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If you have any questions please contact me:deborah.nelson@

palmbeachschools.org

There are a few different ways that applications can be used in the music classroom. First it may be a dedicated communication device for a student or students. In which case you are very lucky if the student uses an app likeMyTalk where you can use the iDevice to take a picture of what you are teaching, up load it, and sync it to the iDevice. The person who does the work could be the teacher, assistant, SLP, or peer teacher (student). It isn’t difficult or time consuming. One doesn’t have to be a licensed Speech and Language Pathologist to do it.

Once the image and sound is on a board the student can participate giving an answer for all to hear and possibly see depending if the iDevice is hooked to a Bluetooth system and an LCD projector.

Ideas for that participation may be:

What did we study today?

Which instrument, style, form, culture, register, volume, did you see/hear?

Which do you prefer?

Which song would you prefer to move/dance to? (that could be pictures and text to represent

songs or cues do you want a fast or slow song, blues or rock…

This will give you an idea of how applications are incorporated into my music lessons to facilitate access for students with severe disabilities:

Learn about and control cause and effect – RadSounds

Stop-go playing on cue along or with a group - almost any music app

Sequencing or form – playing the return section, word, sound, MyTalk is especially good at this, recording application for personal input,

Matching sound to an visual cue, icon, note reading, almost any music app, MyTalk

Respond to visual cue, icon, or written direction for volume, pitch, tempo… almost any music app, MyTalk

Harmony – strum or play a set pattern to a pentatonic or I chord melody or even choose instrument of preference, can set up in MyTalk and other music apps to support harmony via Garageband, GlowTunes, ThumbJam, improVox, MyTalk

Melody – play a pentatonic improvisation with or without harmony or rhythm or even choose instrument of preference almost any music app to play melody via AirVox, Bebot, Bloom, Garageband, Korg iKaossilator, m Scribble, PetTunes, PocketGuitar, Silly Pianist,ThumbJam, MyTalk

Rhythm – participate or even compose via BeatMaker, DigiDrummer, Finger Stomp, idaft, Hand Drums, Percussive, Percussions,

Select answers about style, culture, history – MyTalk

Compose – make sound/picture patterns, Silly Pianist, Songineer,

Support a story with environmental sounds and music or a sound carpet with any of the sound producing apps, Silly Pianist, Toontastic, MyTalk

Identify (visual, auditory) chorus, solo, participate via Acapella Men app, MyTalk

Demonstrate sense of ensemble via Biophilia by playing along (avantguard interactive music)

Respond to accent, phrase, key change… by interacting with Dancing Jello to create a visual change as it responds to music

Explore vocal sounds/singing via improVox, Acapella Men, Singing Fingers, Songify, Talking Tom, VocalShapes,

Performing from the app’s icon directions for melody, LeafTombone, Magic Piano, Pet Tunes

Assessment: To mimic the Florida Alternate Assessment Test (FAA) the best application to provide practice for the prompt to choose and answer from three possibilities is MyTalk. One can create a board with three visual and auditory choices. A student can look at the choices and, or for blind students, use a switch to cycle through the choices with an auditory and visual cue. Through eye gaze, touch, or another signal to the teacher, a student may make a selection. If it is correct there is immediate positive feedback. If the correct answer is not selected the screen jumps to the correct answer and the other incorrect answer. The process repeats until the correct answer is selected or left to select.

As in the suggestions for a single user, a MyTalk Board may be designed for yes or no, or any communication output one could request from a student to demonstrate learning. This may be a verbal answer, choosing a picture to represent a verbal answer, or actually demonstrating a musical concept.

I would love to have a standard bank of icons or visual representations that would be used on any future standardized text. Most of my students don’t read and reading music is even a higher level thinking skill. So I use felt shapes to represent sound. Students are learning one to one correspondence, stop, go, long, short, high, and low that way. I use color, shape, and the actual placement on the felt board to help them understand. Unless I use these exact materials and methods I doubt if any other type of testing would measure what they learned. I can then take pictures of these exact shapes and load them into MyTalk as answers to questions to demonstrate learning.

Here is a list of the applications I have use in my classroom. As I try out new ones I will update the list.

