Introduction

China has a long-standing problem for patients to queue and book appointments with doctors (gua hao) in real life, especially with those medical experts (zhuan jia hao). The demands for expert doctors in 3AAA hospitals are extremely high, leading to a hidden market for scalpers to trade doctors’ appointment notes. To tackle this problem, China introduced a series of regulations in the year of 2009 as a means of healthcare reform, and required these 3AAA hospitals to adopt the Online Booking Systems (wang shang gua hao; abbreviated as OBS below) gradually – in which patients can book with doctors in advance by their personal identity information and doctors can easily access his/her clinical record before the appointment [1]. This is quite similar to GP online services offered by NHS (i.e. www.chooseandbook.nhs.uk); but it can be both managed by public institutions such as Beijing Health Bureau (www.bjguahao.gov.cn) and private funds (http://www.guahao.com/). This paper aims to examine how these online booking systems can transform patient experience.

Methods

This study interviews five groups of middle-aged people (with 3 – 5 people each group) in Beijing, mainly focusing on their experience of booking appointments with doctors as well as those of their relatives/friends [2]. A set of semi-structured questions are asked to identify the extent to which the OBS have changed patients’ behaviors/perceptions, as well as to examine what factors have constrained their adoption of OBS [3]. Meanwhile, this study will assess the impact of technological change in relation to various socio-economic factors [4]. Throughout this process, participants will be asked to identify problems needing to be the most urgently tackled, regarding China’s healthcare reform. Lastly, their views towards electronic medical records are investigated in relation to the privacy issue.  

Results and Discussion

In overall, participants interviewed by this study have shown positive attitudes towards the Online Booking Systems (OBS), mainly due to its accessible feature – i.e. People can take the initiative in terms of scheduling their own appointments (Besides this, many of them also use the telephone platform “114” as an alternative to make appointments). But it is clear that numbers of appointments allocated to OBS are limited [5]. Moreover, some criticize these technological advancements as a “temporary medical relief that only treat the symptom”, given the fact that 1) the supply of medical resources – still unevenly distributed both at the national and regional level – cannot meet the demand of patients and 2) the scarcity of expert doctors exacerbate patients’ willingness to strive for the perceived “best” medical service – despite few complained about the quality of these experts. On this basis, factors such as “illness seriousness”, “emergency extent” (mainly means those needing operations) etc. could pressure patients or their relatives to buy expert doctors’ appointment notes from scalpers for higher prices. Regarding the electronic medical records, most participants interviewed in this group have shown some extent of agreement on sharing them with their doctors as well as for further medical research; while they strongly opposed letting third parties to use them for commercial purposes (e.g. recommending medicine).

References and Notes

1. Li, Q.; Li, W. Large Hospital Registration System Design and Implementation. Programmable Controller & Factory Automation 2011, 9, 51-55.
2. The middle-aged group always needs to take care of elderly people and children, thus having extensive experience in terms of making appointments with doctors.
3. Bryman, A. Social Research Methods, 4th ed.; Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2012.
4. Kierkegaard, K. Governance Structures Impact on eHealth, Health Policy and Technology 2015, 4, 39-46.
5. Liu, B.; Jiang, X.; Cao, D.; Wang, L.; Wang, H. A Comparative Study of Different Booking
6. Methods in Hospitals of China, Modern Hospital Management 2007, 5, 5-7.

Introduction

The extended use of IT devices has raised scholars’ awareness to its impact on the organization of classroom interactions. Studies claim that the intensive use of IT in the classroom has the potential of revolutionizing education in a way that it increases students’ ownership and control over their learning processes (Ryberg 2013). Others claim that devices such as interactive whiteboards contribute to the emergence of an “effective style” of teaching (Gillen et al. 2007: 254). Further, Lotherington & Ronda (2014) emphasize the role of IT, multimedia, multimodality, collaborative communication, agentive participation and multitasking for a contemporary understanding of what they call “communicative competence 2.0” (p. 19). However, as both Gillen et al. (2007) and Ryberg (2013) establish, it is not the technology in itself but the ”role of teachers” (Ryberg et al. 2013: 102) and the transformation of ”underlying pedagogy” (Gillen et al. 2007: 254) what count in pedagogical revolutions.

Based on the above considerations, I investigate how IT-based classroom scenes are discursively reconstructed in teacher training videos. These videos explicitly aim at influencing current practices, so their investigation illuminates (sometimes hidden) policies in teacher education as well as in curriculum planning and implementation.

