data as well by listening as by viewing graphs--sometimes better
representing concepts and data through sound provides a means of capitalizing on the strengths of individual learning styles
presenting sonified data to kids can provide more engaging learning experiences; sound can also help us grasp more sophisticated concepts (e.g. common curves in calculus]
Notes:
We use all kinds of audio cues in daily life: think of cars honking their horns, the beep of a computer turning on, the snarl of a dog in the dark....
we can translate that notion of realistic sound into things like vocal narration...remember the explanatory button sounds with THUNK design?--Click button...I am not a button....
and we can also generate sounds that may resemble experiental sounds, like for example, the THUNK when a document is dragged into trash on your desktop-
Now, we can be more abstract and start talking about EARCONS
Earcons are short distinctive audio patterns to which arbitrary definitions are assigned. They can be modified in various ways to assume different but related meanings
Studies tell us in fact, that people can understand trends, clustering, correlations, and other simple statistical features of data as well by LISTENING as by viewing graphs--sometimes better.
For example, we can "visualize" chronological change by mapping time-ordered phenomena into a series: take, for example, a map of the diffusion of AIDS over time and space--(voice grows LOUDER AND HIGHER) ...w/loudness representing the number of cases of
And of course, representing concepts and data through sound also provides a means of capitalizing on the strengths of individual learning styles
We already know rhythm and music are mnemonic devices --think of how we learn our alphabet,for example, with the song...A,B,C,D,...E..F...G.
Presenting sonified data to kids can provide more engaging learning experiences.
And it appears to be very useful in helping us to grasp more sophisticated concepts--for example, common curves in calculus