Constructing a Multi-Monitor Displays System for Learning 329
Table 1. Summary of Means (M), standard deviations (SD), and t value
Experimental
Group
Control
Group
t value Item
I found that
M SD M SD
there was just the right amount of
information on the screen.
3.31 0.82 3.19 0.69 0.658
ns
the texts and graphics presented were clear,
structured and appealing.
3.66 0.83 3.22 0.75 2.215
*
the texts and graphics presented allowed
me to easily identify the important
information and key concepts.
3.47 0.80 3.56 0.62 -0.523
ns
the texts and graphics presented were
helpful in learning the music elements.
3.66 0.75 3.25 0.92 1.946
ns
the presented texts and graphics help me to
connect the knowledge that I have learned.
3.69 0.59 3.53 0.67 0.987
ns
the texts and graphics presented help me to

better visualize the content.
3.72 0.77 3.31 0.64 2.285
*
the graphics and examples presented help
me to pay attention to the subject.
3.41 0.71 3.28 0.99 0.579
ns
Total 24.91 3.17 23.34 2.94 2.047
*
*
p <.05,
**
p <.01; ns = no significant

t(62) = 2.100; p < .05, respectively. However, they did not differ with the control group
with respect to dynamics and rhythm, t(62) = 0.810; p > .05; t(62) = 0.361; p > .05,
respectively. The experimental group (M = 23.31, SD = 4.22) did not significantly
outperform the control group (M = 20.66, SD = 5.30.) in their learning achievement,
t(62) = 2.219, p < .05. However, the average scores of the experimental group were
slightly higher than the control one. They were able to learn more and correctly per-
ceived having learned more. The results showed that using the MMD system to present
the listening map can assist music learning and music appreciation and that it can ef-
fectively improve learning achievement in timbre and melody.
Table 1 shows the experimental group as being more effective in fluency and flexi-
bility of presentation than the control group, t(62) = 3.007; p < .01; t(62) = 2.987; p < .01,
respectively. However, they did not differ with respect to originality and elaboration,
t(62) = 1.477; p > .05; t(62) = 1.154; p > .05, respectively. The experimental group (M =
43.38, SD = 5.42) significantly outperformed the control group (M = 40.00, SD = 5.25.)
in the multimedia presentation showing, t(62) = 2.530, p < .05. The average scores of the
experimental group were higher than the control group. The results also showed that

combining multimedia presentation with visual materials can assist music learning and
promote learning achievement. We found that students in the experimental group per-
formed best in fluency and flexibility. The learners in the experimental group could build
more mental connections between verbal and visual representations to be creative.
330 Y S. Lai, Y H. Chang, and P T. Yu
5 Conclusion
In this study we proposed the MMD system to assist pupils in their learning perform-
ance and increase their creativity during music learning. Multimedia learning offers a
grand revolution on education - that is, a system for enhancing human learning. Ac-
cording to the multimedia principle [14], better learning occurs when presenting words
and pictures than from words alone. The instructional materials consist of multiple
modalities of information, including speech, on-screen text, static picture, animation or
video. In this regard, an instructional designer requires various authoring tools that
support multiple formats; similarly, a lecturer may use several presenting tools which
provide distinct multimedia. The MMD system allows users to open distinct authoring
tools simultaneously in order to edit, modify, copy and paste the instructional materials.
The user can direct each authoring tool to the desired monitor or call them back into the
system. The students combined the multimedia presentation with the music to realize
their emotion that they imagined or wanted to express. It offered a chance for the stu-
dents to create and represent, and to increase their cognitive degree of the music and the
application of health operation. The results of the experiment in this study showed that
the students accepted the listening map auxiliary music appreciation can achieve the
music performance generally superior to traditional students. With a multi-monitor
presentation, teachers can concentrate on the thumbnails of their projection screens
without having to turn around to glance at the projection screens which are behind
them. Moreover, the system acts as an integrated controller where most events can be
triggered by using the aided system without moving the mouse cursor to the target
presenting tools.
Acknowledgement. We would like to thank the National Council of Taiwan for sup-
porting this research under Contract number NSC 96-2520-S-194-002-MY3.