Approach, materials and methods

In this paper, I apply the framework of interaction-oriented language ideology studies (Laihonen 2008), focusing on how language ideologies and ideologies of education emerge in the analyzed teacher training videos. I put special emphasis on the discursively reconstructed agency of teachers and students. That is, I examine whether the demonstrational videos reconstructs participants as individuals who display “the ability to act with initiative and effect” (Hunter & Cooke 2007: 72).

My data comes from an online video portal (http://mestertanarvp.ektf.hu) which has been launched by a Hungarian teacher training college in 2010 with a stated goal of sharing good practices, e.g. the advanced use of IT in education. This site aims at enhancing pre-service and in-service teacher education with training videos, providing background materials and editorial notes that summarize, explain and evaluate the methods demonstrated. From this database, I use 72 videos (16.3 hours).

In my analysis, I build both on the editorial notes and the video materials themselves. I use Discourse Analysis (DA) for the interpretation of the notes, focusing mainly on the explicit ideologies in the text but also considering implicit ideologies that emerge. I analyze video materials with the method of Conversation Analysis (CA), providing the microanalysis of representative excerpts from the corpus.

For a CA study, edited materials such as the training videos in question mean a methodological challenge. Usually, CA studies work with unedited materials in order to investigate “naturally-occurring […] human interaction” (Jakonen 2014: 15). However, while working with edited materials, it is inevitable to consider not only the participants’ but also the editors’ actions. As Laurier (2014) has pointed out, editors work as ethnomethodologists, making use of the same characteristics of human interaction in the production of the video than the CA analysts in the interpretation of the data. That is, as editing is built on a profound understanding of verbal and multimodal features, so does the analysis of the final cut illuminates those editing policies which contributed to a certain reconstruction of the recorded event. What makes this aspect relevant in the analysis is that the videos I am working with are training videos, so these aim at reconstructing ‘good’ or ‘ideal’ classroom scenes for the purposes of demonstration.

Results and Discussion

In this paper, I analyze examples from videos that thematize the use of IT in English (EFL) lessons. There are recurring statements in the editorial notes and in the voice-over narration of the videos which highlight the higher level of ‘student activity’ as one of the main achievements of IT usage in the classroom. My main question concerns the relationship between activity and agency: does the claimed increase of the activity level result in a situation where the actors’ initiatives are appreciated and their personal goals are efficiently reached? In other words, do the participants in the videos seem to be agents, or are they rather patients who are dependent on others’ actions? (Cf. Aro 2012)

As the central example of my paper, I analyze an excerpt in which the students use a voting system while practicing vocabulary in connection with family life. The voice-over video introduction highlights the voting system as the facilitator of student activity which makes it easier to ‘control’ students’ work. The aspect of ‘control’ pushes the teacher to the center of the classroom scene. Similarly, the editing technique highlights the teacher’s role in interaction: her instructions can be heard in detail, the camera zooms on her regularly, while students’ voice can be heard only when responding to the teacher’s utterances. Further, students’ individual or pair work is only illustrated with short shots, with music in the background (without the students’ own voice).

From a CA perspective, I argue that the observable interactional practices are very teacher-centered, i.e. the teacher dominates and controls the verbal production of the students and their use of the IT devices. The case is similar to what is called ‘form-and-accuracy’ context where “the teacher is in strict control of the turn-taking process and decides who gets to speak and when” (Kääntä 2010: 46; cf. Seedhouse 2004). Further, the control of the classroom discourse is extended from the management of turn-taking in verbal interactions to the manipulation of the students’ work stations. Handling the computers is not under the students’ control: the display of ability to use the computer independently and thus construct agency is prohibited by the teacher. The presented design of IT use supports the mechanical reproduction of teacher-centered interactional routines and the total control of students’ activities. However, the teacher also makes some gestures and self-reflective comments which contribute to the construction of her limited agency as well. This limitedness is mainly demonstrated by her comments on the ‘progression’ of the lesson with reference to its pre-set schedule.

The analyzed example is typical for the video collection that often reconstructs classroom scenes in which “transmission-oriented” (Cummins 2006: 54) pedagogical practices are dominant. These practices are mainly associated with “mechanical exercises” (Ruohotie-Lyhty & Kaikkonen 2009: 299), controlled by the teacher. In these settings, the student is expected to be a “passive recipient” (Kember 1997: 265), to “consume and reproduce” (Ryberg 2013: 101) what is told and shown, according to the teacher’s instructions. The IT applications presented in the videos often contain mechanical drills or tasks based on reproduction: “student-owned and controlled P[ersonal] L[earning] E[nvironment]s” (Ryberg 2013: 101–102) in the form of web 2.0 tools seem to be futuristic in the context of this video collection.

