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TECHNOLOGICAL PLATFORM SOUNDCOOL AND FUNCTIONAL
DIVERSITY: A PROPOSAL FOR INCLUSIVE LEARNING AND THE
PROMOTION OF CREATIVITY
Carlos Hernández Franco1, Jorge Sastre Martinez1, Montserrat Briceño
Mezquita1
1Instituto de Telecomunicaciones y Aplicaciones Multimedia
Camino de Vera s/n, 46022
Universitat Politècnica de València (SPAIN)
chernan@dcom.upv.es, jsastrem@upv.es, monbrime@alumni.upv.es
Abstract
Music has the ability to bring people together, to facilitate sharing common emotions by making us feel
socially members of a Community. In the case of those people affected by an intellectual disability,
music can be a great support to happiness, to contribute to live better together with others, relatives or
friends, as well as to facilitate their understanding, establishing a communication much more
harmonious and fluid. Our proposal summarizes a project that deals with music education and the
promotion of creativity in people with intellectual disability, connecting directly with music therapy
supported by the use of technological applications. We present a project about collaborative music
creation, sharing emotion and feelings as a part of a group that creates something new and unique.
Ways of interpersonal and intrapersonal communication.
The “magic” of music, the wonder of technology applied to artistic creation and the satisfaction of
validating “plural benefits”. We develop our proposal together users of the Occupational Center for
People with intellectual disability "La Torre" of Valencia. The technological support will be the use of
the "Soundcool" application, a free system designed, implemented and developed by the Performing
Arts and Technology Group (PerformingARTech) at the Universitat Politècnica de València for music
education and collaborative creation using computers, smartphones and tablets. In our proposal we
highlight as technology improve aspects related to the psychomotricity of the users, the cognitive
abilities, the improvement in the social relations and the well-being of the users, the increase of the
self-esteem and the enhancement of each user participating in the musical project.
Keywords: Functional diversity, Disabilities, Soundcool, ICT, Inclusion, Learning, Creativity,
PerformingARTech
1 INTRODUCTION
Music becomes an appropriate instrument to interact and communicate at all possible levels. The
present work is the summary of the experience and the learning that was the Doctoral Thesis of one of
the authors and that had as frame the Occupational Center for People with functional diversity
"La Torre" of Valencia, Fig. 1 [1].
This research project is a work that deals with music, music education, functional diversity, music
therapy and technological applications. But, above all, it is a work about collective musical creation,
the emotion of feeling part of a whole that generates something “unique and novel”.
it is a work about interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. Something that is good for
something. Something that sounds and moves. The magic of music, the wonder of technology applied
to artistic creation and the satisfaction of validating the plural benefits for people using the "Soundcool"
application developed by the Performing Arts and Technology Group (PerformingARTech) of the
Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) for the collaborative musical creation with mobiles, tablets
and the Xbox video interface Kinect [2].
Figure 1. The Occupational Center “La Torre”, Valencia, Spain.
Music can be considered as the oldest language. The language of music does not move in the field of
the abstract, it shows a real grammar, since the composer's discourse arises from his thought until he
reaches the audience "several phases follow each other through a complex journey, in which
communicative processes characteristic of this language are triggered, such as the analysis of the
work, interpretation, production, perception and comprehension ".
Although music is not only a creative process that shows other realities, its learning allows to deepen
them, its educational process enables the acquisition of values and a specific competence, but, above
all, education through music or education for music involves a global educational process in which the
acquisition of interculturality can take place because music can be considered a means of intercultural
communication [3].
Favoring creativity means promoting the social and professional integration of people with functional
diversity in the deepest part of society, developing their own personality, challenging their own
differences, freeing themselves from it, communicating with others, externalizing the hidden aspects of
oneself, achieve equality with the world around you, enjoy cultural heritage, eliminate barriers, etc.
Artistic creation enhances the components of self-determination, a basic skill for active participation in
society.
