Rather ironically, I am moving from the newest building in the district to the oldest building in the district.

Four other schools (and possibly a 5th) are also going all-iPad, one high school (my former former [yes, two formers] high school position), three elementary schools, and perhaps one other middle school.

I leave my highly organized, highly structured environment that I built from scratch at my old high school position to a middle school position where the entire room is in need of a lot of work.

This includes the middle school music library, which is in complete disarray. It looks like the library was in order at one point, but it now contains multiple numbering systems, skipped/missing numbers, and more. I need to digitize the library anyway–but my job this summer is not only scanning music, but completely re-working the storage of music, the music catalog itself, and physically taking inventory of each and every piece. This may sound like an unhappy chore to some people, but I love making order out of chaos. I've done this at two schools, and this will be my third. What is interesting is that as I scan, type into a spreadsheet, and print and apply labels, I am getting these scores ready for permanent storage. I am reticent to throw away any song, even if I know it will never be used or the copies are so worn that they could not be used again. Realistically, the next trip for most of the music–including the music I will buy over the next years–will eventually all find its way from storage to a recycling bin (once copyright is figured out with converting paper to digital–schools cannot afford to replace traditional libraries at a 1:1 cost).

My scanning process remains the same as what I did last year, and perhaps I'll go over that in another post.

What I wanted to talk about tonight is the interesting progression of music at a very old school, as well as the need to leave a musical legacy in the music you choose for your program, as someone else will inherit it someday.

So far, I've come across pieces from 1897 through 2000, nothing newer at this point (I will come across those pieces at the end of the library). I've finished work on about 1/3 of the library (450 pieces), but I won't know the correct number of titles until I have finished, as I have come across file folders full of pieces that seem not to be in the catalog.

Nearly all the pieces are still under copyright (1929 is a good year to use as a starting point), even though a huge percentage are permanently out of print and will never be sung again. I would say that of the first 450, about 25% are pop songs from the middle and late 1900s. Few are what I would consider “lasting classics,” and the former directors at this school seem to have had a love for the music of the Carpenters and Neil Diamond (and not even the songs from those artists that we would most know them for today). I also note that none of the songs have been purchased in a quantity (or remain in a quantity–extant) to supply an entire choir, particularly when our current 6th and 7th grade classes will have about 140 singers (rehearsing in different hours of the day).

As I catalog the title, composer, arranger, publisher, publisher number, year of copyright, original price, number of copies, genre, and musical period in my spreadsheet, I am also gaining valuable data to bring to our district curriculum director. Schools in our district are expected to buy music out of building capital or even booster funds…yet the music itself is our curriculum (*in secondary schools). If I can make a case that the majority of our songs were copyrighted in the mid 1900s, with many of those being “pop” songs, I might be able to obtain more funding for music for our school, and all the schools in our district.

I find it fun to be working with music that is so “old.” The least expensive piece was $0.12, the most expensive so far was $1.95. The going price of music today is $1.95–the most common price I have seen thus far is $0.30. It is fun to see the main arrangers of the day. We are used to seeing the names of Shaw, Huff, and Emerson–a generation earlier saw names like Lojeski, Leyden, Metis, Stickles, and Warnick. I was reminded today that there was a time that Hal Leonard was located in Winona, Minnesota (it is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin today).

But as I go through this music, I am realizing how much of the music will never, ever be used again. At my old high school, we had to buy a certain amount of pop music for our show choirs–and hopefully most of those songs are (or will become) standards that can be used again. Funding is so limited that it is important to make wise choices not only for your current choirs, but for choirs in your future. This, of course, applies to band music, too–but bands for the most part are a little more protected from the “pop” influence (marching band is another matter altogether).

I still have at least 900 titles to go through before I'm done with this project, and perhaps I'll find a lot more music that can be used today.

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Some general thoughts:

1. I think iOS 7 looks great; I don’t get the angst in the media about it, especially since the media has been saying that iOS is stagnant and old.  You can’t have it both ways.

2. I fear that my trusty 2008 MacBook will not be able to upgrade to OS X 10.9 (Mavericks).  

3.  I was very happy to learn that iBooks…in textbook form…are coming to OS X 10.9

4.  As a person with a lot of apps, I like the idea that they will self-update.  The problem is when you have an app that you want to purposely leave as an old version (e.g. the old version of iCab which could download YouTube videos).

