Labankido©: The Evaluation of a Multimedia Tool Designed for the Teaching of Basic Skills and Concepts in Dance Education

Abstract

According to modern learning theories, multimedia applications can serve as media for the simultaneous activation of the dancer’s visual and verbal system of receiving and processing incoming information relative with motor performance. The aim of the present research is the evaluation of the impact of a new computer multimedia application: Labankido© on beginner dance students’ performance. Labankido© is a ten unit computer tutorial specially designed for the needs of the Laban-Notation teaching method (Dania 2013), and according to the principles of Mayer’s Multimedia Learning Theory. Its main innovation is the use of Labanotation symbols (symbols for the notation and analysis of movement), for the representation of the four basic movement concepts: knowledge of body, spatial awareness, sense of effort, relationships, as these are defined by the Laban theory of Movement Analysis (LMA). 52 second-year university beginner dance students participated in the research. All participants were taught Greek traditional dance for five consecutive weeks by the Laban-Notation teaching method. A 30-minute period of the main part of every lesson was video-recorded and the participants’ motor responses to Labankido©-lesson activities were analyzed by expertly trained observers with the duration recording method. From the results, it was proved that when the cognitive load of the digital material was low, the use of multimedia represented Labanotation symbols promoted the dancers’ perception and thus made their performance more proficient.