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Pedagogical Principles
The methodology followed is based on these pedagogical principles:
• Significant learning: The methodology that we have carried out in this workshop is based on
the principles of educational intervention, for which a direct involvement of the users (who
assume the role of students) is needed in order to obtain significant learning and, to achieve
with it, substantial improvements in the teaching-learning process
• The teacher / user interaction is fundamental as well as among students, since it is learned
from their own classmates. For this reason, group dynamics will be created generating their
own graphics, selecting the sounds and “movements” used in the final “show” of experience
with the technological platform "Soundcool" (Section 2.2)
• Motivation: There were significant activities close to reality, achievable challenges and not
distant and difficult goals for the users
• Socratic method, which was carried out through group discussions and contributions, for
example, generating a debate ending the sessions
• Strategies: Several strategies based on the visual arts were used:
o Introduction the “surprise factor” at the beginning of the workshops to motivate the
group
o Projection of carefully selected images at the beginning of the workshop about
what is going to be done as an orientation (examples of graphics, movements,
explanation sheets of the Soundcool system, etc.)
We find arguments (pedagogical, social and economics) to include the Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) in education. The first refers to the facilitating role of these
technologies in the teaching-learning process, a motivating resource that contributes to the
development of higher-order cognitive skills such as analysis and synthesis. With respect to social
arguments, ICT facilitate both personal and work-related relationships, having converted their use into
an indispensable "vital skill".
The inclusive school is committed to participation, mutual respect, support for those who have more
learning difficulties, sensitivity and recognition of minority groups, trust and high expectations
regarding the future possibilities of all students. This reality would not be possible without taking into
account the educational support provided by ICT to the inclusive process.
2.2 Technological Platform “Soundcool”
Soundcool is an innovative system of music education and collaborative creation through mobile
(smartphone), tablets and Kinect in real time. It consists of a set of modules that can be
interconnected, simple to use and with specific characteristics (Player, Keyboard, Sampleplayer,
Mixer, etc) through which you can synthesize and transform the sound coming from virtual sound
libraries, MIDI files, audios of self-creation, sound coming from a micro, etc. [4]. All these modules
work on a Mac or PC computer, and can be controlled by mobile devices via WiFi. Soundcool uses the
Open Sound Control (OSC) communication protocol to transmit the data between the computer and
the control devices and uses the MAX / MSP / JITTER programming environment [5].
Its operation is simple: each of these modules is controlled by a smartphone or tablet device (using
Android or iOS Operation System). It is connected and managed by WiFi by the user group, promoting
collaborative creation. In addition, you can use the Xbox Kinect video game interface, which captures
the movement of the user, as a controller of some module, thus adding movement and body
expression to the benefits of the project, for example, motivating its use with blind users, Fig. 2.
Figure 2. Technological Platform “Soundcool” (www.soundcool.org).
2.3 The “Soundcool Symphony”
The action was focused on the music creation workshop with Soundcool as a collaborative tool,
through the tablets that are commonly used in other activities at the Center by users with functional
diversity, with the aim of boosting all the creative potential and facilitating the social interrelation of the
group. During four months and in weekly sessions, we worked collaboratively in the genesis of
sounds, the handling of the different modules and their functions, creation of own spellings, images
associated with abstract concepts and “personal identity” and we also proposed and designed
together a “final show experience” in which we shared in an experiential way all the tools and skills
acquired and the communicative and expressive improvement that involved all people, Fig. 3.
Figure 3. Sessions using the technological platform “Soundcool”.
The workshop consisted of 10 sessions of 40 minutes duration and weekly frequency. Throughout the
first 4, we presented the Soundcool system to the participants, showed the different modules and their
characteristics and before moving on to the second phase of the workshop (the following 6 sessions,
dedicated to the creation of sound, experimentation and preparation of the final concert) we were
aware of the need to generate some facilitating tool for blind users who were also actively participating
in the group, Fig. 4.
Figure 4. Designing the “template” Keyboard module and used in the final show.
The selection of participants was made based on a main criterion: those who liked music, and who
usually participated in musical workshops and who are motivated by any artistic and musical activity.
The timing was framed between the months of February and May of 2017. It was an intense and very
exciting experience.
3 RESULTS
It is necessary to know what is a psychopedagogical Report because it is a necessary tool to start
the learning process, treatment and the pedagogical implementation in any case. The conclusions
derived from the information obtained in the initial and final evaluation process were included in a
psychopedagogical report. The assessment of the effectiveness of the music therapy treatment,
considering it as a permanent process of reflection and analysis, we have verified through the
following strategies:
• Direct observation
• Active participation of users
• Sample of interest
• Daily record of the sessions
The evaluation of the treatment has been continuous. Many of the sessions have been recorded on
video. At the time of recording the sessions, the technique of direct observation, video viewing
(emphasizing listening to musical interventions and following slogans) has been used. The observed
data and its respective analysis have been reflected in some record sheets of each session and
visually, in image storyboards. Qualitative research was carried out that consisted of three parts: initial
evaluation, creative workshop (which can be considered as part of the music therapy intervention
program) and final evaluation.
