Notate

Notate from Logotron is a music composition tool that offers a means of exploring and composing music using ICT. Many of the features are kept simple to avoid over complication of the software although the complexity level can be increased. It’s essentially a teaching and learning tool rather than a package to produce printed scores for your next concert but the print option will be perfectly adequate for classroom use.

Notate can be used as a whole class teaching tool and using a projector with whiteboard would be ideal as the display is large and attractive. It could be used in this way to show pupils how to use the program and to teach general concepts such as pitch and tone. It can then be used with pupils working in pairs or alone to explore ideas in more detail. The package comes with pupil and teacher worksheets that are matched to the QCA schemes of work as well as program instructions. Pupils do not have to start from scratch; they could open existing works and then experiment to change instruments or aspects of a composition. The teacher guide is supplied separately to the pupil guide so they can be used independently by the pupils at their workstation.

The software is easy to get to grips with. The interface is clear and accessible and can be set to three levels of difficulty. Although I was unable to use a keyboard to try out Midi input. I could still compose tracks by dragging notes or chords to the staves. Using the control key, notes can be easily duplicated. There is room for up to eight staves. Each stave can be set to a different instrument and they can be mixed at different levels. Speed of the output can be controlled which could be useful to bring out some teaching points.

Editing is straightforward and intuitive. Select, copy and paste is as one would expect but there is also a transpose option as well as moving a selection up or down the stave using the arrow keys or edit menu.

One of the examples from the work book requires you to compose some music that creates a mood. Pupils are asked to look at a picture and to express their feelings of the picture through music. They can explore the different textures and timbres of groups of instruments as well as the structure of patterns and phrasing. There is a full range of such activities and more ideas on the website.

To sum up, this is a package that could be used by both non specialist or specialist teachers for beginner students or the more able. There is plenty of scope to encourage creativity and to develop a clearer idea of notation at the same time.

Notate.

Platform –Windows PC

Age range –KS 2/3

Supplier – Logotron / Cambridge Software

URL: www.logo.com

Email: info@logo.com

Tel: 01223 425 558

Fax: 01223-425 349

Price £59

from a review published in InterActive

Coming of Age -an introduction to the new world wide web

Thanks to the weekly e-mail from NAACE, I have just been reading the free to download book entitled 'Coming of Age -an introductin to the new world wide web. Edited by Terry Freedman and includes lots of articles about Web 2.0 - podcasting, the blogosphere, RSS and wikis etc. The book is free to distribute and I shall be making copies available to the teachers at school so they can read up about this new ICT developements. There are some excellent contributions including one from Miles Berry on the use of ELGG in school. He gives plenty of anacdotal evidence of how the use of ELGG as a blog / e-portfolio has been used alongside Moodle to give a personalised learning experinece for his pupils.
I hope this book grabs the attention of the non-believers and gives them some ideas of how to make some tentative steps towards e-enlightment.
Coming of Age

bebo.com

An article in the Sunday Telegraph about the dangers of social networking.
Bebo is not a great site - the article is quite right. Surely webdesigners can come up with proper rules and a good way of moderating networking sites.

Uses for iPods in Education

I came across this interesting site from Georgia USA about uses for iPods.

"This school year, it started iVillage, a virtual community that encouraged incoming students to start communicating before the start of classes. The first dozen freshmen recruited for the effort were asked to think up innovative uses for the iPods.

The team is creating an iPod-based freshmen survival guide that includes advice on classes, dorms and nightlife in this sleepy community 100 miles south of Atlanta."

British Computer Society

I have been a full member of the British Computer Society now for about a year. I have found it very useful. Apart from the prestigious MBCS after your name, I find the journal and web site updates very interesting and make me feel part of the profession. Entry for ICT co-ordinators in schools has been made easier. There are no exams to do if you can demonstrate qualifications and professional practice.
I can't believe that it has taken so long. I remember when I was at school being totally unimpressed by the BCS compared to the other engineering and scientific organisations. Maybe the next step will be for them to produce some really good careers information for schools as I find the current material uninspriring. I refuse to put up the latest offerings in my classroom.

BETT 2006 pictures

 

BETT 2006

An excerpt from my article in Interactive magazine.

Oh no, huge queues already at BETT on the Thursday and I had arrived especially early to get in dead on 10.00am. These queues were for the pre-registered doors so I had a brain-wave and went to the non-registered door. Guess what, I walked straight in. Please do not do this next year, it is my trick.

I was looking out for VLEs because I had some interest in the arrival of Moodle to BETT for the first time. If you are a Moodle fan you may know it is an open source VLE that is available free. It is one of the most exciting things in education today and excellent that there was a stand at BETT because it was staffed by volunteers and funded by donations. It was buzzing with people asking questions and quite rightly as Moodle offers more than just a course management system. It also offers a real opportunity for collaborative learning with components added by the community of users from all round the world.