Conclusions

My study is part of a research project which investigates authoritative and democratic learning environments and targets the better understanding of the situated co-construction of agency and identities, and their significance in learning and teaching. Against this background, a possible application of this study lies in the development of learning environments in which students are responsible for their own learning and contribute to the creation of learning materials (Reinders & Darasawang 2012) in a way that “the learner is in control of the lesson content and the learning process” (Fotos & Browne 2004: 7; cited in Reinders & Darasawang 2012: 50). The collection of documents I investigate makes the impression that student-controlled and student-developed environments are currently not among the priorities of the editors of the video portal in question. What is more, the edited materials do not reconstruct the teachers as highly agentive characters either, and it also tells about implicit ideologies concerning education.

Turning back to the initial claim of my paper which emphasized the importance of the added value and the personal factor rather than the technological features of IT in education, I quote Knausz (in press) who stresses that “some pedagogical innovations require a shift in pedagogical culture, that is, they cannot materialise without a turn or change in the entire culture (mentality). This means that even the smallest changes prove to be futile if intervention does not focus specifically on cultural structures”. Implementing IT-based or IT-supported curricula is far from being the ‘smallest change’, so when thinking about the potential of IT in education, it seems to be essential to consider ideologies and discourses which are continuously reconstructed through and circulated around methods and practices. My work aims at making such ideologies and practices explicit and visible in a way that initiates reflections and enhance self-reflection among practicing and future teachers.

Acknowledgements

This research is funded by the European Union’s Research Executive Agency under Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development within the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research (grant number: 626376).

References

1. Aro, M. Voicescapes in children’s beliefs about the learning of English. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 2012, 2, 331–346.
2. Cummins, J. Identity Texts: The Imaginative Construction of Self through Multiliteracies Pedagogy. In Imagining Multilingual Schools: Languages in Education and Glocalization; García, O. et al., Eds.; Multilingual Matters: Clevedon, 2006; pp. 51–68.
3. Gillen, J.; Staarman, J. K.; Littleton, K.; Mercer, N.; Twiner, A. A ‘learning revolution’? Investigating pedagogic practice around interactive whiteboards in British primary classrooms. Learning, Media and Technology 2007, 3, 243–256.
4. Hunter, J.; Cooke, D. Through autonomy to agency: Giving power to language learners. Prospect 2007, 2, 72–88.
5. Jakonen, T. Knowing matters: how students address lack of knowledge in bilingual classroom interaction. University of Jyväskylä: Jyväskylä, 2014.
6. Kääntä, L. Teacher turn-allocation and repair practices in classroom interaction: a multisemiotic perspective. University of Jyväskylä: Jyväskylä, 2010.
7. D. A reconceptualisation of the research into university academics’ conceptions of teaching. Learning and Instruction 1997, 3, 255–275.
8. Knausz, I. in press. On Pedagogical Culture. Manuscript available at Taní-tani.info (URL: http://www.tani-tani.info/sites/default/files/on_pedagogical_culture.pdf)
9. Laihonen, P. Language ideologies in interviews: A conversation analysis approach. Journal of Sociolinguistics 2008, 5, 668–693.
10. Laurier, E. When the editor finds a sequence 'tricky'. Paper presented at the ‘Complexity of (inter)action’ symposium, Oulu, Finland. 9 Oct. 2014.
11. Lotherington, H.; Ronda, N. 2B or Not 2B? From Pencil to Multimodal Programming: New Frontiers in Communicative Competencies. In Digital Literacies in Foreign and Second Language Education; Guikema, J. P.; Williams, L., Eds.; CALICO: San Marcos: 2014. pp. 9–16.
12. Reinders, H.; Darasawang, P. Diversity in learner support. In Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Diversity in Research and Practice; Stockwell, G., Ed. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2012; pp. 49–70.
13. Ruohotie‐Lyhty, M.; Kaikkonen, P. The Difficulty of Change: The Impact of Personal School Experience and Teacher Education on the Work of Beginning Language Teachers. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 2009, 3, 295–309.
14. Ryberg, Th. Designing problem-based learning in virtual learning environments – Positioning teachers as competent practitioners and designers. In Problem-based learning for the 21st century; Christiansen, E. et al., Eds.; Aalborg University Press: Aalborg, 2013; pp. 101–128.
15. Seedhouse, P. The Interactional Architecture of the Language Classroom: A Conversation Analysis Perspective. Language Learning, 2004, supplement 1.