During the realization of the workshop an active observation was carried out at the music therapy level
and an evaluation of the involvement of the participating users. At the end of the 10 sessions,
questionnaires were conducted with people with functional diversity who participated and a meeting
was organized to evaluate the experience and gather opinions with the Center's professionals. These
professional evaluations will help us to justify the intentions and results of the project, apply
improvements and corrections and visualize future lines of work with the Soundcool system in the field
of functional diversity.
The results can not be more optimistic because we have verified that concepts such as motivation,
collaborative work, organization, planning and responsibility, as well as learning, are within reach and
are stimulated directly and indirectly, as well as the communicative capacity, for the use of the
Soundcool platform, with which you become familiar quickly and naturally as any other individual.
They are already used to handling tools such as smartphones and tablets, so accessibility to the
application is assured.
The results allow to correct the contents and planning of the activity so that they can be extrapolated
(and this is very important) to other educational and occupational Centers of this type of users of the
Valencian Community, which can allow to prepare specific courses so that, from organizations such as
the Permanent Training Center (CFP) of the UPV, can be proposed to support organizations of these
groups.
As a tool for evaluating and obtaining results, we conducted surveys to inform this research work
(initial, during the activity and final). We also conducted a series of previous interviews with the
Center's team of professionals and final assessment reports. The objective was to obtain quantitative
and qualitative results from the users and professionals involved about the workshop and the final
show of the workshop-experience with Soundcool.
4 CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that the use of technological applications for musical learning, in our concrete case for
the development of creativity to achieve real-time musical creation in a group setting, has been fully
satisfactory. At least, in most cases. Conceptually, the users have assumed the operation of the
modules without problems, actively participated in the “musical dialogues” that were created
spontaneously on many occasions and have exchanged roles according to the active module, the
Kinect or acoustic instruments to which they applied the Soundcool system to synthetically treat their
sound characteristics in a natural and progressive way. In the session dedicated to planning and
designing the final experience of the workshop, the concert, the whole group participated willingly and
contributed ideas, when they were asked to identify themselves with abstract concepts, sounds that
represented them, etc., they did it and the climate of the classroom, the creative process, was fluid
and surprising on many occasions
Among other issues, we were able to demonstrate that people with functional diversity who
participated in this activity using Soundcool as a collaborative musical creation tool, increased their
levels of self-confidence and self-esteem, stimulated creative channels and increased their interest in
group music practice. In addition, we could see an improvement in their emotional, interpersonal and
intrapersonal empathic skills. Thanks to the use of abstract constructs and spellings that we create ad
hoc in the workshop, we generate new creation communication channels that connect with signifiers of
emotional expression. The adaptation of the tactile devices to the characteristics of the participating
users through the templates with reliefs was very successful, because it significantly facilitated the
access to the creative application by the whole group and also improved their non-verbal
communication tools.
We want to confirm that these conclusions are a consequence of the experience in the sessions of the
musical creation workshop with Soundcool at the Occupational Center La Torre with a reduced user
group. We can not affirm that it is a representative sample of the group with functional diversity; it is
not even representative of the total number of users of the Center in which we have worked. This has
been a Case study, concrete and particular, not generalist.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express their gratitude for all the support received from all the Users and
Professionals of the Occupational Center for People with Functional Diversity "La Torre" of València.
This work has been supported by Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation grant Soundcool 16-AC-2016
and the Cátedra Telefonica from the Universitat Politècnica de València.
REFERENCES
[1] Centro Ocupacional para Personas con Diversidad Funcional “La Torre” de Valencia, España,
www.centrolatorre.es (last access: 01/17/18)
[2] Master en Música y Cursos de Música Electrónica y Video Creación,
http://musicaelectronica.blogs.upv.es (last access: 01/17/18)
[3] C. Hernández, K. Kelber, B.N. Glinzig, M. Briceño Mezquita, “Interface for music education and
creation by children who are blind or affected with autism spectrum disorders”, INTED 2014
[4] The technological Platform “Soundcool”, http://soundcool.org (last access: 01/17/18)
[5] The MAX/MSP/Jitter software official web site, https://cycling74.com (last access: 01/17/18)
