iBand

Last week our lunchtime iBand activity started. 12 students from years 4 & 5 will be experimenting with handheld technology to see if they are able to produce a musical piece worthy of public performance.

They are using a number of different apps to produce their sounds, which are listed below with UK prices.

iPhone, iPod and Ipad Music/Sound Apps

iShred Live by Frontier Design Group - Free

Percussions+ by Crimson Technology – GBP3.99

Pocket Organ C3B3 by insideout ltd. – GBP1.79

SoundGrid by Vitaliy Pronkin – GBP1.79

iPhone and iPod Music/Sound Apps

Bassist by MooCow Ltd. – GBP2.39

Cowbell Plus by Frontier Design Group – GBP0.59

Guitarist by MooCow Ltd. – GBP2.39

Guitar Studio by Frontier Design Group – GBP2.99

iGOG Massive Drums by Wave Machine Labs Inc. – GBP1.79

iShred by Frontier Design Group – GBP2.99

Melody Bell by CONIT Co., Ltd. – GBP0.59

NLog Free Synth by Rolf Wohrmann - Free

Piano Studio by Frontier Design Group – GBP2.99

Real Bongos by Armin Heinrich – GBP1.19

Saxophone musicofx by mode of expression, LLC – GBP0.59

Theremin by Frontier Design Group – GBP0.59

iPad Music/Sound Apps

3D Drum Kit by Benjamin McDowell – GBP1.19

Well done to all those students involved. They've made a great start and who knows, they may well be up to the standard below at some point in the future.

Hong Kong 21st Century Learning Conference

Next week sees conference season kick off with the 3rd Hong Kong 21st Century Learning Conference taking place at West Island School. Nearly 30 teachers from across Kellett will be attending to participate in a number of sessions and forums.

Big hitters Stephen Heppell and David Warlick will be the keynotes and I'm delighted to say that Katrina Hall has been chosen to present a session on the use of iTouch Apps in the Primary Classroom. Katrina has previously presented at the 2nd Hong Kong 21st Century Learning Conference on Games in the Classroom as well as on the use of mobile devices at the Hong Kong Handheld & Mobile Learning Festival at the University of Hong Kong.

The trailer for the session can be seen below;

Christmas iTouch?

I didn't get an iTouch for Christmas as I already had one (did finally get a Livescribe Pen though - hurrah!).

However, I am aware that a number of students received an iTouch from the big man in red. If you've been playing with it already you'll probably agree with me that it's a fantastic piece of kit.

Here's a note for parents though. If you are running filtered or controlled access to the internet via your PC or laptop, your filter software will not apply to the internet access via the iTouch. In other words, net access via the iTouch is unfiltered.

Now, in an ideal world that would not be a problem. There would be little inappropriate content on the web and all our students would be perfectly capable of using the iTouch in a responsible manner. Sometimes though, that's not always the case and it's perfectly understandable that parents feel the need to take precautions.

So, what can you do?

Well, the iTouch itself has settings which can disable various functions, such as the web browser Safari and the Youtube App as well as access to the App Store itself. Disabling these is an option, but if you want to go down this route then you probably should have purchased a standard iPod rather than the iTouch!

If you want to disable these functions , click Settings on the main screen, choose General, scroll down to Restrictions, Enable Restrictions. You then need to create a restriction PIN (which you should write down somewhere safe so you can always remember it!). You can then choose which services you wish to disable (all the fun ones!!).

If you need any further information on this, click here.

You might also consider a third party piece of software that allows you to monitor and control net usage on the iTouch from your own computer. There are a variety of paid solutions available, the most popular seemingly being;

Mobicip

iNet Safety Bubble

Safe Eyes

If you use any of these applications please let us know how you get on.

At Kellett we have begun to experiment with the use of iTouch in the classroom. We have a small pack of six so far. P1 children have been using them to work on their phonics and later this week Miss Chen will be looking at how to use an app called Finger Lite to teach Chinese Studies in the secondary school.

Running to Keep Up

Having been involved in educational ICT for over ten years I'm painfully aware of how difficult it can be to keep up with changes in technology and allow our students and teachers the opportunity to enhance their learning using the most appropriate tools. The shift required by everybody involved is enormous, and by everybody I mean students, teachers, parents, the whole community.

My New Year's Resolution is to keep going! To try to help us keep up and to continue to encourage innovation and creativity. Our recent purchase of a small pack of iTouch devices is just the beginning of what I hope will be an inspirational year for our students.

Maybe the following is just around the corner;



Thanks to Bill Boyd for this.