Introduction

This article aims to popularly introduce basic law of information - -fundamental theory of generalized bilingual processing.

Bilingual can be divided into three categories: narrow bilingual, such as Chinese and English; alternative bilingual, such as terms and sayings; generalized bilingual, such as mathematical language (arithmetic figures for example) and natural language (Chinese characters for example). They all belong to the generalized text in board sense.1-2

Basic Law of information contains: A, existence of the real basic information as an axiom; B, law of human-computer interaction; and C, law of interpersonal communication.

The core problem is how to resolve ambiguity in translation and machine translation, which is the focus of this article. 3-5

Methods

Two types of formal strategy on generalized bilingual information processing:

Firstly, inheriting software engineering strategy as nature language understanding, knowledge representation, and pattern recognition;6-8

Secondly, creating systematic engineering strategy as generalized bilingualism, knowledge ontology and bilingual programming.

The following highlights three operable basic steps and their three supporting models as well as theoretical basis, involving two types of instances penetrating macro and micro.

Step 1 and Model 1:

The butterfly model refined by the author is developed on the basis of the research results of Weaver and Vauquois 9-10:

The predecessors envisaged an intermediate language in statistical machine translation and rules-based machine translation, but actually it does not exist. It is more appropriate to assume that one pair of a series of bilingual pairs as "an intermediate language" and thus the key is the construction of bilingual pairs.

Step 2 and Model 2:

The knowledge and common sense ontology model refined by the author:

Through the combination of seven characters and a tetrahedron, it depicts a blueprint for top-level design of the entire human knowledge--the most basic conceptual framework and the most concise method system. In this way, it sets up a bridge of qualitative analysis between interdisciplinary, cross-field and cross-industry knowledge subdivision system.

Step 3 and Model 3:

The three types of bilingual information processing system (synergy model) constructed by the author:

It goes beyond Saussure’s image of language system as Chess and Wittgenstein’s figure of speech as language game and thus can be called super Chess (super cloud) and large-span language game (specific cloud).11-12

In this case, the rules of chess are the real basic information that control：the chess manual, chess idea as well as the chessboard and chess pieces equals to the language, the meaning and the physical images respectively, corresponding to "language, knowledge, software" known as the phenomenon of three types of information. The author’s model taking chess as an analogy achieved the same result by different methods with Wittgenstein's language, thought, world；Husserl and Heidegger's inter-subjectivity, subjectivity, the former subjectivity；Popper's three worlds; and traditional philosophical methodology, epistemology, ontology.13-15

Results and Discussion

The combination of standardization and individuality, pluralism as well as diversity achieves the best human- computer interaction results.

Information Basic Law A: sequence-position relationship, the only conservation;

Information Basic Law B: Equivalent (According to same sequence-position), Parallel; Corresponding, Conversion.

Information Basic Law C: Synonymous (Agreed with each other), Parallel; Corresponding, Conversion.

Model 1 (to explain first and then translate) and model 2 (understand terms and familiar with sayings) follow the information basic law C, contributing to upgrading language ability and deep-processing knowledge issues.

Mode 3 (super cloud, specific cloud) follows information basic law B and information basic law A, contributing to machine translation quality issues.

The advantage of generalized bilingual information processing method lies in achieving reasonable division, complementary advantages, high collaboration and optimized interaction between three types of bilingualism.

Figure 1. Model 1 (to explain first and then translate) the key is the construction of bilingual pairs.

(see PDF version for the Figure).

Figure 2. model 2 knowledge and common sense ontology: the most basic conceptual framework.

(see PDF version for the Figure).

Figure 3. model 2 (understand terms and familiar with sayings).

(see PDF version for the Figure).

Table 1. Mode 3 (super cloud, specific cloud) follows information basic law A and B.

(see PDF version for the Table).

Conclusions

Its significance is that Turing’s "computability" theme and Searle’s "Chinese room" theme can be considered as two special cases of Xiaohui’s "bilingual chessboard" theme, thus highlighting the information basic law and its practical value.16-19

Its significance can be further described as follows:

Theoretically broaden the mind:

It is compatible with the convergence of formal information theory and the openness of semantic information theory 20-21.

The former is characterized by formal and computable; the latter is characterized by diversity and complexity.

Practically play a role:

Generalized bilingual information processing method can exceed and lead the two factions’ points of views, namely strong AI and weak AI, solving natural language understanding problem and high-quality precision machine translation problem.

