It's that time of year.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

I found out very late yesterday that my schedule is changing for the first day of school Tuesday (via a late day e-mail, no less.)  Heck of a way to spend your last day of vacation.

Anyway, there are a few things to do yet:

Check on the SmartMusic Order.  I'm going to need a purchase order number.  We have 233 band students that we purchase through a volume discount ( https://www.smartmusic.com/Store/Volume.aspx . )   I'm guessing we will need about 175 subscriptions when you edit out the siblings and the kids with no internet access.  Kids with siblings can share access at home.  We have SmartMusic equipped practice rooms for the others.

If you haven't seen SmartMusic for a while, take a minute and download it at http://www.smartmusic.com .  It has been made a lot easier to use with the new user interface.

I think there may be an offer for a Finale upgrade for school in my e-mail box.  It is the way to get custom made accompaniments into SmartMusic.  I wonder if this is a version to skip if Finale 2010 works with SM 2011. Will need to check to see if that combination works.  Otherwise, I had better do the upgrade.

Butch and Billie over at AABACA Music usually have a good price on Finale and it is nice to keep the business local if you can.  I guess online at MakeMusic is local for me too!

I have a new SmartBoard in my music rooms.  Really looking forward to getting that in play.  I have been making do with the Wiimote hack.  Johnny Lee was thinking of you when he created the software that does this trick.  Look here: http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/ 

This hack would be good for me still, but what if you have a sub?  Are you going to give them permission or access to go in and fiddle with you preferences to set the Wiimote up?  Also, our district does sub training on the IWBs.  Not that I am ever sick...

Time to get to work.  Happy Labor Day.  May your supervisor be considerate and think more than a day ahead.

Should There Be a Standard Classroom Computer Set-Up?

I always wonder about there being a standard computer set-up for classrooms.

My thinking says that I should be able to easily get my computer to do what I want. In my case, organize audio and record audio. Yeah, the latest Office might be a good idea so I don't have to spend a lot of time converting documents to the latest format. But for the most part, I want to be able to do a quick recording with some options to edit later.

Macintosh/Garageband is perfect for me. The rest of the building is PC. That really isn't a problem as far as computing goes. It is fairly easy to switch from one to the other.

How about the output? I like running the audio out into a desktop sized speaker system. That part is easy.

The visual side for demonstrations, that might be a little different. I have 4 rooms that I work in. The band room has a HUGE monitor on a stand in it. The choir room has a lcd projector in it. The ensemble room used for lessons has the standard 17" monitor in it and the room with piano keyboard lab has nothing in it.

If I taught reading, math or social studies, I would have a interactive whiteboard in all those rooms. I can work around with the Wiimote version of an IWB easily. So I don't feel terribly left out. But with the flu going around I have noticed a number of subs in the building. I know that subs in our district are getting the skills to run an IWB from the major supplier to our district. (I am not sure if we are training them or they are just getting it on the job. I hope that it is training.) Would they be up to covering for me?

If a sub is needed in my rooms I want things to go on normally. But the Wiimote does come with some challenges. Step one is activate the Bluetooth on the laptop, step two is get the Wiimote recognized, step three is figure out where to put things physically so they work together... I am pretty sure we would have a problem with this. Do we really want people getting that deep into the hardware when they have my students to worry about at the same time? Would the IT people want them to have administrative rights to work on these settings?

If you are in a position to install IWB technology in the classroom, please be don't forget to teach the subs how to use the technology. I think that this is also the place for consistency. The ability to get the audio and video outputs working may be more important than the Mac/PC question.

Money seems a little goofy sometimes.

Money seems to get spent a little goofy when it comes to technology in schools. I hope this isn't everywhere and every government project. We had a building Shared Decisions team meeting in our building last week. On the agenda was how we are going to spend $20,000 in E2T2 grant money. The thinking going in by most members was we need more $3000 interactive whiteboards and student response systems.  

I had other thoughts after getting the inexpensive Wiimote solution to work.

Why wouldn't we go with the Wii deal and put the whiteboard and student response system dollars towards a laptop lab on wheels?  

With this website at http://www.quickieq.com the laptops would be response systems on steroids.  At QuickieQ, you can do your multiple guess quiz or do an actual short answer in English quiz.  Which one do you think would fit our writing mandate better?  OK.  They are free because they are in beta right now, but they were just the first link I came to in a Google search.  There must be something more flexible and worthwhile than 4 buttons for answering.

Turns out that the point is moot.  The decision we were supposed to be sharing was made for us as the grant was written.  Apparently, changing what you buy with the grant is not permitted after you get the money.  So much for Shared Decisions.

I suppose there is something about the administration not wanting to risk going to jail over my ideas.  I probably would be ok with that... them going to jail.. (just kidding.)

Personally, I want whoever decided that there can't be revisions if conditions improve to go to jail.  I think it is a crime to spend about $19k more than you should on a lame ed-tech product.

The Wiimote Story

This Wiimote has me thinking into the future and it has some ideas bubbling...Here's how I got here.

First someone mentioned this video on the TED web site.

It simmers for a few months while I paint the house and watch the kids.

The the boss calls and says she can order a projector, but not the interactive whiteboard for my room. Time to cook.

I poke around a little bit and find the Mac version (the laptop with Bluetooth in my area is a Mac.) Order up the Wiimote (not the Wii system, the Wiimote.) from Target. Why Target? I had a coupon and a percentage of my Red Card goes to GMS.

The next problem is the IR Pen controller. So I start poking around on the internet (Google is your friend.) and found a couple of sources for plans. There were a couple of movies on YouTube that showed how to make one.

I also found this business case.

Bottom line. If you need the content, get the boxed whiteboard. If not, why spend the money.

There are also a lot of demos on YouTube showing at work. Big confidence builder.

I also figured out that I would need some skills and could not remember where my soldering iron was. So I did the sane thing and went to eBay.

I ordered two pens.

One pen did it all. Laser pointer, stylus, ball point and IR LED. Very James Bond. The problem is it took a very small and expensive set of batteries. The LED sticks out the end of the top of the pen and I was worried that I would snap that off before class. That wasn't a great design for me.

I found a guy that was doing this Dry erase maker pen. Nice and sturdy. Very quick with a "Buy It Now" account on eBay. That's my winner.

Turns out it does work. Now my thought is how does a company that makes these interactive whiteboards stay in business? Is this a case where "too greedy" gets your business wiped out by a "do-good" group of programmers?

I am starting to get into this Wiimote thing

There is a very nice business case for the Wiimote/Whiteboard  by Drew Mckinney at YouTube.

Basically, if you need out the box and can afford it, get the board.  Otherwise, the Wiimote is more flexible as any surface will do.  

No board may be big advantage.  Since I am home for the summer and away from projectors, I have been trying it out on my monitor-- making it into a kind of touch screen.  So it is not just the price point making this case.

I also wonder about saving the work.  The commercial tools have the ability to save the sketch-ups.  I also wonder if I would need to do that save.  I think saving work would be more important for other subject teachers-- a math teacher saving a drawing of a geometry solution for internet posting for instance.

Thanks for the help Mr. McKinney.  Good analysis.