app of the week, iphone

Garageband – iPhone App of the Week

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Garageband – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Garageband.

GarageBand turns your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio — so you can make music anywhere you go. Use Multi-Touch gestures to play pianos, organs, guitars, drums, and basses. They sound and play like their counterparts, but let you do things you could never do on a real instrument. Enjoy a full range of Smart Instruments that make you sound like a pro — even if you’ve never played a note before. Plug an electric guitar into your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch and play through classic amps and stompbox effects. Use the built-in microphone or a guitar to record, or capture any performance. Then mix up to eight tracks to create a song you can share.

£2.99

I have already reviewed Garageband for the iPad and was very impressed.

As with a lot of Apple apps this one looks gorgeous, great graphics and a nice interface. Of course if you have used Garageband on the Mac then there is an element of familiarity that will ensure using the App is easier than learning another one completely new. As a podcasting app, I don’t think Garageband is quite there, however it is one of the cheapest multi-track recording apps in the App Store, so you can forgive it, its foibles.

Apple have gone and made the app universal so it will now also be able to be installed on the iPhone or the iPod touch. So if you have the iPad version you can get the iPhone version for free.

Like the iPad version Apple have done a really nice job in designing an easy to use interface.

There are lots of instruments to choose from.

I was particularly impressed with the Smart Keyboard that allowed me to create some quite nice tunes without too much effort (or musical ability).

One enhancement since I last reviewed Garageband is now been able to send your project to your Mac.

Send a project to your Mac and open it in GarageBand to continue refining your song

When I first looked at the iPad version this wasn’t possible.

Again for me, as with the iPad version, the key feature I will be looking at is the Audio Recorder for recording podcasts and short audio recordings.

Recordings made on the iPhone using other apps have been of quite good quality, thinking Audioboo here.

It is a huge download in excess of 500MB so if you have an 8GB or 16GB model you may find you don’t have the space for it!

Get Garageband in the App Store.

learning, presentation

Using Learning Technologies

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I was recently asked to give a short presentation at the Gloucester Academy on how Gloucestershire College used learning technologies. Though I did cover some of the technologies we are using to enhance and enrich learning, the main theme of the presentation was on how important it was to change the culture within an institution when embedding the use of learning technologies. Without a change in culture it is too easy to miss the potential and opportunities that learning technologies can bring to learning.

Those of you who have seen my other presentations will realise I cannibalised a lot of the content from them in this presentation. I do that now and again, especially when presenting to a fresh audience, I do recycle my material. Well often I am asked to speak about the same issues, so not really that surprising.

The presentation went down well, with the staff in my group mentioning key themes in their feedback to the rest of the staff.

app of the week, ipad, iphone

Tintin – iPhone and iPad App of the Week

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Tintin – iPhone and iPad App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Tintin.

Explore the exciting world of The Adventures of Tintin in the official iPhone & iPad game of the movie! Treasure and adventure await those who seek to unravel the Secret of the Unicorn!

NEW THRILLS AT EVERY TURN
Sneak your way past guards, engage in a swordfight, pilot a plane, solve puzzles, race a camel and discover many more exciting experiences.

MEET TINTIN’S FRIENDS
Tintin can’t do this alone! He’ll need the help of his friends. You’ll take control of his dog Snowy, Captain Haddock and even the legendary Sir Francis Haddock during the great Age of Pirates.

FUN FOR EVERYONE
Players of all ages will enjoy the game. Accessible controls allow you to easily interact with the environment. With just a swipe of your finger (or a tilt of your device), you’ll be exploring the world, collecting items, and fighting off villains.

A BEAUTIFUL, 3D WORLD
Every building and character was carefully recreated in stunning 3D graphics that perfectly matches the style of the movie. See for yourself what it’s like to walk through Marlinspike Mansion, the desert, and the Karaboudjan ship.

£4.99

It’s half term (well it is where I am) this week and this week’s app is a new game based on the recently released Tintin film.

The iPad (and the iPhone) are fantastic gaming devices, when I first bought the iPad one of the reasons I bought it for myself was (at the time) I thought the main use of the iPad would be for video and casual gaming. Since then I have been very surprised by how much I use the iPad for lots of different things. I have also found it very useful for work, research, reading, writing and doing lots of other stuff (well have a look at all the apps I have reviewed).

One area where I probably have used the iPad less is in the more indepth serious game. It’s one thing to use the iPad to play a single game of Boggle or Solitaire, it’s another thing to spend a fair bit of time playing an adventure game. However there are some splendid games out there, my family really enjoyed playing Lego Harry Potter for example which I reviewed here.

Tintin is a similar indepth game that has beautiful graphics and certainly reflects the look and feel of the new Spielberg film.

So what about the gameplay? Well to be honest I haven’t played it yet, so no idea, mainly as I want to watch the film first before I play the game. When I was younger I enjoyed reading the Tintin books and have been looking forward to this film for a while now.