5.  AirDrop is going to be great…the question still exists: can you AirDrop between Mac and iPad?

6.  I love the idea of iTunes Radio, and as an iTunes Match subscriber, I love that it will be ad free.  Pretty amazing for $25 a year.

7.  One of my wish list items is still up in the air: can we finally write to the music storage on our iPads from other apps or mail?

8.  The other wish list item: will the next version of Keynote for iPad have annotation ability?

9.  iWork in the cloud: sounds wonderful.  If it is free to all iCloud subscribers, Google has an issue on their hands.  I always would wish to work on the better product and more importantly, the better looking and working product.

10.  New MacBook Air: I want a retina screen before I buy mine.  7 hours of standby time, or 10 hours?  Pretty amazing.  Can they put that same tech in the A7 processor for the 5th Generation iPad (and 2nd Generation iPad Mini)?

11.  New MacBook Pro: it looks fantastic.  I just have no need for such a machine.  Seriously…was it designed by aliens?

12.  A few companies are being put out of commission with some of the developments.  1 Password?  Doomed by Keychain in the Cloud.  Bump Technologies?  Doomed by AirDrop.

13.  I wish AirDrop could be made to work with all the iPad 2s that have been sold to education, where it would be a huge benefit.  In fact, it really should work with the iPad 3s.  I’ll probably drop a short note to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, about it.

14.  I wish these updates were released before the school year started, but the timing suggests October or November.

15.  No iPad or iPhone this summer.  That’s okay.  It’s nice to own the latest and greatest for a few more weeks.

At any rate, a lot of interesting news today.  It’s a good time to be an Apple user!

http://pyhsedtech.org/2012/11/17/ipad-is-right-for-pe/

The only thing missing in this article is a discussion of specific apps that can be used in physical education, such as Coaches' Eye or some of the many play-drawing apps (for football, basketball, etc).

School leaders and IT departments do harm to “non-core” areas when they make decisions about tech integration that are based on solely the needs of “core” areas.

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Debating iPads or Chromebooks for 1:1? Why not both? zite.to/11xXOkG

—
Erin Klein (@KleinErin) June 07, 2013

I find myself completely at odds with the article, having purchased both devices. Meyer’s article is based around two core beliefs:

1. iPads are better suited for younger students and subjects like math

2. Chromebooks are better suited for older students and subjects like English (i.e. kids write so much they need a keyboard–”Kids gotta type!”).

Let me summarize a few thoughts:

1. This approach ignores the many classes in which a Chromebook is basically useless (including music)
2. This approach believes that the number one role of a computer in secondary education is to write papers (this is NOT technology integration).
3. This approach believes that Google Docs are robust apps that are ideal for writing those papers (There are benefits and drawbacks to Google Docs)
4. This approach believes that other hardware features of the iPad are not necessary in secondary education (Cameras for iMovie and so on, not to mention the wide variety of apps)

I own a Chromebook.  I am writing this blog post on a Chromebook.  I think it is an ideal machine, particularly in school media centers, where the purpose of computers has been for research, writing, and making PowerPoints.  But the Chromebook is so limited as a browser-based system that its strengths lie only on the S (substitution) and A (augmentation) levels of the SAMR technology integration model.  It just isn’t a device that allows for higher level technology integration. And, for the most part, the only people that are buying Chromebooks are schools and individual users who just need a web browser…everyone else is buying iPads these days…quite literally everyone else.  So there is a chance that Google will eventually abandon these devices, as they have other services in the past.

Now, if a school wishes to use a combination of iPads and MacBooks, or iPads and Windows PCs…I’m fine with that and can see the argument about how the Mac/PC better prepares them for the business world (although businesses are buying plenty of iPads, too).  But I’d still argue that notebook computers are very hard to integrate into all subjects.  But to honestly say that iPads should be used in elementary and Chromebooks should be used in Secondary is really limiting what you can do with technology at the secondary level.

Okay…so that keyboard on the Chromebook helped your student write a ten page paper (how many ten page papers do you think your student writes in high school anyway?), but have you seen the interface and resulting documents from Google Docs?  Can you cite things to your school’s standards with Google Docs?  Furthermore, how is that 4 hour battery holding up in class?