Acapella Men – example of interactive solo, chorus, you can record your own voice and virtually “sing along.” You can control the key from a few choices and between major or minor harmony. It works with Bluetooth.

AirVox – hand location gives pitch in various scales that you can choose from, as well as controlling some other sound parameters. It’s like a Theremin and works with Bluetooth.

BeatMaker – make your own beat loops, has presets and authoring capability, works with Bluetooth

Bebot – great sound – Theremin, Power PWM, Belter, Synthharp, Looper, Auto PWM, Filtered Bass, Power PWM2, Rocket clock, Argyle Socks, Fat Synth, Home Organ, Heavy Organ, Chiptune, Chiptune2, Undertone, Simplex, Vax, and Modular – Character moves to pitch change as well as O and E sound with mouth changes, works with Bluetooth

Biophilia – this app facilitates interactive music selections by Bjork. I use Lightening which is interactive picture and sound. Iit looks like sparks and lightening with pitch and tempo as one moves up, with number of pitches changing with width of finger space between two or three fingers, works with Bluetooth

Bloom – mood music and abstract picture you create by touching that does relate to pitch that loop and changes depending on the settings, works with Bluetooth

Cleartune – tuner with visual

DigiDrummer – skins and sounds of varied drum sets

Finger Stomp – garage or basketball scene settings where pictures makes sounds

GarageBand – keyboards, guitars, drums, the interface allows virtual playing even with limited vision and physical ability. One must turn on Bluetooth on iPad and also in GarageBand app, turning it off when finished

Glow Tunes – makes loops with different sounds using colored dots. It can support the following learning areas: sound/silence as in rest concept, repetition, same and different. It works with Bluetooth.

Glow Tunes Christmas – make loops with dots of Christmas tree lights, music, snow, save, works with Bluetooth

Hand Drums - great graphics that respond to touch, choices of drum sounds, choices to play solo, with a metronome, or with a loop, and possibility to record

idaft – clips of words to add to music as a beat

improVox – uses own voice, corrects pitch, and adds harmony for different styles, need microphone and headphone

JELL-O Jiggle It – Jello cube moves to music, recorded or played, select color, interacts when touched, doesn’t work with Bluetooth

Korg iKaossilator – synthesizer with sounds and visuals, changeable presets, loops, up to five layers, many different style sounds including drum with manipulative patterns

LeafTBone – doesn’t play on iPad II – plays on iPhone, a sliding melody with harmony of pre composed songs that one follows the icons to play

Magic Piano –play alone on keyboard or dots like a piano roll, duet internationally and see globe showing where partner is playing from

MeMoves – movement, music, and shapes recommended for students with Autism to relax, build focus, and brain development. Check out the research.

MyTalkTools and MyTalk Workspace – for student communication and participation. See Internet site for further information, training, and help. If you cannot get videos at work due to the firewall you may find them here: https://vodcast.palmbeachschools.org/

mScribble – sound goes with finger touch motion with color, changing pitch and volume with and without a harmony and beat, works with Bluetooth

Percussions great sounds and playing options (hand shake, hit…)cuica, cowbell, triangle, vibraslap, guiro, agogo, castanet, shaker, timbales, claves, woodblock, conga, tambourine, maracas, scratching, bell tree, matraca/ratchet, (I do not have all of these in my classroom so virtual instruments are a real boon and in a general education class would do the same and add a definite cool factor.)

Perscussive - (mallet instruments: glockenspiel, kalimba, xylophone, marimba, vibrophone) great sounds with graphic feedback of play and multiple octaves and chromatic notes, choice of hard or soft mallets

PetTunes – funny you can see paw as plays keyboard, setting with only animal sound (dog, cat, duck, cow, seal), only keyboard sound or both, preset songs with icons to follow on keys to produce song

PocketGuitar – guitar you can tune, strum, finger, change type of guitar (clean electric, lead guitar, acoustic-electric, classical, bass, ukulele), and set effects in presets. It works with Bluetooth

RadSounds – cause and effect, works with a switch, great song selection in app and allows one to load own tunes too

Recorder – records, easy to use, works with Bluetooth, allows for wifi sync for bigger, higher quality recordings

Scribble Synth – touch screen to create color, image, and sound. The sound and direction of image do not coordinate to high and low or loud and soft.

