Came across this today and thought I would share as this is going to save me a lot of time in the weeks to come. If you have ever needed to fill in a form (like me today) and it arrives in pdf format this neat little bit of software might be just the ticket. When applying for courses/conferences, completing exam forms, filling in student marksheets, writing feedback forms and filing membership forms for professional organisations I often need to work with pdf files. This can be a bit of a pain when you need to print, complete and then scan (especially when working with school systems). So this is an alternative….

In just 3 simple steps:

1 – download the program from http://www.iceni.com/

2 – open your pdf

3 – fill in the form

Easy!

The demo is free and will save and print with a small watermark. There are several options to purchase the full licence if you need things to look really polished. In case you are interested in different platforms – I did download the demo for mac and PC and prefer the PC version (if, like me, you move between worlds).

Hope you find this useful.

In fact – so much so that after handing in my PhD and (now waiting for my viva) I am moved to once again pick up my spade (to misquote Seamus Heaney) and dig around some more in this not too private medium.

I will start with a question that totters on the fence of where I currently stand with #edtech:  “Is there a danger that digital solutions which promote self-directed learning trails may lead in the wrong direction?”

Self-directed learning is great for older students/trainees as they are capable of managing their learning. What of those younger or less experienced – are we in danger of leaving them ‘out to dry’ and not providing the support they need to make wise choices. Perhaps I should add ‘for some students in some contexts’ to my original question. But then this raises the question for which students in which contexts? Do we know the answer to this? How do we define the boundaries here?

I should also say that this post also comes out of a new interest in what is happening in music tech – I think that the potential developments in tech I spoke about a coupe of years ago on this blog are finally coming through to the point that the tech is ready to do more than just ‘look good’ to musicians but may actually be really useful iu the classroom and less (not more) time consuming (cause it works rather than breaks down in the context of school IT – teachers I will assume that you know what I mean at this point…Mtech professionals etc. perhaps less so). Take for example the new mikey digital and spark digital (http://www.bluemic.com) which may just finally provide the quality needed to make it ‘good enough’ to use for classroom-based recording fit for assessment. Hook it up to Garageband and use the 3.5-mm stereo jack and you may not need much else for KS3 (even KS4?).

So what do I mean about supporting learners to make wise choices? Well, take the above technology example. I gave you one example of a piece of technology that may help in the classroom. If you didn’t know this already then I guess that makes you a learner. However, I would expect that as a classroom practitioner you would have an awareness that this is not the only option available for recording classroom work or to facilitate portable sequencing. This awareness allows you to set the new information about the Mikey into a context that gives it (the new knowledge) a better ‘size and shape’. Consider how you might answer the following questions if you didn’t know about the other solutions: How original is the idea behind it? Is it likely to work in my classroom? Is it expensive? Is it revolutionary? Will it transform learning and teaching?

I suspect that the ‘industry’ that makes the gear and the tech enthusiasts that would like the gear may want you to answer yes to the last question in particular. But what happens when you try to upload the recordings on to your school network? What happens when all of the school are trying to download their audio recordings at the same time?  What happens when students and teachers want to access them from home? I am tempted at this point to talk about work-flow but that will have to wait for another time.

To draw this together and return to my original question: maybe knowledge (in all forms) of the wider context in which we work is a significant aspect of what practitioners bring to the table that might be lost if we focus too heavily on ‘self-directed’ learning and loose sight of the need once in a while to be given some guidance? How might we avoid this danger while still embracing the agency that self-directed learning can bring in school when used effectively?

Decades of research have focused on the link between cognitive development and the study of music. Researchers in several disciplines have suggested that studying music at a young age helps students perform better in other subjects. Music teaches discipline, improves social skills, and introduces the young mind to conceptual thinking of varying sophistication and complexity. It seems that even adult and elderly students can reap cognitive gains from listening to and studying music as studies have demonstrated that music can propagate synapses between brain cells. The increased synaptic connectivity effectively means that the brain can function more efficiently. It is the creation and development of these extra synapses, stimulated by music, that allows children to perform better across a broad range of school subjects.

This is just one reason that music education is so critical for children at all stages of development. The more music education they receive, the more their cognitive development quickens. Studying voice, various instruments, and music appreciation are just a few of the ways children can absorb this information. Much of this musical education occurs in the classroom, although some students also study in online college courses or take private lessons.

