Week 8 Blog Post
For this blog assignment, I'm integrating the following two questions into a multi-part question:
1) Really interesting! What are some limitations of teaching dance via a virtual method? What would happen in cases where in a physical setting a teacher would help position the student? (Juin Zhou)
2) What are the major difference between teaching dance in reality and teaching dance via technology? Why do students still like to learn dance in a face-to-face environment? I think in-person interaction is one of the factors. Does the article discuss about this question? If not, what's your opinions? (Zhiping Zhang)
In a face-to-face, physical environment, a student gets to see the teacher in real life. This means that instead of seeing a flat screen, a student gets to see more depth, since one's eyes are set apart from each other and thus provide a significantly greater sense of depth than one eye would. (A clarification: though Chan et al. titled their article "A Virtual Reality Dance Training System...", the student is NOT using a virtual reality headset to view the dance teacher and his/her dance model; the term virtual reality is used, I think incorrectly, to refer to the fact that the dance teacher is a virtual teacher, and the student's "avatar" is also virtually represented).
So one of the biggest complaints of watching video is that a student cannot judge depth very well--where all the body parts are positioned. Part of this has to do with being a flat image, and part of it has to do with not being able to see different angles of the teacher. In real life, one can move around to view different angles, or ask the teacher to repeat the movement at a different angle.
With group, in-person dance classes, some people enjoy the camaraderie and social element of dancing with fellow students. It can provide support, in that students see others trying to learn and feel less self-conscious, and scaffolding, as often a question one student asks is a question other students have. It can also have drawbacks, however: what if a student is below the levels of everyone else? This can be intimidating. What if there's a clique-y culture? This can leave emotional scars. And of course, what if the studio is an hour away? Two hours? More? Physical accessibility is a huge issue for many, especially those who don't live in urban areas.
Another very important thing that is especially clear with 1-on-1 physical instruction is that the student can, at any time, ask the teacher specific questions. The teacher then completely adjusts to provide the requested feedback. In a virtual learning environment, the designers of the training system would have to anticipate student questions and then provide ways for the student to access this additional instruction. It would require more work on the part of the designers, as well as correctly anticipating what students would ask.
I think we need to remember that virtual dance teaching may not ever be able to be as good as 1-on-1 physical teaching provided by a gifted and skilled teacher, but at the same time it can provide the best alternative to it compared to current alternatives (video watching, practicing without any help). 1-on-1 training can also be quite expensive (I myself have paid up to $150/hr to learn from a house dance legend in Brooklyn). In addition, virtual (or augmented) reality training systems can provide features and benefits that other ways of training do not, such as feedback from motion capture suits and storage of data that can later be analyzed and viewed.
Right now the motion capture suit looks very awkward and probably takes students out of a normal dancing state of mind, so that is a drawback. As motion capture technology becomes more "invisible", this will be mitigated. Dancers are especially sensitive to what they're wearing, and if they are not wearing what is comfortable and looks good, they may be affected by it (this is true for me from personal experience).
I feel that a lot of the drawbacks of a computerized system compared to a real human teacher can be captured by the complaints we have about Siri or Alexa and similar technologies. While they are quite useful, they are nowhere near as responsive or attuned to us as a human being. Yet let's not get carried away either--computer learning systems for dance, while designed to mimic an excellent human teacher's effective pedagogy as closely as possible, can never replace a human teacher. Instead, in my opinion, it should address a need that people have.
In the Innovation Award project I'm working on, my group is seeking to develop an app that utilizes augmented reality to teach dance. In our user research, we've found that human teachers can be expensive, especially 1-on-1; students might not have access to teachers or dance studios; and video learning has its limitations. Using new technology to teach dance would meet a big market need, but I would definitely encourage a dance student to seek live teachers when possible, seek out fellow learners to practice with, dance at events and clubs, compete and/or perform when opportunities arise, and also post clips on social media. All together, I think this is an ideal way to learn dance, but for those who don't have access to one or some of these avenues of learning, making do with the rest is a reality.
