i-o Dock update

My Grades 8, 9, & 10 fine arts music classes concluded the final term with a composition assignment. Students had to collaborate to compose, perform, and record their music. An array of recording equipment was available, including personal lap tops, Zoom H2 portable recorders, and Alesis i-o Dock equipped with the iPad & Garage Band. The iPad set up had the steepest learning curve; however, the simultaneous multi track capability offered a feature that was not available on the other portable devices. Having said that, the iPad version of GB is limited to eight tracks, which is not too restrictive, given that George Martin achieved all of those great Beatles recordings on a 4 track! Moreover, the "smart" instruments in GB enabled non guitarists, pianists, drummers, etc., to include these sounds in their recordings if they elected to do so. In short, the iPad set up was in high demand.

As for the connectivity of the i-o Dock, I personally feel is restrictive; however, I am fortunate to also have the Yamaha O1-X and the MOTU 828mk3 units, connected to Cubase. So, for small, quick, portable projects, the i-o Dock gets my thumbs up, and the students love the friendly operation.

In a previous post I wrote that I got a card reader to swap data in and out quickly; well, the cheap reader that I bought on ebay for $3.49 didn't work; however, I was disappointed to discover that the card reader is (if it works) great for transferring pictures onto the iPad, but nowhere did I read of any evidence that it was much good for anything else, like transferring off the iPad, extra memory, etc. Not to worry, I got a refund!

One more note about Garage Band songs on the iPad, while I think of it: the device won't let you export your songs to anything but YouTube, soundcloud, facebook and iTunes. That's a setback, but perhaps I've just not got that part figured out properly yet. To get around that, I just connected it to the line in of one of the H2 recorders and recorded the finished projects that way. I am not particularly interested in a cloud or social media for everything.

In the days ahead, I hope to find new and better ways to operate this equipment and software.

Cloudon

Do you like Microsoft office, and can't seem to get the knack of pages and numbers?  The Cloudon app connects directly with dropbox and emulates Microsoft office.  It's free so its definitely worth a look.

Note taking apps

There are a lot of free note taking apps out there for the ipad.  Many free ones may be all you need.  So check them out before you pay.  However, if you need one that is more functional, Notability may be the app you want.  On sale for 80% off at the moment, it has a very high rating.  It's updated for the new ipad.  You can save to dropbox directly.  You can open files from you email.  You can record audio along with the text, zoom in and out, and there is also an adjustable place for your palm.  You can even organize your files within the app.  Check it out.  I've been impressed so far.

Academics, Sports, and Angry Birds

Successes:

• Attendance: Very useful for taking attendance, both in class and in sports practices. For track, I simply handed off the iPad to a student who could check off the students as they entered the room (using the program, “Numbers”). I also used the iPad to take attendance prior to track meets.
• Statistics: We tested the athletes at the beginning of the season and used the iPad to record and store the data.
• Video: This has proved to be the most useful aspect of the iPad. Using “Coaches’ Eye”, we recorded athletes as they high jumped, long jumped, hurdled, threw, and ran. This program allowed us to teach the athletes about proper form and to give them useful tips or improvement. We also recorded many of the events at track meets and were able to quickly convert the video files into movies that could be hosted on the KES youtube channel. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVMXxiitLvk&feature=g-all-u.
• Textbooks and other documents: the math textbooks, and other documents such as the IB data booklet or miscellaneous assignments, could be stored on the iPad under iBooks. This allowed for easy storage and transport. Also, if tutoring a student, I could quickly access these important documents.
• General efficiency: The iPad simply made me more efficient. I could quickly access documents, the KES website, the student directory, etc. I think it is a very valuable tool for a teacher’s day-to-day tasks. 

Other reflections:

• I have not yet figured out how to appropriate the iPad into my classroom teaching to make the classes more interactive and interesting. I briefly tried “Splashtop”, but did not see how it would allow functionality better than a chalkboard or paper and pencil. I will continue to explore various iPad applications.
• I am now addicted to Angry Birds.

Coach's Eye

Loaded and tried the coach's eye with two students in the gym. Both liked it and looks like both may buy it for their phones. The slow motion options were great as were the drawing tools. Easy to use and intuitive controls too. AD

iPad and Smartboard

Tried using the iPad with Splashtop and the Smartboard running clickers yesterday. It allowed me to run the assessments and work with the class from all over the room and not be tied to the front of the room. I had to stop running the board through the the tablet when it froze and this may just be a function of the age of the laptop or too much running. Further testing will need to be done. AD

i-o Dock & Garage Band

Since I've married up the iPad with the Alesis i-O Dock, it's been in the hands of the students on a steady basis, given that all fine arts student are composing and recording their collaborative works. Although limited to only two inputs at a time and a maximum of eight tracks, it does exactly what it is supposed to do with relative ease. Moreover, the Garage Band sounds are amazing and the "Smart" instruments is a very cool feature that enables non-players of those instruments access to inclusion. Ultra portable and easy to use, this setup has has become the 'go to' DAW in my department. I doubt that my other hardware / software DAW's will see much action from now on.

On a related note, I have purchased a usb & card reader adapter on eBay for $4 that attaches to the iPad, in order to exchange data and expand the memory beyond the internal 16GB.

Summary of Trial

Final blog entry: How far did I get with the iPad, based on my initial plan of investigation?

Use by students
 For self-evaluation: use camera and microphone to record student responses and dialogue work in French class;
[very positive and useful]
 Collaborative assignment preparation;
[very positive and useful]

 Hands-on grammar and vocabulary activities to strengthen French comprehension;
[useful for activities involving typing of words; otherwise, the Smartboard was more useful and easier for students to use when an activity required dragging elements across the web page]

Use by teachers
 Provide specific feedback to individual students, based on student responses and presentations that have been recorded on iPad;
[very positive and useful]

 Explore Mobile Mouse app for controlling Smartboard;
[Splashtop app was used for running my laptop and Smartboard from the tablet; very easy to set up and use]

 Use iPad as daily planner/agenda and update with all key dates and deadlines in the term;
[did not replace my student agenda or my phone; a KES agenda app with 8-day cycle, holidays, and an easy-to-use interface to do attendance may provide a user-friendly bridge with WhippleHill]

Use by teachers for records and record keeping
 Create a more extensive and thorough record of formative evaluations;
[useful for recording marks when doing prep checks but did not replace paper and pencil most days ]

 Keep attendance on WhippleHill;
[not attempted]

 Keep attendance in boys’ dorm on duty days;
[an attempt was made to set up an attendance document using the tablet version of Numbers, with little success. E.Kershaw has produced a functional document using Excel and there may be merit in having a Duty Tablet in addition to a Duty Phone, at some point]

Research and testing of ipad applications
 Explore a variety of apps French language learning and instruction;
[some free French apps were examined, but nothing stood out as a must-have at this stage]

 Use Dropbox to store and access all documents online
[Dropbox is proving to be very useful when I use my laptop and phone; I ran into an issue when installing it on the tablet and did not pursue this after several unsuccessful attempts]

 Explore the effects of the touchscreen experience on student learning
[students quickly familiarized themselves with the tablet and enjoyed being given the opportunity to use it as a tool in the classroom]

Camera

There were occasions during class when I wanted to show the class something from the textbook on the Smartboard. When connected to the Smartboard the iPad functioned very well as a document camera; I either took a picture of the textbook page or I used the rear camera to display the page. PH