Constructing a multi-monitor displays system for learning

Abstract

This paper proposes a Multi-monitor Displays (MMD) System for assisting primary school students with their learning performance in music learning. The progress of computer technology has enabled an explosion in the visual ways of teaching presentation. In recent years, most educators present their instructional materials by using projectors primarily rather than chalkboards. Multimedia instruction is a good approach for learners to construct meaningful knowledge and to make referential connections between mental representations. This paper proposes a multi-monitor approach for constructing a multimedia aided learning system supported by some popular tools such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Based on the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, this aided system is realized to combine and support verbal and pictorial forms. As a result, teachers can easily develop their teaching materials and present reference materials on two different monitors or screens. Our experiment reveals that by using the MMD system to simultaneously present musical notations and a listening map the results using multimedia presentation are superior to those of the conventional instruction methods when it comes to learning achievement and creative ability. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.