Silly Pianist - (sound effects to pitches) with 150 to choose from ranging from naughty to useful, works with Bluetooth

Singing Fingers – captures voice and finger painting for sound playback as one traces over sections or the whole of the picture. It doesn’t work with Bluetooth

Songify - turns talking into singing to the “sound” of other tunes you can select from, doesn’t work with Bluetooth

Songineer – digital composer - sequencer, works with Bluetooth, 20 instruments, 5 drumkits,

Talking Tom – animation of a cat that purrs when stroked and copies vocal sounds it hears along with other antics

ThumbJam – thirty plus real, high quality instrument sounds that you can add vibrato or bending the pitch by movement of the iDevice. Many scales available with control over range as well as between 5 -11 pitches can be played at once.Record, loop, control with voice, many great fine controls, works with Bluetooth

Toontastic –make up your own story with pictures you make or select, follow prompts for story making and add music from selections offered to support story, you can narrate your story, animate it, save it, and share it.

Vocal Shapes – pattern changes with changes in sound source, touch screen to freeze image. It gives vowels an image.

Title: ANIMAL ZOO RESEARCH PROJECT- Grade 1

Student Target: Students will select an animal to research
Students will use different types of reference materials, books, magazines and iPads
Students will create and record a page for class ebook
Students will present information and ebook at an Animal Zoo

Materials: Animal books on grade level, video camera, iPads and computer, PAGES app, animal research information graphic organizer sheet, paper, crayons, zoo decorations

Warm-Up: Share an interesting fact about an animal. For example, "chameleons can rotate their eyes in a complete circle. " Share both a fiction and a nonfiction book about animals and discuss with students which one we would use to find facts on our animal. Elicit that we would use nonfiction books, as well as magazines, and the internet to find facts.

Review: Review with students the needs of people and animals (food, water, home), their characteristics, their groups (mammals, amphibians, etc.). Have students think about all the animals and discuss how and what we will use to research.

Vocabulary:
Habitat, characteristics, mammal, amphibian, reptile,

Lesson/ Activity:
The plan is designed as a multiple lesson collaborate unit with first grade. Students will research animal facts and go through the WRITING process to create drafts, edit and finalize their products to create a class ebook.

The library/media specialist and staff will act as facilitators throughout this project by exposing the students to electronic sources of information and participating in the creation of an eBook. The classroom teacher will also participate in this activity by making connections with what they have already learned about animals in class and new resources in the LMC.

• Assign each student an animal and distribute and discuss the graphic organizer they will use to gather their facts.
• Have students research their animal using books and the iPad to access internet sources.
• Continue to work with students to have them complete their animal info sheets.
• Have students create a picture of their animal
• Using the PAGES app on the iPad students will create their individual written page for their animal
• Video students holding their animal picture and speaking the facts
• Media Specialist/Teacher compiles individual student pages into one class "Animal Zoo" book.
• Media Specialist/Teacher inserts individual student video into the ebook.

Follow Up: Our Animal Zoo became a museum with the students dressed in costume, the media tables turned upside down became the cages and each student displayed his/her iPad page with video as a info. box in their cage. We invited other classes and parents. The final activity was to present the ebook and have the students sing several animal songs that the music teacher had taught in collaboration.

Click for full-size image

Daily Assessment:
A time task calendar should help students track completion of their work. The letter to parents with a reply form helps to insure that they are aware of the needs for the Animal Zoo.

Strategies:

Standard/ Benchmark:
SC.1.L.17.1 Through observation, recognize that all plants and animals, including humans, need the basic necessities of air, water, food, and space.

School Based Standard:

Other Activities/ Resources:

Reteaching/ Enrichment:

File Attachments:

Multimedia:

When we first started this project, I found searching the computer for information, ideas and resources for using iPads in the classroom were far and few between. Things are changing, even the cyber teacher guru Kathy Schrock has a link to using ipads in the classroom.

I have found a few sites that have some information that I have found useful.

