Garageband 3

I am laying down tracks, making each loop longer by repeating, I am playing with the introduction of loops and fading loops in and out.  I like how you can easily isolate tracks to manipulate the volume, then quickly and easily turn the other loops back on to hear what you just did.  

I also think that it is amazing how easily the songs are converted and put directly in your iTunes library.  I didn't even realize it until I heard one of my songs playing in the car!  I had synced my iPod and had it on shuffle when this familiar song came on.  I was not expecting it and had a, "wow, technology is really cool" moment. 

I did all of the tutorial videos on the Apple website minus the videos that instruct in real instruments or the videos that show you how to record your instruments.  For now, I am happy playing with the electronic loops.  I think it would be pretty incredible to record your own instrument and mix it with the tracks in Garageband.

Garageband 2

I started doing the video tutorials on the Apple website.  I did "Getting Started with Garageband," and "Building a Song."  The videos are excellent and a further testament to the Apple production machine.  They really have a good thing going.

The problem I am having is that there is too much.  As a person with ADD, this is like crack for me!  There are so many loops and possibilities to create songs.  Pick your genre and mix it up because that is exactly what I am doing.  It is fun, but I haven't made anything worth keeping yet.

Garageband

Okay, I have to admit that I don't know much about Garageband.  I can find the longer loops and put them down, but that is about it.  I really want to learn how to lay a bunch of tracks down and create my own music pieces.  I think that they would be effective for videos.

I also want to use Garageband with my students.  I think they would love it.  In order for me to be a resource for it, I had better learn it.  I am going to use the video tutorials on the Apple website.  I want to use these because I am going to direct my students there so they can begin to use web resources to learn new skills on the computer.  The best way for me to teach is to go through the experience myself.  Here I go...

Quest Atlantis - Quests completed.

I am getting further along in Quest Atlantis and have completed quests.  I even wrote a poem!  I haven't written a poem for years. 

I think that this is going to be an amazing thing for the students to use.  I think all community members of my school will be thrilled to find out about this and to use it.  This gets me excited about my Action Research.

I have three more PD sessions to complete.  The next one is tomorrow night.  I look forward to learning more about how this can be used to blend gaming, real life situations, and academic standards all in the pursuit to increase student engagement and achievement.

BP11_Mindmeister

BP10_Comment_on_Pam's_Blog

Follow this link to see my comments on Pam Holifield's review.

PB9_Comment_to_Jason_Reed

Follow this link to see what I said about Jason's find.

BP8_Review of Mindmeister

Mindmeister (www.mindmeister.com) is an online mind mapping tool.  Users can share their maps so that others may contribute.

Mind mapping is a tool that is used in education.  With Mindmeister, students can collaborate with each other and with the teacher.  They can easily add images, notes, links, icons, and other resources.  User may pose questions, share images and websites, and edit.  Because adding additional information is intuitive and can be done automatically, contributing is easy.  It is when the technology becomes boring that the social aspect of collaborating becomes interesting.  Because Mindmeister has a very quick learning curve, collaborating and thinking is easily achieved.

Students often need assistance in organizing thoughts.  Even with mind maps, students don’t always know the direction to take.  With Mindmeister, the teacher could start one to set the trajectory and the students add and complete.  This type of collaboration enables the teacher to model, monitor, and make suggestions as appropriate.  

With the ability to add multimedia to any of the ideas, Mindmeister helps to gather information and resources.  If a student is going to use the mind map to create a product that showcases their learning, they are well on their way with one place to store all of their resources.

Mindmeister is free to use.  However, one only has the ability to have three mindmaps at any time with the free subscription.  With an upgrade of about $5.00 a month, one has the ability to have unlimited maps, export maps, chat, search, create teams, etc.  For an elementary school like mine, $600 buys site licenses for up to 1000 users with the ability to administer maps and create teams.  Considering how much many programs cost, Mindmeister is reasonable. 

Quest Atlantis - 1st Training

I have signed up to be a participant in Quest Atlantis.  In order to get full access and do this with your students, you have to complete four PD sessions online in Quest Atlantis.  I just completed my first one.  It is very cool.  Luckily, I have experience with Second Life, so the learning curve was easy.  With our first session, we just moved around and learned about some of the different areas.  I have three more to go!

BP7_OMM_Wallwisher

See the video here!

BP6_Comment on Tyler Badertscher's web 2.0 tool

Follow this link to see my comment on Tyler's music tool.

BP5_Comment on Bruchetta Jones' blog

Follow this link to my comment on Bruchetta Jones' review of web 2.0 tools.

BP4_Web 2.0 tool review

Wallwisher (www.wallwisher.com) is an online notice board.  Users may create a wall on any topic and others may post comments, feedback, ideas, input, etc.  The idea is simple.  Think of taking a piece of chart paper and writing something on it.  Other people come and write something on a sticky note and place it on the chart paper.  The chart paper collects the ideas.

With Wallwisher, you can use it simply as sticky notes on chart paper.  One can also expand on this idea where others can publish much more on their sticky note such as research ideas, links, images, multimedia, etc. to contribute to the collective work.  

Here is a simple example of how Wallwisher could be used to get feedback from students.  Instead of posing a question and having students raise their hands, why not get everyone to contribute and have a little time for a thoughtful response?

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/slavery

This Wallwisher is an example of an English lesson on expanding sentences.  This gives all of the students to contribute and share their ideas.

http://www.wallwisher.com/embed/vocabulary.

This Wallwisher asks for students to share their tips on success for exams.  Students can contribute and learn from each other.

http://www.wallwisher.com/embed/vocabulary

Wallwisher is not limited to words.  Images and links can also be shared.  Students could produce a work in Google Docs and paste the link to a Wallwisher wall.

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/mathsexam9

Wallwisher is a free tool which allows users to share information in a variety of ways.

BP3_Diigo Group

Quest Atlantis

I heard about Quest Atlantis from Jesus DeLeon at a bonus Wimba session.  I have been looking at online simulations for my AR.  I have started to research what Quest Atlantis is and how it can be used.

http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/

BP2_iGoogleScreenShots

BP1_Google Reader

The amount of information in web 2.0 is astounding.  It is fast, constant, and immense.  When I used to go to the stacks and bury myself in journals, I now sit at home and it just pours in.  Nice.  No wonder we are getting fatter.


Okay, enough on the human condition in our automated world.  Because I am a Librarian/Media Specialist, I am looking at finding the latest and greatest on teaching technology.  Because Project Based Learning is probably going to be a part of my Action Research, I found Reinventing Project-Based Learning (http://reinventingpbl.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default).  


I am following Edutopia (http://www.edutopia.org).  Edutopia is hip, current, and broad.  It is excellent with hitting on best teaching practices and trends across the country. 


I am also following Educational Technology (http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/).  I am finding that the articles are varied.  I will have to pay a little more attention to the source than I will with Edutopia.


eLearn Magazine (feed://www.elearnmag.org/elearn.xml) has an interesting angle on technology in the classroom.  They have a humanistic approach and look at the human interaction and technology.  


Finally, I am following eSchool News (http://www.eschoolnews.com/feed/).  This feed has an array of articles on how technology is being used and the latest and greatest products out there.  


What is also a little intimidating about these feeds and blogs is that not only do I receive and read RSS feeds, I also comment on others' blogs and they comment on my blog and I read their comments and look at their feeds and read those and...  I am going to need my rest.