And show me the creative projects your students are doing, such as videos (iMovie), musical compositions (GarageBand or Notion), or some of the interesting presentations they have created (Keynote, Haiku Deck, or Scrollshow).  How about the great notetaking apps where students can type notes, draw, or write notes by hand (Notability, Noteshelf)?

Do you see where I am going with this?

The answer, in my brain, is to go with iPad Minis at the elementary level (smaller users, smaller hands) and iPads at the secondary level, and let students buy their own keyboard case (there are several wonderful ones on the market) instead.

The other hidden aspect of the Chromebook implementation is the cost savings.  Chromebooks can be purchased for around $200, whereas you really don’t want anything less than a 32GB iPad these days…at $429 (32GB Mini) to $599 (32GB iPad 4).  You can buy two Chomebooks for every iPad, and sometimes four Chromebooks for every MacBook.  Schoosl typically donm’t buy bargain Windows PCs, either…they buy school units with extended warranties starting around $1000 as well…once again, making it 4 Chromebooks for every Windows notebook.  Add a keyboard case to the iPad, and the financial argument even goes further.

So…the question schools ask: is this device (iPad, notebook, etc.) worth two to four times more than the Chromebook?  If they answer no, they feel the creative and multipurpose nature of the iPad is not worth the cost–and chances are, they are not invested in technology integration, just technology substitution–making a better typewriter.

Should you mix devices in a 1:1?  Maybe, but certainly not in the combination of iPads for elementary and Chromebooks for secondary.

What would I suggest?

1. iPads in the hands of all students, 1:1 (iPad Minis in elementary, iPads in secondary)
2. Students provide keyboards if needed.
3. Chromebooks in the media center, replacing old desktop computers
4. MacBook labs for specific subjects needing specific notebook programs
5. Teachers should have both a Macbook (for iBooks Author alone) and an iPad

This model is more expensive than 1:1 Chromebook, and slightly more expensive than 1:1 iPad, but significantly less expensive than 1:1 MacBook or Windows PC deployment.

If you have noticed, I have not discussed Android tablets, as the article is dismissive of that platform.  That would be an article for another time.

I do not believe that the Chromebook is the answer for SAMR models of tech integration, particularly when it comes to the M (modification) and R (redefinition) levels of that model.  However, if you are looking for a device as a substitute for traditional computer use in education (papers, research, presentations), it is a fitting device.

The Google Chromebook comes with HDMI out only, which is problematic for many schools, as schools will often fail to purchase projectors with HDMI capability–yes, even in 2013.  Most projectors come with HDMI output…but there are still models that do not have that feature.  Furthermore, most schools are not wired for HDMI, so a VGA cable connection is run to the projector from a mounted point on the wall.  So, even if you have an HDMI equipped projector, you will still need to convert HDMI to VGA.

I remembered to bring in my Kanex ATV Pro to school today, which is a small adapter that converts Apple TV output to a VGA plus audio (1/8″ stereo mini plug) connection, which costs around $65.  One of the best parts about the Kanex is that it does not require an additional power connection to covert the Apple TV’s signal from HDMI to VGA.

I thought I would try that device with the Chromebook.  It did not work.  I still had an older, powered HDMI to VGA convertor in the choir room (about $100 on Amazon), and it did project the Chomebook’s HDMI output to the screen.  Audio does appear to run throught the HDMI port (this is standard, however, on my 2008 MacBook, audio does not go out via the HDMI dongle, but does with later models of MacBooks).

So..you can convert the HDMI signal, you just can’t do so with the small, unpowered Kanex ATV Pro.

I also had to reboot the Chromebook to get it to start “automatically” projecting via the HDMI port (it apparently isn’t hot swappable).  And when I did get the Chromebook running both the device’s screen and HDMI output, the Chromebook would not allow me to mirror the displays, as they have to share the same resolution (to mirror, you have to hit the CTRL and Maximize Windows keys).

I know a lot of users like to have a secondary montior that isn’t mirrored–I just happen to be one of those people that prefers my “presentation” screen to mirror my monitor (a default change in Office for Mac 2011, by the way, where PowerPoint prefers to present in presentation mode for the presenter and in PowerPoint mode for the class–easy enough to fix, but complicated enough that you have to show teachers how to avoid this (if they wish to…and most of them do).

