Apple's Garageband vs SmartMusic

http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/07/who-did-apple-hurt-with-its-macworld-announcements/

Over at Venturebeat.com, Maya Baratz talks about who Apple hurt with its Macworld announcements.  Apple does write software for its platform and sometimes it does creep into what other people are doing.  iPhoto/Apeture vs Adobe, iWork vs Office, Garageband vs Protools.  The list of things Apple has gotten into is interesting and has helped stimulate other vendors' products.  Competition isn't all bad.  If you are a computer maker developing software to keep your platform vital is generally good idea.

Garageband vs SmartMusic?

Baratz does find a connection between the current Garageband and SmartMusic in that Garageband is now tutoring people learning to play.  I need to go take a look at the new Garageband to see what it is all the buzz is about.  I think I will end up getting a copy, but I don't think I am going to be switching away from SmartMusic for my teaching purposes.

Why?  

I like to be able to send and receive assignments and comments.  I also like to use the computer as a course management tool.  SmartMusic Impact is helping manage these chores.  Throw in a little FileMaker or a few Office tools to do what SmartMusic doesn't and you are set.  SmartMusic Impact is a useful tool for working music teachers.

More reasons?  

Garageband runs only on Mac.  I would be way out of line to expect families to buy a computer to run a particular piece of software.  SmartMusic runs cross platform.  I have practice room computers for the kids that don't make the system requirements.  It is tough enough to get everyone an instrument; I am not a huge fan of adding too much more to the cost of band. 

I also can't imagine the time it would take to teach a student to set up and use Garageband.  No, SmartMusic isn't "Lego easy" to use yet.  But I suspect they are further along and continuing to work on the ease of use factors.

On the other hand...

I do like the idea of how-to movies in Garageband showing play the instrument.  It seems more useful to me than the In the Chair conductor.  Though, that program may have improved recently.  That may be worth a look to compare.

Garageband may also be a big boon to guitar players.  The demos I have seen have involved that instrument.  This may be the answer to the question does SmartMusic help guitar players,  "Not yet, but have you looked at Garageband?"

I like the idea of people learning to play an instrument and if using your computer with any software helps you in any way, that is terrific!  Practice!

SmartMusic, Impact and the PLC model

My district has gone into the Professional Learning Community (PLC) model big time.  We have even had the DuFours out for staff development.

Basically (and this is the REALLY short version) the program boils down to: 1.) What do we want the kids to know? 2.) How will we know they have it? and 3.) What are we going to do to help if they don't succeed?  4.) If you don't know what to do next, check with the other teachers on your team and figure it out.

Finally, the rest of the teaching world starts to work the way music teachers have for years.  Have you ever heard a group where someone wasn't getting it?  Not only do our students have to get it, to be really successful, they need to make it look easy.

There are some challenges to working in this environment.  I don't know about your program, but mine has looked like a good place to cut and my time to do #3 (help those that aren't getting it) has been cut by two-thirds.  Also, the common planning time (to do #4) didn't fit into the other building's schedule this year (we share teachers.) so not a lot of discussion this year.

So how has SmartMusic and Impact helped? 

Well, it sure has helped me figure out the big question-- who gets it?  No doubt with the screen shot and recording, you really know who is having trouble with the entry level rhythm and pitch items.  The recording is very helpful with the other artistic level items as well.

After an assignment, listen to your recordings (all organized in Impact) with your state's rating sheet and figure out what you really need to do next.  The results have surprised me.  Now I am in a spot to work smarter with the time I have.  

SmartMusic can also help students figure out how to help themselves for right note and rhythm issues as well as get students to practice on their spare time (it is fun to use.)  The additional practice on the days-off helps the rehearsals.

As far as figuring things out with my team of teachers, I can now do this asynchronously.  With  a quick, "Hey, listen.  What do I do to fix this?..."  Now, everyone I think knows the answer gets to listen to my problems on my iPod.  My team just got bigger as well.  If I see you at the music convention, be prepared!

No, I still don't think I have enough time to do music teaching right.  The kids deserve better and I am still pestering people until I get that for them.  I do think SmartMusic has helped me work better with the time I have.

SmartMusic End of Quarter Tips and Observations

Well the end of the quarter has arrived.  Actually, it was last week and the report cards went home today.

I did take late work.  I always have because if I make an assignment, it is because I want to know the kid really knows this stuff.  Yeah, it is extra work now, but the pay-off later will make a difference.  No unimportant assignments!  SmartMusic does help track student progress.

I did have some interesting things happen to kids who took advantage of my generosity.

If a student "enrolled in class" after the deadline for the assignment, I  would have to go into the little note tab (it looks like a cell note in Excel) and manually adjust it so the student gets the assignment added to his project list. 

If a student tried to submit the project after the term was over, I needed to go into the assignment in Impact (click on the assignment description in the grade book) and set the last accepted date back a bit.

Both problems were things I could have prevented and no big deal.  I will be choosing my dates more  wisely in the future. Fortunately, I check my Impact grade book and e-mail often and saw some of these coming.

The end of the quarter is also a good time to get those kids registered for the wrong class fixed. Any data base administrator will tell you that keeping the data correct and current is the biggest part of the job.  Some kids have schedule changes as well.  Time to maintain the data!

  

While I was napping....

Did you notice the SmartMusic Impact web site improvement this week?  Or was it last week?  I may have been napping.

There is big news about Impact.

You can now export the grade book to several different formats including Tab delimited and Excel.  I'm in data heaven.

What can you do with an export?  I love working with data in FileMaker Pro.  With Tab Delimited I can take the data my kids have generated for me on Impact to my easily customized FileMaker data bases.  Need to find all the fifth graders with problems doing #43 and #52? How about the bottom ten of those students?  Fairly easy now.  Export-Import-search and done.

Haven't discovered the joys of FileMaker yet?  The Excel export may be just what you need to play "what if".  It may be the really quick way to get a set of scores from Impact to whatever grade book they make you use at school (assuming that grade book does an import.)  Or maybe you like to chart and graph the numbers.  Export-import-pivot table and done.

Pretty cool.

Quick Question

If you have been using SmartMusic with Impact, what additional tricks would you like to see Impact do?

I have been thinking about this before I head into the end of the quarter and all that paperwork.

I think I can start us off with my wish.  

I wish that Impact did an export to a spreadsheet.  I think life would be easier for me if I could just print out a report.  With this type of export I could format that report so it was useful when I am entering grades into the district's required grade book.

At least that's the way I would do it until the grading tools start talking to each other.

What's your wish?