Kathy Schrock' "Ipads in the classroom"

https://sites.google.com/site/schrockipad/

Audubon Park Elementary has a wiki, with mostly apps

http://teacher.ocps.net/groups/ipodsintheclassroom/

Quick list of iPad resources for the classroom:

http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/2011/03/quick-list-of-ipad-resources-for.html

Cybrary Man’s Educational Website

http://cybraryman.com/ipad.htmlEdudemic

The Ultimate Guide to Using iPads in the classroom

http://edudemic.com/2010/12/the-ultimate-guide-to-using-ipads-in-the-classroom/

Cave Creek School District iPad Project

http://www.ccusd93.org/education/components/docmgr/default.php?sectiondetailid=18621&catfilter=ALL

What a great experience for myself, our staff, our school and especially our students, being part of the iPad Project has been. It has generated enthusiasm, participation and learning as well as become a great PR for advocating our school media program.

I work with all the students on a partial flex/open schedule and initially asked parents to supply headphones or earbuds when we launched the project. Next year they are included on our school supply lists. When parents and visitors walk through the media center and see students involved and using the iPads they are in awe and most times stop to see what we are doing or comment on it. I have had parents comment that their child "was so upset he would be out and missed his media lesson and couldn't use the iPad this week." Another parent, told me the first thing her child tells them when they get home is what they did on the iPad that day. A group of parents at our Kindergarten Round-Up toured the media center and were amazed and very impressed when they saw the students involved in using the iPads.

Best of all, I have seen outstanding results in the work and products the students are doing, by simplly using the iPads over traditional computers and books. Getting kids to research and find facts, at times is like pulling teeth. They would often tell me how "the book doesn't say" or it's not there and need assistance to point out the facts they were looking for. Although I still use tradition print and written sources with them, using the iPads for first grade animal research and fourth grade has shown a dramatic improvement in the quality and quantity of facts the students were able to find. When I questioned them as to why this was they commented, "because it's fun", "it's easier to find" and "I like doing it this way." Whatever it takes to capitalize and improvement student learning, IT WORKED!

While this year has been a learning curve for both myself and the students, I am looking forward to next year, and over the summer plan on developing numerous lessons and units for each of the grade levels that will incoporate using the iPads in collaborative units of instruction with our students.

As the school year comes to an end, the students have been creating projects as a review for each subject. One of the projects done last week was a math book for favorite math words. On the classroom iPads, the students were able to pull up the math textbook app., find the picture dictionary, and choose five of their favorite math words to tell about. Students had fun finding the word and creating their dictionary book. Throughout the course of our project, the students have been using the math textbook app on a daily basis. They are not only using it for the math work, but to create projects using the videos and dictionary attached. All great pros on this app. and only one con: students' work is on the iPad and parents cannot see what the students are doing in math at school. To avoid this situation, I have been sending home the workbook pages with the students for the parents to see. I have seen motivation come from this app!

As the school year comes to end, the students in my class have been working hard on knowing their facts; their math facts that is! With the goal in mind to answer 20 math problems within 1 minute, my students have been practicing using the app. Mad Math Lite. This app. focuses on addition, subtraction, mulitiplication, and division facts. The student can pick his/her level and try to beat the clock. This app. is very colorful and animated adding excitement while the student is learning his/her facts. My students love this app. At the end of each game, I have students let me know all the time how well they played and what level they are currently on. When it comes time to doing a paper and pencil math facts quiz, my students have increased their scores all the time. It is a great way to do flashcards for learning! It is like the students are using a giant calculator! I have not run into any negativism with this app. It has helped a great deal!

Title: Word Magic

Publisher/Developer: Anusen, Inc.

Date of Publication: May 19, 2011 updated

Reference and analysis tool: Spelling, phonics, reading

Recommended Ages: Early Childhood (preschool-kindergarten) Ages 3-6

Great app for beginning phonics, spelling and reading words. It is a simple app that gives children a 3-6 letter word with a missing letter, the word is spoken and children choose the missing letter. If correct, rewards are given verbally and visually.Scores are kept on screen and once 5 correct answers are achieved a sticker is earned. If incorrect, children are given a verbal prompt to try again. Settings can be adjusted to control, levels, word length, alphabet type, sounds, rewards, challenge time, missing letter, phnetics and random starts. I've used it with kindergarten classes and they love it.

*Navigation is easy, contents and menus are clear.

*On-screen help is not available but is not really needed.