So…in summary:

1) Yes, obviously, you can get HDMI out from a Chromebook

2) The Chromebook HDMI out will not mirror your screen unless you match resolutions (otherwise, you just have a second desktop)

3) If you want to connect to VGA, you will need a more expensive powered HDMI to VGA converter

4) You may need to restart your Chromebook to get the HDMI output working

5) Audio comes out of the HDMI port on the Chromebook

I am thoroughly impressed.

My new school has thoroughly researched how best to do an iPad rollout, learning from a number of districts around us.

They have created a plan where teacher inservice (before the start of school) will be focused on teachers becoming familiar with the materials for the student iPads, and then the entire first week of school will be based on iPad training, digital citizenship, and workflow.

Although the school itself typically utilizes an eight period AB schedule, the school will adopt a special six period schedule for the first week, where students will attend six training lessons for five days, meaning thirty training sessions.  Teachers will be asked to teach each of the sessions to moving groups of students, causing the teacher to learn all the material, and letting the students work with different teachers.

And in the first three days, the students will have to master all of the day’s materials (hours 1-5) before getting to play with the iPads in the last session.

Some teachers were a little apprehensive about teaching things that they may not feel qualified to teach, but the tech team and administration is creating materials to be followed for each lesson.  Teachers have plenty of time to study these lessons and to sharpen their skills with certain aspects of iPad use before the kick-off in the fall (plus they will have additional time to prepare in the fall).

The last two days of student training will be focused on iPad use in the context of apps and workflow between apps.

I will ask (at a later time) if I can post these materials/lessons online.

I’m really excited by the potential of this 1:1 project and the detailed planning that is underway to make this rollout both a positive and impactful experience for all of our students.  I am excited to be a part of this project and at this school!

Unless I am completing a task that requires my notebook computer (e.g. Finale), my tendency has become to reach for my iPad or iPhone before the MacBook. This is partially a matter of convenience, but I think that the screen quality also has something to do with it. The Retina screens on my iPad and iPhone are easier to read than my late 2008 MacBook.

I have long said that my next personal computer will be a MacBook Air…I will wait until the MacBook Air gains a retina screen.

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SMART Boards can work well in the elementary classroom, however. In many schools, elementary music during the day is taught as general music, in rooms with flexible (or no) seating where a teacher interacts with their students to teach general concepts in music. These teachers lay the foundation for secondary music educator, and their work is priceless.

A number of my elementary colleagues use SMART Notebook to create interactive presentations that allow students (generally one at a time) to draw on the board, reveal items, arrange items, or to use SMART Notebook's ability to embed sounds in the Notebook file and to make an item play a sound when touched from that embedded sound.

There are iPad apps that will allow students to draw on the iPad, reveal items, or arrange items. But linking audio sounds to an object is a missing feature–tied to iOS's locking of the music player app. You can access audio from nearly any app, but you cannot write to that audio collection from the iPad (you have to use a computer and iTunes). You cannot link an audio file in Keynote, nor can you do so in Explain Everything.

However, the latest version of SMART Notebook allows you to create a SMART Notebook file on a computer, to embed and link audio, and then to import that finished file to your iPad in SMART Notebook for the iPad, where the embedded audio file should work (I have found a couple of instances where this did not occur).

It is only a matter of time until Apple solves the problem of writing to the iPad music library, and I'd be surprised if the next version of iWork for the iPad (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers) did not offer more functionality, such as attaching audio to objects in Keynote.

Still…if you are a SMART Notebook user, and you have resisted the iPad because you could not link sounds, you now have a solution to that problem.

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At the end of 2013, what is the state of technology in music education, and what looks to be on the horizon? Here are a few of my thoughts.

1. The continued influence and dominance of the iPad in education.

I won't go into great detail about this, as the iPad is a frequent point of discussion in this blog. The fact is that Android still lacks the apps (and paying consumer base) to be effective in music education, and Windows programs have not been tweaked to work without a keyboard/mouse on Windows 8 tablets. Meanwhile, we've seen wonderful improvements in many existing apps, including forScore, unrealBook, Chromatik, Notion, and Explain Everything. We now have the first version of SmartMusic on the iPad, and this will change music education as we know it.

