It was through this blog I believe that I was contacted a while back about being featured in the SBO Magazine. They were interested in including us in a technology focused issue. Little did I know HOW featured! My kids look great don’t they? Hopefully I made sense in my interview. I see some other familiar faces included in this issue as well! I am proud to have our school included in such an issue!
I found a new music teacher who is using iPad in his classrooms and is blogging about it (Thanks ChoirGuy!) Here is a link to an article this newfound blogger, Chris, wrote about 3 of his favorite apps…. http://tambourinesandtechnology.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-three-favorite-teacher-apps-this.html
One of the apps he mentioned is a great app that I had not found yet (no surprise there!) It is for seating in the classroom. The app is called SmartSeat and the website is here - http://www.cornsoftapps.com/smartseat/
I actually enjoyed creating new seating charts for my classes tonight! – Yup… every single class is gonna be getting new seating arrangement tomorrow! (I’ll be sure to tell them it was your fault newfound blogger Chris!) There is an iPad and iPhone version. This was the only thing I’m thinking of right now that the app does not do. I can not find a way to sync my seating charts between devices. Now THAT would be handy. That’s all for now… I’m going to go email the developer and suggest this feature!
A while back I wrote about a new web site I had discovered. This web site is DropMark.com. 
I’m hoping that most of you have heard or and use DropBox.com. If you have not heard of DropBox.com then you need to get rid of those old flash drives/USB Thumb drives – whatever you call them and get with the program. These days people just store their stuff in the cloud and it is much easier to access and store. Plus you don’t loose the Cloud like you do those little tiny flash drives!
Back to DropMark.com though. DropMark is a wonderful new service that I think some teachers and students may find very handy. Once you create a DropMark account you are all set to start making collections. In these collections you can drop may different things. The key word being DROP! Making collections is simply a matter of dropping whatever you want to collect into your new collection. Want a picture to be a part? Drag it and drop it. Have some text that you want to store – select it, drag it and drop it. YouTube videos can be used as well – grab the video and drop it in there. You have an mp3 – drag it and drop it! You can drop all these sorts of materials right from your desktop or right from your web browser.
After building your collection it is then easy to show other people. You simply click on the first item and you start a presentation of sorts. The material is nicely displayed in your web browser for all to see. Of course the headline on the DropMark web site does say – “Dead Simple Collaboration in the Cloud!” So obviously it is simple to share these collections with other people as well. They can then view, edit and add to the collection you have already started.
The benefit I see in this web service is that I am not worried about what file types I drop in here. It all just goes! I’m not worried about how to present it…. all my material gets dropped in, I put it in order and click on the first item. I am then presenting all my material. I can even include a Web Site as a part of the collection – When I am presenting the material the presentation stays on the DropMark web site but allows me to show videos, pictures, text, web sites and music all in one simple clean interface. Building these collection is fast too!
The drawback I am finding right now is that I can not build collections from my iPad. They are working on that though.
DropMark is not DropBox. Both services store files. DropMark is meant to be used to share files with other people in a presentation sort of manner. Kind of like PowerPoint and yet in a very simple, easier fashion.
My mind is freaking out right now!
I bought the Reflection app today at lunch – which I messed up because of getting rid of an old email blah blah blah…. their tech people are FAST! They sent me an email – fixed MY problem.
I got home installed the app. Got it running was having fun and then it happened….
AirServer gives me an update notice – which I download and install. Then I get an error message from THAT app telling me that mirroring needs an update! WHAT! AirServer doesn’t mirror I say! So I scurry over to their website and look at that! HOLY MOLEY! It DOES Mirror! What in the WORLD is going on!
I’m thinking that Apple has something BIG next week!
Have you seen or used DropMark? It is a new Web 2.0 site that takes sharing things to a new level. If you have not seen this yet you really need to go the their web site and take a look at some of the videos they have up. The service allows you to create collections that you then drop things into for quick, easy access to later. You can put video in the collection, audio, soundcloud tunes, pictures, web sites and documents too. The beauty of this is that you can even share these collections with other people easily.
What about creating a collection of materials for presentation to a class? I think this could be quick and simple. I think this may even take some of the issues out of trying to share some things with your class, like YouTube videos. I am always afraid to pull up YouTube in class for fear of what may pop up that I don’t want popping up! DropMark would allow for just that video to be a part of my collection! Of course I could just create a folder on my computer with all the materials in it and show the class from that. But then I I would have to understand how to download and save a YouTube video or that SoundCloud file, if they even allow that to be downloaded. Plus how do you put an entire web site into a folder on your desktop? You don’t.
Now there is an issue with the website for us iPad users. I tried putting a collection together tonight with only my iPad and it isn’t possible. Not at the same level as with a regular computer. The developers seem very Mac oriented and I expect this may be in heir future plans though. (I have not talked to them about this though)
BUT
After I create a DropMark Collection on my laptop and trying to access it with my iPad I will get back to you all and let you know how it works. With the release of the new app, Reflection, I could present a ton of material to my class in quick, organized fashion using my iPad, AirPlay and my class room projector. (I don’t have an Apple TV yet, that’s why I am bringing up this new app, Reflection.)
Tonight I was checking out my Blog stats (nothing special trust me!) and I saw something very interesting!
TIME TRAVEL IS POSSIBLE (at least in blog stats!)
I noticed tonight (Jan30) that I had logged visits to my Blog from Jan 31st! Visitors from the future! I guess I never really thought about people from timezones ahead of my own getting logged a day in the future!
Here’s the screen shot to prove it…
How has music education changed in the past 10 years? How about the past 20 years? Let’s go back even further – to when my Dad was in school! Has music education really changed that much?
How about music in our student’s lives? How about the way they are creating, consuming and listening to music? That has changed in so many ways!
Watch this video. It is a video of Jason Derulo – It Girl (iPad remix feat. Freddie Cosmo). I had no idea who the guys are in the video – who is singing or what the song is until I saw the video. Tell me there isn’t a spot in music education for this type of music creativity class!
I guarantee you there are a bunch of students in your school who are creating music on a daily basis who are never going to set foot in your band or choir room! I had a discussion with another musician the other day in a music store about this. His comment was that the best drummers he has ever played with were the ones that had received some form of music training under a competent music director/teacher. Why can’t we have non-traditional music classes in our schools? Is it because we can not afford them? Schools are cutting back, I understand that. If we are supposed to be doing what is best for all the students though, can we afford NOT to offer these types of classes?
Wait a minute! Siri is capable of playing a piano? Well, kind of. The article listed below tells the story somewhat. I’m still not sure exactly how this is working. Is the Disklavier turning audio into MIDI? Is the original MIDI data still in that audio file somehow? I didn’t think that was possible.
Go get yourself a great metronome for free! You can’t beat the price!