*It has two different levels and multiple settings for various learners needs and abilities.

*Verbal prompts are given to correct errors. Incorrect letters are marked off, allowing children to continue to select

correct answers. Children must select correct answer before moving on.

*There are audio options available in settings

* It does not keep a history of user work, but if SmartTots-enabled apps are loaded, prgress reports and other

suggested apps are available.

* The settings allow for flexiblity in addressing special needs and levels. Missing letters can be set from the start, end

or within words as well as random. Word length and timing can also be selected.

*Pictures and sounds are appealing to young children.

* Although there are no resources or support materials included it can easily be used to supplement, reinforce and

teach reading and language arts curriculum.

* The app accommodates diverse learners and is developmentally and age appropriate.

*It provides excellent opportunities to increase student phonetic, spelling and reading skills.

*Students are engaged and interactive.

*Feedback and assessment are immediate and clearly visible on screen.

For the past two weeks, my students have been learning to write letters. With the focus on writing a thank you letter, the students have been able to use their iPads to demonstrate their writing skills. The students use the Pages app. to type out their thank you letters. "I noticed that if I don't know a word, the correct word pops up for me! How cool!" This statement came from several students as they were typing their letters. After my students finished their letters, took a picture of their writing, I synced the pictures to the Apple Computer, and printed out their writing. "Amazing!" said the students. This week, the students asked to type another letter!

Pros: Everything! The students are writing in a different style. They learned how to write a letter and enjoyed making mistakes to correct them. Some students figured out how to put pictures with their writing. The students love to write through typing!

Cons: I wish there was a way to press print right from the students' iPads directly to the classroom printer. Only con was the printing process. It did take up some time.

Students last week got to take their first assessment on the app. eClicker. This highly motivational way of taking a test was not at all like a regular test. "I like taking a test without paper and pencil," "I like seeing my results right away," "It's fun," "It's like playing a game" were the words spoken from my students as I asked them how they felt about this way of testing. Although it seemed as though the app. showed more pros than cons, there were some cons from using this method of testing. Cons: I was not able to send home the actual test for my parents to see what the questions were or what their son/daughter's answers were, it does take up time to create the questions for the test using the app. eClicker Host, once the students put down their answer, they could not have changed it, so mistakes were not allowed, and I needed to go around to see every child's answer to see if he/she answered it correctly or incorrectly. Overall, I feel this app. would work best as a review game. The students learned best through seeing their results right away and yes, I could see how much fun they all were having while taking the test. I am using this app. again next week as a review game for Social Studies.

-Valerie Bing

App: TOONTASTIC

Grade level: Elementary

Program: The app allows user to build a story one scene at a time. The app includes a story arc which includes setup, conflict, challenge, climax and resolution scenes. Students create, animate, record and include music to enhance the mood of their story. Stories can also be published to ToonTube.

Pros:

• App is exciting, engaging and motivating for elementary age children
• Allows students to use story arc to create, animate and record a story
• Good tool for language development and enrichment. Our speech teacher was very impressed.
• Allows students to share story online

The past few years, I have done a collaborative social studies research project with our 4th grade teachers and their classes called Florida A-Z. This year I did a few things differently. First rather than assign or have students pick all sorts of topics, we narrowed it down to each class doing something specific, Two classes are researching Florida Animals A-Z, another Florida People A-Z, another Florida Places A-Z and the last, Florida Attractions A-Z. This made it easier to guide them as to the types of things they would need to look for in their research. The BIGGEST DIFFERENCE though has been in the student's enthusiasm and the results they have produced just by USING THE iPAD FOR THEIR RESEARCH. In years prior, we used books and the computers, and it never failed, it was like pulling teeth getting students to read and take notes on their topic. Using the iPads, I am amazed at how easy the students have been able to research, select relevant facts and compile notes on their topics. When I asked the students for their thoughts and comments on using the iPads for research vs. using books and online sources their comments were:

• " It's quicker and easier."
• "It's fun and I find more facts."
• " I like to use the iPad more and it's easier to look up my research.
• "The iPad is portable and lighter than the computer."