2. The emergence of online services/programs.

Although online services (notation products, etc.) have existed for a while, the improvements in cloud computing and emergence of HTML 5 programming (packaging audio and visual interaction into webpages without the negatives of Flash) have resulted in a number of new online services. In music education, the most agressive packaging of these services is offered by Music First. The idea is that these programs are less expensive and available everywhere on every device. I still prefer on-device apps (or programs), but as this technology improves, it may completely cause us to rethink how apps.

In a similar fashion, more and more districts are moving to Google Apps. Not only do you gain (very) basic office apps (i.e. documents), you gain interactivity on documents, sharing of resources, storage space (30GB per user), e-mail (student and staff), creating teacher websites, and more. Many districts could pay for Google Apps simply by shutting down their e-mail services and moving to Google Apps. I'm all for Google Apps with one caveat…Google is in the advertising business, and they use the information we provide to sell services. But that's a cost most of us are willing to pay for the services that are offered.

3. The tricky Chromebook

Related to online services, the Chromebook offers a computer with a keyboard at the low cost of $200 (after school discounts). As schools move toward Google Services, it is hard not to also throw $200 per student into a Chromebook implementation. In the Chromebook, everything runs in a browser…if it can run in a browser. For “traditional” educational computing tasks, such as writing papers, making presentations, and taking tests, a Chromebook will do fine. It is harder for a Chromebook to reinvent what you can do in your classes with technology, and the device does not fit in traditional music classrooms at any level.

4.The Interactive White Board

The IWB continues to be a standard in teaching rooms, but it is a technology past its prime. Schools would be better off spending the money on improving wireless infastructure, using iPads and either computers with Reflector or Apple TV (mirroring), and investing in high quality audio systems in rooms (voice reinforcement) that actually work. There is value in IWBs at the elementary level as there are issues with audio on iPads (writing to the music files and using those audio files in presentations). But there are work arounds for even this…better to save the money and use it on other technology.

5. Traditional MIDI/Music Labs

If your school has a traditional MIDI/music lab, you are fortunate. Music Technology courses are somewhat rare, but terribly important. This is my opinion, but I am not sure that I would recommend the construction of a MIDI/music lab at this point. Although the iPad cannot do everything that a true music computer station can do, it can certainly do most of what would need to be done with music technology courses at the secondary level. If you use iPads and existing apps, you do not need a dedicated room, and you can buy devices such as the Akai LP25K to use for keyboard entry…and iPad apps keep getting better. We have also seen the introduction of Audiobus, which allows output from many apps…including Apple's own GarageBand…to work with each other. In my opinion, iPad music tech labs offer a wonderful option for many more schools to get into the offering of music technology courses.

6. Social Media

Social Media can be a wonderful thing; and it can be destructive. Teachers need to be aware that anything they post…private or not…has the potential to find its way to the general public, and teachers have been fired or harassed for what they have posted on social media sites. I find Twitter to be a wonderful place for professional development; I have also seen students use it in my current school to attack and destroy other students, teachers, and administrators. There seems to be a limit as to what the administration can do to stop this behavior (what can be considered “bullying” between students can be seen as first amendment rights when it comes to student comments about teachers), it is nearly impossible to montior all student social media accounts, and students even change information about themselves so as to avoid getting into trouble. As Twitter continues to explode in the world of students (along with its video counterpart, Vine), schools are going to have to find ways to better educate students and to protect the rights of anyone bullied online.

7. A season of change in the music notation industry

2012-2013 has been a crazy time in the music notation industry. Avid basically shut down development of Sibelius and dismissed their entire creative team–a team which was picked up by Steinberg and is in the process of writing a whole new notation program. MakeMusic has recently gone from a public traded company to a privately traded company, although much of the same leadership remains in place (including the CEO, who has been named permanent CEO after being Acting CEO for a year). Notion released a major update last fall and is agressively improving their iPad app. 2013-2014 will be a great year to see what is next on the horizon.

