New Tools for Kids!

Our students now have Google Apps available to them!

This news was shared with our staff in a short sentence in a lengthy Monday morning newsletter.  Way at the bottom.  I really think that news should have been shouted from the mountain top, with way bigger type and about a dozen exclamation points!

Can you tell that I am pretty excited?  Those of you who have had Apps for a while are probably yawning right now.

Why would a band director be so excited about kids having access to Google Apps?  When you use SmartMusic like we do (everywhere and everybody) kids frequently ended up sharing accounts with other members of the family.  Now each kid can get his/her assignments without having to dig through big sister's/brother's assignments to get there.  Sure, I could have set them up with an account myself, but I am pressed for time as it is.  Now, someone else has done all the set-up.

Other reasons to get excited include all the other tools that go with an Apps account.  Writing, spreadsheet, forms, presentations, web pages can all be authored with these tools.

The cross-disciplinary assignments that I didn't get to may be possible now.

How about a serious tuning unit with a spreadsheet to track your tendencies over several practice sessions?  Wouldn't be cool if kids new where they typically were on the tuner with a little scientific study?

Report on a composer?  Or should that be a presentation?  AND it gets stored on the "Cloud," so no more "the dog ate my homework."

Nothing like a new tool to get the excitement going!

I Thought I Was Paranoid

I thought I was the only one paranoid to do this... have you ever "Googled" yourself?

It is a good idea according to Will Richardson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Richardson)

How well you Google can be important to your career, personal life and in ways I have never thought of before.  No, you can't make a mistake just go away.  But you can respond.

By the way, Will Richardson was our guest speaker at our school's opening professional development day. If you get a chance to hear him, do.  Will has some very well thought out ideas and presents them with grace and humor.  He said he was going to "push us."  But I didn't feel like I was being belittled or threatened.  He's worth a listen.

Kids today will need to think ahead in a big way.   Everything you do is a possible gaffe on YouTube, Facebook, MySpace... will your kids "Google" well?  This needs to be taught.

SmartMusic 2012 is out!

http://www.smartmusic.com/

SmartMusic 2012 is out!

If you have a current subscription it is available for you to use right now.  Just visit the web site and do the download/update thing.  If you are new, I believe that you may download it and try some samples before purchasing.  I think that if you try it you will want it.

The group of musicians with the biggest news with this version are the singers and others who need to polish their sight singing skills.  2012 supports voices.  This may be the version that has been waited for the longest!

Four sight singing books, an exercise book and SmartMusic's own vocal exercises are currently supported.  Hopefully, this is just the start of what could be an avalanche of literature.  This is a good start for what might be the biggest group of musicians that can benefit from the SmartMusic magic.

I have tried it out and it does work with my tired old summer tenor voice and the instrumental mic that I had laying around the house.  If I were going to do a lot of singing I would get the "Garth B" look-a-like kit with the mic that fits over my head.  SmartMusic's accuracy is boosted by having the mic in a consistent place.

I tried the sight-singing exercises that came from SmartMusic and there is something there for every level of student.  You can find what you need to work on in a hurry with this program.  This is a tool I wish I had for my college sight-singing courses.  I could have used a lot more patient practice with feedback on these important skills.

The interesting thing is that you are trying to beat the machine.  This is great "place" to be teaching and there is research to back it up.  Just look-up Serious Games on Google (or Amazon for a book on the topic) to see what I mean.

If you are looking for opportunities to encourage independence in your young singers, this is it.  haven't used SmartMusic before?  Prepare to be the coach giving advice on how get it right to beat the machine.

All musicians (Instrumentalist and Vocalists) can now benefit from SmartMusic.  I encourage you to add this to your program.

Augmented Reality in Education (Think I can link it to SmartMusic?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality

http://www.wikitude.org/category/02_wikitude/world-browser (Wikitude)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OfQdYrHRs (Word Lens)

The first time I saw the yellow "first down" line on a televised (American) football game, I was finding it a bit coincidental that the ref was spotting the ball so close to the yellow line that just happened to be there.  How could the grounds crew have know where to put it?  Was the ref being influenced by the coincidental yellow line?

That spot happened three times before I figured out that the broadcasters were putting that yellow line in with computers so they could show me where the first down was.  The ref didn't see the line, but TV watchers could.  Of course, my team was just short of the yellow line all three times.

This is also one of the first times I became aware of something that I now know is called Augmented Reality.

I think Augmented Reality has educational possibilities.

Check out the iOS app called Word Lens.  Point your iPod's or iPhone's camera at a piece of text in another language and it will change those words to your language.  It's a direct translation, not an interpretation, but pretty helpful.

Wikitude's World Browser does very much the same thing with your surroundings.  Point your camera (with GPS and compass on) at the world and it will tell you on screen what Wikitude knows about it.  I think this would enhance any field trip involving landmarks and buildings.

No, you probably won't want your students constantly using these tools instead of learning the material.  But, I would guess that most students would appreciate the support while they are studying.  Scaffolding works.

How can I connect Augmented Reality this with SmartMusic?  The cursor does a wonderful job of showing you where the beat is.  This is a wonderful way to help students with rhythm and tempo.  It isn't real time, but the red/green note report after a performance is very helpful if the student takes the time to study it.

The new tools aren't coming, they are here.