1) Really interesting! What are some limitations of teaching dance via a virtual method? What would happen in cases where in a physical setting a teacher would help position the student? (Juin Zhou)
2) What are the major difference between teaching dance in reality and teaching dance via technology? Why do students still like to learn dance in a face-to-face environment? I think in-person interaction is one of the factors. Does the article discuss about this question? If not, what's your opinions? (Zhiping Zhang)
In a face-to-face, physical environment, a student gets to see the teacher in real life. This means that instead of seeing a flat screen, a student gets to see more depth, since one's eyes are set apart from each other and thus provide a significantly greater sense of depth than one eye would. (A clarification: though Chan et al. titled their article "A Virtual Reality Dance Training System...", the student is NOT using a virtual reality headset to view the dance teacher and his/her dance model; the term virtual reality is used, I think incorrectly, to refer to the fact that the dance teacher is a virtual teacher, and the student's "avatar" is also virtually represented).
So one of the biggest complaints of watching video is that a student cannot judge depth very well--where all the body parts are positioned. Part of this has to do with being a flat image, and part of it has to do with not being able to see different angles of the teacher. In real life, one can move around to view different angles, or ask the teacher to repeat the movement at a different angle.
With group, in-person dance classes, some people enjoy the camaraderie and social element of dancing with fellow students. It can provide support, in that students see others trying to learn and feel less self-conscious, and scaffolding, as often a question one student asks is a question other students have. It can also have drawbacks, however: what if a student is below the levels of everyone else? This can be intimidating. What if there's a clique-y culture? This can leave emotional scars. And of course, what if the studio is an hour away? Two hours? More? Physical accessibility is a huge issue for many, especially those who don't live in urban areas.
Another very important thing that is especially clear with 1-on-1 physical instruction is that the student can, at any time, ask the teacher specific questions. The teacher then completely adjusts to provide the requested feedback. In a virtual learning environment, the designers of the training system would have to anticipate student questions and then provide ways for the student to access this additional instruction. It would require more work on the part of the designers, as well as correctly anticipating what students would ask.
I think we need to remember that virtual dance teaching may not ever be able to be as good as 1-on-1 physical teaching provided by a gifted and skilled teacher, but at the same time it can provide the best alternative to it compared to current alternatives (video watching, practicing without any help). 1-on-1 training can also be quite expensive (I myself have paid up to $150/hr to learn from a house dance legend in Brooklyn). In addition, virtual (or augmented) reality training systems can provide features and benefits that other ways of training do not, such as feedback from motion capture suits and storage of data that can later be analyzed and viewed.
Right now the motion capture suit looks very awkward and probably takes students out of a normal dancing state of mind, so that is a drawback. As motion capture technology becomes more "invisible", this will be mitigated. Dancers are especially sensitive to what they're wearing, and if they are not wearing what is comfortable and looks good, they may be affected by it (this is true for me from personal experience).
I feel that a lot of the drawbacks of a computerized system compared to a real human teacher can be captured by the complaints we have about Siri or Alexa and similar technologies. While they are quite useful, they are nowhere near as responsive or attuned to us as a human being. Yet let's not get carried away either--computer learning systems for dance, while designed to mimic an excellent human teacher's effective pedagogy as closely as possible, can never replace a human teacher. Instead, in my opinion, it should address a need that people have.
In the Innovation Award project I'm working on, my group is seeking to develop an app that utilizes augmented reality to teach dance. In our user research, we've found that human teachers can be expensive, especially 1-on-1; students might not have access to teachers or dance studios; and video learning has its limitations. Using new technology to teach dance would meet a big market need, but I would definitely encourage a dance student to seek live teachers when possible, seek out fellow learners to practice with, dance at events and clubs, compete and/or perform when opportunities arise, and also post clips on social media. All together, I think this is an ideal way to learn dance, but for those who don't have access to one or some of these avenues of learning, making do with the rest is a reality.
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