Three basic laws of information serve as the basis for collaborative translation of three types of bilingual; the realization of generalized bilingual information processing proves the existence of three types of bilingual collaborative translation mechanism since they are of mutual causal relationship.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to UC Berkeley professor Searle and China University of Geosciences (Beijing) professor Zhifang LIU for their help us to do our research in the Sino-US Searle Research Center

Many thanks to East China Normal University professor Wenguo PAN and World Book Inc editor Jian LIU for their generous help to perfect the manuscript.

References and Notes

1. Zou Xiaohui,Zou Shunpeng. A New Mission for Contemporary Chinese Universities: Cultural Inheritance and Innovation Based on Chinese Thinking and Bilingual Processing. Journal of Nanjing University of Science and Technology (Social Science), 2012, 25(5)
2. Zou Xiaohui,Zou Shunpeng.TWO MAJOR CATEGORIES OF FORMAL STRATEGY. Computer Applications and Software.2013（9）
3. Peter Kruse, Michael Stadler. Ambiguity in Mind and Nature: Multistable Cognitive Phenomena. Springer Series in Synergetics. Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K .1995.
4. Zou Xiaohui,Zou Shunpeng. A Brand-New Machine Translation Strategy. Sciencepaper Online. 2011(7)
5. W.N.; Booth, D.A., eds. (1955). "Translation" (PDF)1949. Machine Translation of Languages. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 15–23. Reproduced in: Locke
6. Roger C. Schank. Conceptual dependency: A theory of natural language understanding. Cognitive Psychology.Volume 3, Issue 4, 1972.
7. Feigenbaum, Edward; McCorduk, Pamela (1983). The Fifth Generation (1st ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
8. R. Gruber. A translation approach to portable ontologies. Knowledge Acquisition, 5(2):199-220, 1993.
9. Weaver, Warren (1949). http://www.mt-archive.info/Weaver-1949.pdf
10. Bernard Vauquois. A survey of formal grammars and algorithms for recognition and transformation in mechanical translation. IFIP Congress (2), 1968, p. 1114-1122
11. (1916) Cours de linguistique générale, trans. W. Baskin, Course in General Linguistics, Glasgow: Fontana/Collins, 1977.
12. Philosophical Investigations, translated by G.E.M. Anscombe (1953).
13. Tractatus Logico- Philosophicus, translated by C.K. Ogden (1922).
14. Scheff, T. A New Paradigm for Social Science, Paradigm Publishers, 2006
15. Popper,Karl.Three Worlds. In the Tanner Lectures on Human Values, http://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/p/popper80.pdf
16. Turing A M. Computability and λ-Definability. Journal of Symbolic Logic, 1937, (04).
17. M.Turing. Computing Machinery and Intelligence.MIND,1950.
18. John R. Searle. Minds, Brains and Programs. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.3, 1980.
19. John R. Searle.The Future of Philosophy. LAST CORRECTED: Oct. 1999. 
20. E. Shannon: A mathematical theory of communication. Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 27
21. Floridi, L.The Philosophy of Information, Oxford University Press. 2011

The research approach to space-time in western tradition is more of a metaphysical way, which is attached to explore the nature of space-time. The representative school of the study of experience of space-time in modern is phenomenology. In ancient china, the issue of space-time is always related to the “Between heaven and man”, which is one of the most basic problem of chinese philosophy.

Since ancient times, discussion on the issue of space-time is mainly focused on such aspects: What is the nature and attribute of the space-time? What is the relationship between space-time and material or it’s movement? What is the relationship between space-time and consiousness? And what is the relationship between space and time?

While, different from the ancient metaphysical research approach,the phenomenological reduction method was applied by Husserl to pursuing an original experience of space-time, which he called the “Intrinsic time consciousness”. In addition to, the other two representatives of phenomenology, Heidegger and merleau-ponty are also studied the problem of space-time.However, no matter husserl’s intrinsic time or Heidegger’s survival time or merleau-ponty’s embodied time, were all paid attention to only one aspect of the genesis and occurance of experience of space-time, and ignored the other aspects.

There are also lots of studies about the issue of space-time in chinese philosophy. From the pre-qin period to the end of the Han dynasty, from Wei-jin period to song dynasty and dynasties of ming and qing, a large number of philosophers had expounded the issue, including Lao-zi, Zhuang-zi, Mo-zi, Wang-bi, Zhu-xi, Zhang-zai, Fang-yizhi, Wang-fuzhi and so on ,they all have different understandings about space-time. The grasp to experience of space-time is more intuitive and fuzzy in chinese philosophy.

