Considerations of computer based education in acoustics and signal processing

Acoustics and signal processing are fields of special interest to computer based education (CBE). In these fields, the key element is sound. In acoustics, it is the very content of education and in signal processing it is a way to describe various phenomena and bring them into practice. In general, involving sound presents special requirements but also fruitful possibilities for CBE. This paper discusses various issues of both technical and educational nature related to sound and CBE. From the educational viewpoint, the issues include questions such as contents design and conceptual levels. The technical issues include tools, computational or hardware requirements, WWW-based solutions, etc. Example CBE applications are presented to illustrate the topics.