8. We get to see what comes next, soon.

Apple's WWDC is just around the corner. Apple will announce what iOS 7 will look like and some of the features that are included. I'm hoping for a few things (things that many people don't care about):

• The ability to write to the music files in the iPad, allowing music to be shared. I know there is great concern about piracy, but I am mostly concerned about sharing audio tracks I have created for my students so they can practice. Right now, I can share the audio file, but they cannot save it from the internet to their iPad to use in apps.
• The ability to write on Keynote (without using Explain Everything).
• The ability to add sound files to Keynote, either as a background track or as a linked audio file in a presentation (right now, you have to make a sound into a movie, and embed the movie in your presentation–over complicated to say the least).

As always, your ideas/observations may be different than mine, but this is what I've seen this year, and what I see coming just over the horizon. One thing is certain: we have never had better tools for music education than what we have today.

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Our last concert was Thursday night, and it went very well. My top choir still has to sing one song for graduation, all my students need to complete a choral literature and sight reading assessment on SmartMusic, and grades need to be entered–and then I am done (our last day with all students is June 5th, but seniors are done on the 29th and graduate on the 1st).

This is a decision that doesn't make sense to a lot of people. I teach in one of the newest high schools in the state of Minnesota, I chose to move to a new school, and in fact, no one wanted me to move. I started this program from before the school opened in 2009 and was responsible for every item that was purchased for the choir program including risers, chairs, robes, music, and pianos. We started with 32 students and I leave the program on the brink of 160 students (I continue to recruit, even though it will not be my job). I have held very important roles when it comes to technology at the school, which has never quite worked right since the school opened.

Although there are many reasons why I chose to move, there are two that I speak of openly to the public.

The first reason is that high school has extreme time demands on a teacher's life, and this high school–as a new high school–has additional demands on teacher time.

I have two young boys (one just turned 5, and the other is just over 1). This past fall, while we were preparing White Christmas, I went over three months of seeing my boys for a few minutes each morning as I got ready for school, and then not at all until the weekends; once the show was running, I didn't even see them that much. Our rehearsals would end at 6:30, and then I would have to do work to prepare for the next day, and then drive home. By the time I would get home, everyone would be in bed. I did some math the other day, and realized that I have been absent for my five year's old's life for more than a year based upon the impact of the school day (and its existing night commitments) and the fall musical. And yes, this absolutely had an impact on the relationship between my wife and I. Not good, not healthy. The high school music career–particularly in a one-teacher school–is definitely something for single teachers, or teachers whose children are no longer in the house (or teachers whose children attend that high school). Yes, there will be night commitments at the middle school, but it will be nothing like the time required of a high school music teacher.

The second reason is that my new middle school will be moving to 1:1 iPads next year. This wasn't the main reason why I decided to leave, but it was the final reason why I chose to leave. I am absolutely thrilled to bring my personal experience with iPads to this school and these students. I know the school very well, as these students fed into my prior high school position (I've been in the same district since 1997, and even student taught in this district in 1995-1996). I'm excited how the 1:1 environment will impact my teaching, and how I will be able to take the lessons I've learned and bring them to you from the 1:1 aspect. Additionally, as my current high school is the newest building in the district, we are also the last to receive any new initiatives in technology. The school receives reduced capital funds because it is new, and it has no (or very few) compensatory funds based on student demographics. In other words 1:1 iPads at my current high school is something that will not happen in the next five years (or longer) unless there is a referendum for such a project–and it is unclear if the district will pursue such a referendum.

I'm going to miss my students, but they all move on and leave us behind anyway. I love the teaching staff at my high school, but we can stay in touch. I'll miss the facilities at my high school (in fact, I'm moving to one of the oldest buildings in our district), but as I've mentioned, the technology in our new school has been sketchy from the start.

I also believe that my new middle school will support me in my career-related efforts, such as speaking at conferences.

When I grow up, I'd still like to be a college professor, but my focus has changed a bit. I would now prefer to teach pedagogy, technology, and theory, and to direct a secondary (not the primary group on the campus) choir or band.

So, it is an exciting time for me and my family. It has been tremendously heart-warming to hear that I'll be missed from so many students, family, and colleagues. I wish my successor well (a middle school teacher in our district bid up to the position), and I have done everything I can do (and I continue to do so) to keep students in the program and to get even more students into choir.

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