The role of the teacher

The role of the teacher in such education should not be downplayed. Without an experienced educator on hand the student may flounder and lose interest. Teachers provide inspiration and guidance. They open doors to possibilities students have not previously imagined. Teachers must use every resource at their disposal to provide a challenging and stimulating learning environment. In recent years technological developments have contributed to the music teacher’s arsenal of resources. Various websites have sprung up that provide students with lessons in how to play every instrument from the guitar to the trombone. Now students can learn to read music or even get pointers on writing compositions of their own over the Web.

Increasingly music teachers are expected to keep abreast of current developments in technology that aid in the study of music. Some institutions are now offering continuing education courses for music instructors that focus specifically on utilizing technology in the music classroom. One such program is the Technology Institute for Music Educators, or TI:ME. Many colleges throughout the nation offer the TI:ME program to assist instructors to improve their grasp of new technologies designed for use in the classroom. Through the TI:ME certification program music educators explore electronic instruments like keyboards and samplers, are trained in principles of music production, are introduced to music notation software, and also experience a wide variety of instructional software and online learning resources. Obtaining a certification through TI:ME or a similar program is certainly a worthwhile endeavor, but teachers can also explore on their own to find websites and tools to enhance their ability to teach music. In fact, this might be the ideal means through which to inspire an interest in music in students who might otherwise feel apathy toward the subject.

Students’ contact with technology

Young students today are very much at home with cutting-edge technology as they can often access this technology in their homes or in the music classroom. Yet, sometimes it’s difficult for educators to realize that many of our students have never been in a home that doesn’t have a computer and have no memory of life before the iPod. Music teachers have a unique opportunity to introduce students to the world of technology and the Internet beyond YouTube. Teachers who explore instructional websites as part of class preparation will find a wealth of useful resources. These resources are unlikely to supplant the teacher, whose guidance and expertise will always be valuable, but they just might help to reach a student who might otherwise remain uninterested and disengaged. Imagine finding a website or music education program that can allow this child to compose his own music or experiment with mixing and looping some favorite songs. It is these kinds of experiences that can inspire children to continue musical education and may also help them improve their grades in other classes at the same time.

Based on the research amassed by scientists over the years it seems that music teachers have the opportunity to greatly influence the course of a child’s education. By bringing technology into the classroom, they can merge several disciplines and reach children who might not otherwise be interested. The study of music can enhance cognitive development and so the experience of supplementing traditional models of music teaching with technology can be seen as a way to enhance their experience and positively impact upon childrens’ futures.

By by Lindsey Wright from OnlineSchools.org

One of the nice things about going quiet for a while has been the chance to gather ideas and resources that I think ‘I must share that’ or ‘that’s a good one to blog about’. Unfortunately, along with this potential to the number of blogs on my site, I am also aware that I sometimes get to the point where I am sat on quite a few great resources that I have no right to keep to myself.

Hence this blog blitz! If this term has been used before then apologies either for its misuse or its use without attribution (I did Google it and came out with several possibilities but nothing which matched my use of the term. More often than not is sites just blogging more regularly that usual (which I must admit I think is a waste of a catchy term). Maybe they could use ‘strategic blogging campaign’? What I mean by ‘blog blitz’ is that all of those things I have stored out are in this single blog (lots dropping at once). By not giving too much detail I leave myself room to provide more detail later but all of the links below I think are worth following.

By way of further introduction to the useful things I have collected during my recent online hibernation I am also going to throw out an idea which has been nagging for a while.  I like twitter – it’s fast, it connects and lots of people use it but… my dissatisfaction about the transience of the information which is shared has not yet been successfully abated. There are many excellent ideas and resources being shared but if you are not careful you can blink and miss them as they fly by. In a previous blog I have described how I use google reader and twitter search terms to deal with this to an extent. However, a connected issue for me has been that some pass me by because they don’t look interesting. For example ‘Awesome link: http://somerandomelinkorother’. Do I follow this knowing full well that it may not be quite as awesome as the tweet leads me to believe? Usually my response will depend on the number of unread tweets in my lists. Today then (after a few weeks of absence – forget it…it doesn’t stand a chance). Hence my though… I think it would be great if there was an alternative to the tweet. Instead of just an option to send something shooting out there that may end up flying by, it would be great if we could also include something to help an idea stick. Maybe hashtags do this to an extent? But what I have in mind is something more like an idea than a single word search term. 140 characters is great but what about 140 with an option for something more? Sometimes I’d just like to be able to know more without having to rick shooting off into the great blue digital yonder to yet another publicity drive or marketing exercise. We have attachments in emails. We have pictures in texts. If I have missed something here then please let me know. If someone already has this then GREAT – I’d like to know about it.