Based on the thinking of globalization, informatization, networking, as well as the current situation of human existence, The study found that all of these changes in a certain sense, is the change of space-time form of human existence, and at the same time, such a change is also points to the change of the whole human society. Therefore, the exploration to the most fundamental phenomenon that reflect the change of human society, namely space-time phenomenon, become particularly important.

Through the introduction of the concept of information, the study to the formation of experience of space-time should be dual dimensions. From the prospective of the process and mechanism of the occurrence of current congnition, individual present experience of space-time is emerges from interaction of various phenomena including physical phenomenon, information phenomenon,and phenomena of consciousness. From the perspective of historical genetic mechanisms of congnition, the emergence and development of human experience in space-time is accompanied by its own evolution of structural pattern of physical, mental and behavior. This kind of physiological, psychological, behavioral evolution is a holographic process.

This research project regards the generation of experience of space-time as a continuous and generative process, study with a comprehensive, multi-dimensional perspective rather than a single, one-dimensional perspective, which could deepen the study of temporal and spatial issues, at the same time, rethinking it’s impact on the way of human existence.

References and Notes

1. WU Kun: Philosophy of information—Theory, system and method. The commercial press. 2005.
2. Husserl, E. Zur Phanomenologie des inneren Zeitbewuβtseins [1893-1917]. Hsg. von R. Boehm, 1966.
3. Heidegger, M. Being and Time. London: SCM Press LTD, 1962.
4. Merleau-Ponty. Phenomenology of Perception. Routledge; 2nd Revised Edition [2002-05-03].

Introduction

Noted physicist Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington’s famous argument states reasoning suffices entropy to be comparable with beauty and melody. Entropy is the level of disorder in a system and in information theory, it refers to the measurement of uncertainty. Significance of music originates from expected uncertainties of time and musical characteristics in consequent situation resulted from estimation and evaluation of musical inheritance method possibilities by antecedent situation.

With the developments of school songs in the first half of 20th century, musical notations, both stave and numerical score, quickly spread all over and gained popularity in China. Traditional musical notations of Chinese music, because they only record pitch and either roughly or do not reflect pace, were conceptualized to be obsolete. This is the very reason traditional Chinese musical notations were abandoned. However, a traditional Chinese musical book (纳书楹曲谱), translated as Nashu Studio Theatrical Music, writes 1 very detailed notation of pace is beneficial for beginners, however it restricts people with profound understanding of music and excellent performing techniques from developing their own performing characteristics. For instance, in upper Gong Chi of Gong Chi Score (工尺谱), a form of traditional Chinese musical notation, if three Yin translate to one Ban, there can be as many as over 5 possible combinations of pace and this allows flexibility for performers to recreate the music. Jian Zi Score (减字谱) of Gu Qin, a seven-stringed plucked instrument, indirectly records pitch and even detailed playing techniques but recording of pace is nowhere to be found in such score. Pace of these scores are determined by the playing technique of different schools of performers. The same ancient score, when played by different performers, shows distinct styles. The traditional Chinese inheritance method of oral instruction and rote memory also has many uncertainties. The background, life experience, personality, a aesthetic taste and mode of teachers and learners all contribute to forming different styles and characteristics during inheritance, creating uncertainties.

Significance and information are both associated with uncertainties through probability. In any communication of information, the lower probability of a subsequent event, the more uncertainties (and information) are contained in antecedent-consequent relationship. Information is the measurement of degree of freedom in message selection. The greater this degree of freedom and volume of information are, the more uncertain that message is. Thus, the chosen degree of freedom, uncertainty and volume of information are positively correlated. If information theory is applied to the discussion of significance of traditional Chinese music score inheritance, what conclusion will it lead us to?

The value of information itself is based on representation, expressing, externalization revealing objects and their characteristics and significance. This paper combines algorithm music2 and information theory and discusses the value and significance of traditional Chinese music scores and inheritance method of oral instruction and rote memory for the purpose of discovering new methods for traditional Chinese music inheritance..

References and Notes

1. Original text: 板眼中另有小眼原为初学者而设，在善歌者自能生巧，若细细注明转觉束缚
2. Algorithm music expresses music using algorithm instead of music notations. It is a more abstract visualization of music scores. Algorithm music records the internal structure of music. Style andcharacteristics of performers can be recorded and analyzed with probability computation using computers.