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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008
Digital Content Development of Folklore Artifacts and
Activities for Folklore Education
Po-Chou Chan
1
, Ya-Chin Liao
2
, Kuo-An Wang
1
Hsuan-Hung Lin
1
,
and Yung-Fu Chen
3,*


1
Department of Management Information Systems, Central Taiwan University of Science
and Technology, Taichung, 406 Taiwan, ROC
{bjjem,shlin,gawang}@ctust.edu.tw
2
Department of Commercial Design, National Taichung Institute of Technology, Taichung,
404 Taiwan

3
Department of Health Services Administration, China Medical University, Taichung 404
Tel.: 886-4-22053366 ext. 6315; Fax: 886-4-22031108

Abstract. Digital preservation of museum artifacts has been widely promoted by
governments around the world in recent years. However, the artifacts collected
by national or local museums are not very exhaustive. Recently, the collected
folklore artifacts accompanied with crafts in how to make them and skills and
rituals in how to use them have been digitized in Taiwanese Folklore Museum.
In order to supplement insufficiency of artifacts collected by the museum, folk-
lore hobbyists are regularly invited to demonstrate their private collections. At
the mean time, the task force of digital preservation team digitizes the artifacts
for extending its contents. Another way to aggressively increase the number of
digitized contents is to sign cooperation agreements with members of the folk-
lore associations by giving services to digitize their personal collections. After
having extended the digital contents, we expect that the website of Taiwanese
Folklore Museum will become even more popular for teachers and students, es-
pecially in kindergartens and elementary schools, to extract and prepare useful
materials for folklore education. In conclusion, the paper presents the digital con-
tents which include folklore artifacts and folklore activities developed in Taiwan
Folklore Museum. Additionally, other digital contents developed in other muse-
ums or personal collectors can be retrieved by using XML technique. The

scheme supplements the insufficiency of national or local museums and provides
inter-museum architecture for supporting more complete contents for folklore
education.
1 Introduction
The importance of folklore can be manifested by Alan Jabbour’s speech in the 100th
anniversary of American Folklore Society, which stated that “folklore reflects on the


*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. 91 Hsuech-Shih Road, Taichung 40402,
Taiwan.
Digital Content Development of Folklore Artifacts and Activities 333
ancestral missions that have shapes us, the inherited values that we reflect and must
radiate into the future” [1]. The word “folklore” may refer to unsubstantiated beliefs,
legends, and customs, currently existing among the common people [2] or substanti-
ated artifacts, crafts, skills, and rituals, widely governing the living style of the com-
mon people [3].
In general, folklore refers to the society and culture tradition of the common people
and the customs practiced and beliefs held by the vast majority of people in the cul-
tural mainstream that they have inherited from their ancestors, including legends,
stories, religious beliefs, festivals, ancestor worship, taboos, ceremonies, leisure ac-
tivities, music, singing, dance and so forth [1]. As a result, the value of folk artifacts,
crafts, skills, and rituals lies in their demonstration of popular conceptions, life wis-
dom and the ancestral legacy hidden within the culture. Their basic value lies in their
tight intermeshing of spirituality, psychology, and social mores; and their social func-
tions and symbolic cultural meanings lie largely in their artistic and historical worth.
In a previous investigation, we had finished content development and digital preserva-
tion of the Taiwanese folklore artifacts [1].
Folklore objects and activities can be classified into four different types which in-
clude artifact, craft, skill, and ritual. In addition to folklore artifact, three types of

folklore activities were added to make the folklore content and preservation more
complete so that the spirits of folklore can be demonstrated more exhaustively [3,4].
Recently, digital content development with applications to the preservation of
artifacts relating to the arts, languages, ecology, living styles, etc. has been studied
and implemented worldwide [5,3]. Most of the digital contents emphasized arti-
facts rather than the craft in making or the skill in using these artifacts. For exam-
ple, the craft in making puppets concerning wood sculpture, painting, clothing, and
decoration, while the skill of using or playing the puppet in religious rituals re-
garding delicate finger operation, hand control, and arm and body movements.
Besides, folklore and religious rituals have their spiritual meaning that step-by-step
procedure embeds significant meaning for a people or a religion. Motivated by the
investigations which showed that media richness facilitates learning of courses
with high uncertainty and equivocality [6] and e-learning with interactive videos
gains more learner satisfaction than non-interactive and traditional classroom
learning [7], digital contents of crafts, skills, and rituals have been developed for
the purpose of both digital preservation and online education [4]. The same con-
cept was applied to digitize childcare standard operation procedures (SOPs) [8]. In
contrast to general non-interactive e-learning and traditional classroom learning
style, we proposed a metadata-based method for recording each step as a metadata
record in which the title, description, associated digital media, and other related
information are all included [4].
The artifacts collected by national or local museums are not very exhaustive. For
example, there are only 1412 artifacts collected by Taiwanese Folklore Museum al-
though it is a popular multi-function site with a crucial mission in the exhibition and
preservation of representative folklore artifacts and an important site for folklore
education. Table 1 shows the numbers and categories of visitors in the year of 2006.