Perhaps we could call it a SPLAT

Now for the blitz (in no particular order):

http://www.shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html

Realtime screen recording for Mac. Clean and simple with lots of options. Compares really well to other products on the market Only $30

http://www.musicleader.net/

Supporting those working in music leadership – especially useful for the toolkit which includes lists of training and networking events, jobs, case studies, funding and online connections. (UK Based)

http://computinged.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/whats-wrong-with-online-courses/

Link to a though provoking NYTimes piece on online courses. Spot on I think in terms of the need for personal interaction (especially in such a shared real-time activity music learning) and also the blandness of media.

http://etcjournal.com/2011/02/17/7299/

Cyberbullying – making lots of sense and one of the few articles I have read that doesn’t at some point make me want to scream at my computer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrXtmKGkSa4

Mellotron demo – what a Gem!

http://musanim.com/tapper/

Nice – Freeware called Tapper. by by Stephen Malinowski If you have any interest in computer-mediated musical performance then I think you will find this interesting.

http://www.showmehowtoplay.com/

An interesting approach to computer-assisted learning. Not entirely sold on this though – where’s the teacher?

http://songcatcherapp.com/

Amazing App for iPhone. Portable sketchpad with MIDI and audio. More to follow on this one.

http://www.ohmstudio.com/

Collaborative creativity online DAW. Another great development. More thoughts to follow.

http://www.smartmusic.com/

Another computer-assisted learning tool. Not a bad idea but I worry that this program locks you in to playing their arrangements. You can request new titles but I’m used to doing my own. Why not here? ($$$ ?)

http://www.nchsoftware.com/

Loads of stuff to download and try out for free – Loads of functions before you have to pay.

http://musicteachingresources.com/

A great set of out of the box worksheets that are great value. More to follow on these.

http://quietube.com/

Watch web videos without all the background text. Great for making Youtube safe in the classroom.

The eXe project developed a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

Go to http://exelearning.org/wiki

(Thanks Jay)

You may not be surprised to hear at this point that I take organising my files seriously. This happened after I spend the first couple of years of my doctoral studies reading articles and making great piles of them but didn’t quite figure out how to keep tabs in an orderly way – until it became a HUGE task. I learned my lesson. Now I keep things organised as I go along and feel father smug when I can open up my database, type a couple of key words and out pops the answer (well not quite but I hope you get the picture).

So “how have you made it work?” I electronically hear you ask (with a bit of imagination thrown in)…

First, I figured out create an RSS feed from twitter hashtags. You can do this by using the following URL: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%23musiced The last bit of this (musiced) is the title of the hashtag. so substitute your hashtag for musiced in the URL.

Second, I found a syndicate tool for my blog which allows me to create pages from these RSS feeds. You can see these at the top of my site. I blogged about this in more detail the other day here.

Third, – and this I think is the really neat part – I subscribed to these same RSS feeds in Google Reader. Not only does this let me read most of the interesting tweets I come across, but it lets me share them and star them. In other words I now have a record of all the tweets I have found worth looking at. As this sits alongside my other interesting items from blogs, etc in Google reader it is now like a one stop shop for looking back over ideas I have plugged in to.

Finally, I have found a tool called reader2twitter here which puts my Google Reader ‘shared items’ onto my Twitter account. So as I share items I have found interesting on Google Reader they appear on both Buzz and Twitter. By using the note tool in Google Reader to add hashtags I can also send them to particular interest groups – perfect.

So after waiting a while for the implementation I have wanted it has finally arrived. I hope this explanation of my work-flow is of some use to others. If you have any other tips to share please comment.

I have written a previous post on the plugin (for firefox) so I won’t repeat myself here. If you would like to see this the link is here.

The great thing about this new standalone version is that it frees you from Firefox. With connectors for chrome and Safari you can now manage your references without being locked in to a particular web browser. Word processor plug-ins for OpenOffice and Word are bundled with the package.

A direct link to the download page is here.

I have frequently been frustrated by the lack of a good syndicate tool for wordpress that allows me to push rss feeds to specific locations on my site. What I have wanted to do is to pull in my tweets, shared articles from Google reader and other blogs I am involved with (to be announced) into a secondary page on this site.

Well, I have found one! Syndicate press allows you to do just that. It is currently in public beta but seems to work a treat. Take a look at my new feed list here.

Hope this proves useful for some fellow bloggers.