Web 2.0 with Alert Support for
Busy Parents in Suzuki Method of
Children Music Teaching
Cheuk-ting CHAN
Dept of Music
HK Baptist University
chancheukting2002@yahoo.com
Suzuki Method
Dickson K. W. CHIU
Senior Member, IEEE
Dickson Computer Systems, HK
dicksonchiu@ieee.org
ICWL 2011- 1
Introduction
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Suzuki method for children learning musical instruments
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Key requirements
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well received and practised worldwide
developed and expanded for various kinds of instruments
Parental involvement and learning environment
Become obstacle for busy parents in metropolises
Solution:
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Web 2.0 with Alert Support for Suzuki method Platform (WASSAP)
provides a virtual musical environment for teachers, students, parents
Alert Management System (AMS) to facilitate their communications
Enabling ICT infrastructure: high computing penetration,
high-bandwidth broadband and wireless infrastructure.
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 2
Philosophy of Suzuki method
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All children have potential to become musical
Applying “Mother tongue” method to children’s music
learning.
Environment rather than genetics will determine the
success and failure of students.
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 3
Curriculum of Suzuki Method
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Careful and sequential planning of curriculum
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Breaking each new skill into the smallest possible steps
Avoiding dry technical exercises
New technical skills and musical concepts
introduced and disguised with the context of
familiar musical pieces
Interesting and attractive to the children and
their families.
Motivation for learning comes from the desire
to learn new pieces in the repertoire.
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 4
Technical concepts of Suzuki method
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Begin lessons early
Suzuki Triangle: strong partnership among student,
teacher, and parent
Daily listening to recordings
Learning by ear before reading music notations
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Like learning mother-tongue
One-point learning - focus on only 1 technique at a time
Individual lessons at each child’s own pace
Use group classes to review the materials presented in
the private lesson and to introduce the skill of playing
together.
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 5
Parent’s role suggested by Suzuki
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To cooperate with the music instructors
Give positive encouragement to their children
Attend child’s lesson
Learn to play the instrument even before the child
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understand what the child is expected to do.
Foster the musical environment by attending concerts
and playing recordings at home
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 6
Review of the role of parents in
children’s music learning in Hong Kong
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Observation based on the authors’ experience
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teaching music in school
instrumental tutor
conversation with parents.
Little involvement of parents in their children’s learning.
Parents are busy and exhausted with their daily job.
Over-relying on household helpers
Education level of parents.
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 7
Specific problems of parent involvement
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To cooperate with the music instructors
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Give positive encouragement to their children
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No time, inadequate educational background
Foster the musical environment by attending concerts
and playing recordings at home
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Seldom – because of Chinese culture
Parents don’t know how to appraise their children’s performance
Learn to play the instrument to understand what the
child is expected to do
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Parents have inadequate knowledge and motivation
No time to attend lessons due to long working hours and trips
Not so often, too much other entertainments
Short-sighted motivation
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Just for greater opportunity to be admitted to a better school
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 8
System Architecture
Parents Teachers
Desktop
Students
Laptop
PDA
Administrators
Public Content
Services, e.g.,
Youtube,
Facebook, …
Mobile
Web / mobile
Access
Internet
XSLT Processor
Web Portal
Alert
Management
System
Suzuki Method
Content Mgr
Event Mgr
Forum Mgr
User Mgr
Alert Input
Triggered Action
User &
Curriculum
Database
Content
Database
Curriculum Mgr
Session Mgr
Messaging Mgr
Configuration Mgr …
Application Logic
Web 2.0 with Alert Support
for Suzuki Approach Platform
ICWL 2011- 9
Main Entities and Relationships
Curriculum
Enrol
Skill
1
Step
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objective
Student
1
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recording
Session
demo
Media
Segment
1
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Parent
Mentor
User
Teacher
receive
Attachment
recommend
Message
*
1
Event
Forum
send
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 10
Parent Assistance Offered
Communicating and cooperating with music instructors
 Understand children’s progress and performance in lessons
 Forums
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Messaging
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event announcement
provide assistance
teacher’s comments starts conversation
Response from parents or even children
progress monitoring
Increase parental involvement in their children’s learning
progress
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 11
Parent Assistance Offered (2)
Increase parental involvement
 AMS alert the parents of the start of lessons and other
related events
 Maintain an open, warm, and supportive atmosphere
via messaging for busy parents
 Video conferencing to support interactions of remote
parents with teaching sessions
 Recording of the sessions for parents' review.
 Sharing music media with their children
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Teachers share their own recording clips
Teachers prescribe media for their daily listening and practice
Facilitate parents to practice music with children at home
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 12
Parent Assistance Offered (3)
Fostering a virtual musical environment
 Organizing various kinds of events and activities
 Web activities now often considered as entertainment
 Share appropriate concert video clips
 Virtual music competition
 Discussions among teachers, parents, and older students
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enhances the motivation among the children
sharing challenges with peers
Old students as mentors
Notification of events and important messages can be
adequately supported by our AMS
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 13
Conclusions
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Key to Suzuki’s method:
parental involvement and learning environment
Our platform helps busy parents and creates e-learning
environment
Contemporary Web 2.0 and ICT facilitates collaboration:
music sharing, recording, messaging, discussions, …
Provides fundamental support for (e-)curriculum design
and execution
AMS further helps event notifications
Help busy mobile people in learning participation,
overcoming much restrictions of time and space.
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 14
Future Work
 Carry out these remedies in our professional practices
 Performance evaluation and process improvement
 Comparative field study
 Further development of the ontology for clinical processes.
 Application of ontology and other social networking
technologies (e.g., reputation system) for this purpose.
Suzuki Method
ICWL 2011- 15
Question and Answer
Thank you!
Contact: dicksonchiu@ieee.org