I took a look at some of the opposition – Fronter. A VLE system that has spread in Northern Europe. Their solution is to do the hosting for you so you have none of the support worries that many VLEs present. You can set up virtual classrooms and link your e-mail and documents to the Fronter portal screen. It will be interesting to see if it takes off in the UK. FrogTeacher is a similar system with such a beguiling name. A VLE, an email system, intranet and school website all wrapped into one.

The Smart stands did indeed look smart with the new Smart 600 series board. The design has, thankfully, been dragged into the current century and at last looks like a grown up interactive smart-board with designer speakers either side incorporating USB sockets and volume controls. The excellent notebook software has been updated as well and they have come out of the closet about the mind mapping software that actually comes free with each board. I say it like this because not many people seem to have heard about the mind mapping software which is a great shame as it is a friendly package to get to know. At last, Smart seem to be singing its praises.

One of the recurring themes at BETT this year for me was podcasting. Everyone was doing it. At the Ultralab stand, groups of students were busy making short audio and video files ready to podcast on the net. Made slightly easier by a new product for the Mac; Podcaster from Kudlian software. Ultralab were full of enthusiasm for Ultraversity, their on-line university that would be most suitable for, say, a technician who wants to do a university degree whilst they are at work.

If you don't have a Mac but are still puzzled by how to actually cast your audio files then Radiowaves is the answer. A platform for schools all over the world to show off their digital audio files. It is interesting to hear what a typical school day is like in different parts of the world and there are tutorials and ideas on how to start your own radio station.

With all this interest in podcasts and recording audio, you would think it would be easy to source a suitable microphone. All the stands showing off audio equipment only seem to have professional kit. When you ask them for a microphone for class use that doesn't cost as much as your total budget then they are completely stumped.

I went to relax in the excellent NAACE lounge and sat enjoying a cup of Earl Grey pondering on the fact that the lounge doesn't feel as exclusive as it did last year. However, it is an excellent facility and provides a cosy area to chill out and meet people. I was even asked to take part in a podcast of the BETT show. I gingerly went over to the Mac setup and recorded my thoughts and the podcast was then put up on the Ultralab site. You can listen for yourself. However it is only by being asked to do something like this that you realise the difficulty of putting together a few coherent sentences if you haven't planned it properly. So if you do a podcasting exercise in your own classroom do stress the importance of what the media types call – pre-production planning!

All the examples of podcasting at BETT seemed to be done on Macs and although I use PCs in school I have a Mac at home. Yes, I am a recent convert and I am writing this on an iBook. Of course, PCs can be used for podcasting as I am sure you know but if you do want to think about using Macs at school I found two interesting companies. 'Macs in my school' are based in Surrey and will help you integrate the machines into an existing PC network. Similarly, ATComputers had a slicker approach with glossy literature explaining how Macs are going to take over the classroom with their superior creativity suites, including not just the Mac software that is contained in the iLife package but 'I can animate' which does just what it says on the packet! Incidentally, this one is also produced by Kudlian software.

I was very interested in mind-mapping tools this year, so, apart from the Smart software that I mentioned earlier I was pleased to see a new version of Inspiration coming out. Inspiration and Kidspiration for the primary range, are mind mapping tools that are undergoing an update. The new version of Inspiration is Version 8 and has a dictionary, thesaurus and word guide that will find synonyms easily. There is support now for video files to play within the mind maps and the templates tool means that starting off is a whole lot better. It is also worth considering Mindjet Mindmanager which does a similar job and unlike Inspiration it is possible to buy a site licence. However, one advantage of Inspiration is that it can be used on a PDA.

Talking of PDAs, it was the first time this year that I took a real interest in what is happening with PDAs for teachers and pupils. The answer is – not a lot. Although I am glad that I found the 'Handheld learning' stand. I can't believe that PDAs are still rather looked on as geeky but they are increasingly becoming a real alternative to the laptop for a busy IT co-ordinator. Do you still use paper? There is now support for Word and Excel on the PDA and the one I use at home has a great bird-watching database with all the bird calls as well as distribution maps. Do try logging onto the 'Handled learning' site as there are some good examples from practitioners on how to get the best out of them.

What was the strangest thing you saw at BETT? Mine was the software called iClone. You can take the dubious opportunity to scan your photo into the program and build a 3D animation of yourself. Within minutes, you create an action packed animation sequence of yourself. Just don't let your students get hold of your photo or you will be in trouble!

It had been quite a different experience at BETT this year. No tablet laptops that I could find, not so many Starboards, lots of ingenious furniture that folded out revealing a network of PCs that appeared from nowhere. There was perhaps a greater emphasis on choice of software and ‘e-learning’.

It is always a good chance to meet other people and over coffee I talked to some people from Egypt, Norway and South Africa. One teacher said that you used to get better freebies a few years ago. I wonder what he expects; a free nano-pod! I went away quite happy with a handful of pens and a pot of Jam, of all things, from the BBC. See you at BETT 2007.