Updates are inevitable. In fact, we had just gotten two carts updated to the most recent iOS Firmware when the next day a new update was out. If you have updated multiple iOS devices at all, you know there is a limit to 1 device being updated at a time in iTunes. With each update taking up to 20 minutes, a cart of iOS devices could take quite a long time to update. Because of this, I was excited when I came upon this post from the Canby School District Wiki. The entry, entitled MacGyver Chronicles, Episode 2: Restoring Multiple iOS Devices Using Xcode Organizer, overviews how you can update as many iOS devices as you want to the most recent Firmware at the same time. While this solution is not perfect, it does work much better than one at a time updating.

Essentially, all you do is purchase Xcode from the Mac App Store for $4.99. Then, it works much like the iPhone Configuration Utility in that your device shows up on the left side. Click "Use for Development," choose the OS you want, and click restore. From there, Xcode does the rest. You can be restoring as many devices as you want all at the same time. Which leads me to the one downfall with this, Xcode restores, not updates, the device. This means once the device is restored, you have to go back into iTunes to restore an old backup onto the iOS device.

In the end, while not perfect, it did knock quite a bit of time off of the update process of the two tested. It is definitely worth the $5 investment. Some things to note about Xcode. First, it took about 2 hours to download wirelessly from the Mac App Store (it is 4.5 GB!). Then, it took almost 45 minutes to install after it was downloaded. Just don't expect to start right out of the box as it will take all morning just to get Xcode up and running. Once it was up and running, it was very easy.

I would recommend this as a way for more advanced users to update any iOS devices.

**Cross-posted to the eMobilize Wiki**

I have been working with 1st grade classes to research animals. Students read nonfiction books, researched online with computers and the iPads and then wrote sentences about their animals. With Ms. Miner's class we extended the project to create a living "Animal Zoo" and an eBook. The students drew pictures of their animals, videotaped themselves reading their animal facts, typed their facts into "pages", inserted their video into their page and then created a class eBook. We celebrated their published book with an "Animal Zoo" event. We turned the media center into a zoo (the table turned upside down and taped) turned into cages, the students dressed as their animals, held their iPad in their cage and became living animals as parents, invited guests and students came to visit. We concluded with a viewing of their eBook, the "animals" singing and dancing and feed the "animals" juice and what else but animal crackers.

It was a huge success... the buzz was all over the school! Teachers from all grade levels came to see what we were doing, the parents were amazed and best of all the students, who claimed it was "the best day ever" learned so much

Check out a video of our "Animal Zoo" at :

(Sorry I couldn't get it to go into the blog... I'll work on it..)

The use of the iPad in the classroom has really been a motivational success as students still enjoy using this resource tool. Now that the students are able to use it during center time for their independent work, I have saved not only my time in making copies, but TONS of paper. Independent work consists of differentiated worksheet packets in which the students work on grammar, writing, vocabulary, and reading skills. This packet was once the last activity for the students to complete for center time, but now, it is one of the first items they complete. Melissa Lander helped to establish this through downloading the Reading textbook as a pdf onto the iPads using iAnnotate. My preparation time consists of telling the students which page numbers to complete and then checking each iPad throughout the week for knowledge gained. This part of me checking is time consuming, but well worth it!

Its presentation day, the tension in the class was so thick you could cut it with a knife, and the students are anxious. They all shuffled into class murmuring to each other. I could tell by the look on their faces they weren’t keen on speaking in front of their peers. As soon as the tardy bell rang they requested to know in which order they would be presenting. They were informed that the order of presentations would be determined randomly by pulling numbers from a bag, which served to add to the tension in the room.

After the first student had presented their project to the class, the level of anxiety in the room had dissipated. I soon overheard students whispering that the wished that they could go next, because they felt they could do a better job than what their peers had just done. The tides were changing and their competitive natures kicked in. The students were now vying to be the best presenter in the class.

It is valuable to note, that the majority of the students were committed to doing well. Some students took the initiative to request to come in early to afford themselves the opportunity to have more time to create a good presentation. The students making the requests to come in were not average over achievers who are naturally motivated to do their best, but they were my chronic “I don’t care” students. I guess I can assume they did care. Out of 115 students only two chose not to do the project at all, only one was deleted, and sixteen students earned a grade that was below passing (60%) which includes the two that did not do their projects