So purely on looks I am recommending this game, as for gameplay, well I’ll let you know once I have had a game after watching the film!

Get Tintin in the iTunes App Store.

100 ways, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #87 Embedding an Animation

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Mention animation to most people and they will think of cartoons. However animation can be used in many different ways to inform, as well as enhance and enrich learning.

This particular animation from CNET shows the history of the iPhone.

You can find similar animations across the web for the whole curriculum. There are also much simpler animations available, these for example show the inner workings of two types of engine.

Animations can often be clearer than videos and of course as with the engine examples they can show stuff in a way a video never could!

You could of course just link to an animation, but the advantage of embedding an animation into the VLE is that you can combine it with text, or questions. A link will take the learner away from the VLE, whereas embedding an animation into the VLE allows you to enhance the animation with extra content or questions that turns the content into a learning activity.

gloucestershire college, stuff

I can’t ignore the ignorant

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In my job there are days when I could do a little dance on changing the way someone thinks about and approaches the use of learning technologies and improves the learning experience for their learners. They start to use learning technologies to solve problems they are facing, make things better for their learners or even just to do things differently to engage the learners.

Then there are days when I think… really… I start to realise that the journey my college is on is on a long and winding road…

Let me tell you a story.

In my job I am in charge of the libraries as well as learning technologies and now and again I sit on the desk and help learners and staff using the library to find and use a range of learning resources. I find this a useful way of seeing how our learners use learning resources.

A lecturer came into the library the other day and asked where the journals were, we’ve just had a refurbishment, so I guessed that she didn’t know where we had moved them. So rather than point in the general direction, I took the opportunity to show her where they were and maybe also get her to think about using the e-book collection or other online resources we have.

We found the journal she was looking for and she asked about back copies, I said we have a few on the shelves, but knowing that we subscribed to Infotrac said we also (probably) had an electronic archive. She had not heard of Infotrac, so we went to a computer and I showed her how to access the collection on the web.

She seemed impressed how easy it was to find the journal, the back issues and find archived articles. She then said that she would recommend using the service to her learners.

Just as I thought, yes success, she said,

“I normally tell my students not to use web sites”

I must have looked a little shocked as she then added pointing at Infotrac,

“That website is okay as it is a journal, but I don’t like my students using web sites”.

Then off she went….

Sometimes in my role I think yes we are changing the culture and then a member of staff says something like that dismissing the web out of hand and I think I still have a long way to go!

I really feel sorry for her learners who in the real world will be dealing with web sites all the time with excellent content and here was their lecturer dismissing the web out of hand out of pure ignorance and a lack of understanding of how the web is used for academic research, teaching and learning.

How can anyone be so ignorant of progress and change? How can anyone be so backward in their understanding of how the web is used in their profession?

Back in the 1990s there may be an argument that content on the web, well sites on GeoCities anyhow, were probably not “useful” for teaching and learning and there were issues with the authenticity.

I wouldn’t be surprised by an academic in 1997 making these kinds of assumptions, but fourteen years later haven’t we moved on?

Today even Wikipedia has value (especially in the references) and can’t just be dismissed, there is also a huge amount of valuable content on the web that learners can use to support their learning. There is some “dodgy” content on the web, so learners do of course need to have information skills to find, judge and use web based material. There is also curated content from information professionals. Think of all the open access journals now available as well as online collections of digitised resources, journal articles, and e-books.

From experience the academic in this story is quite rare in my institution, but they do exist, they are ignoring the change that is happening around them, they are not attending the training, reading the communication about the new possibilities that learning technologies and the web can bring to teaching and learning.

Part of me says that it doesn’t matter as someone who has such entrenched views will probably never change regardless of what I say and therefore I should not worry about them, ignore them and work with practitioners who are more open to the possibilities. However part of me thinks about the learners and the fact that they are losing out on the potential that the web can bring to their learning, to make it better, easier and improve accessibility. I can’t ignore them, therefore I can’t ignore the ignorant.


fote11

The Student as the Agent of Change

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At FOTE11 James Clay from Gloucestershire College discusses that in many institutions the structures, processes and procedures we have in place are there for many reasons; these may be for security, safety, financial, prevention, health and safety. Often change is blocked by these same reasons; reasons that exist because of politics, inertia and because we have always done it that way. It is easier not to change.

The result is that learners can often find that their learning experience is one of challenges, difficulties and frustration. Institutions that listen and act on the voice of their learners can find that students can be agents of change.

See the slides from my presentation and more thoughts.

app of the week, iphone

Optiscan – iPhone App of the Week

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Optiscan – iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Optiscan.

Scan any QR code quickly and easily using your devices camera and Optiscan.

  • Create your own QR codes to share contacts, web addresses, text messages, phone numbers or locations with others.
  • Contrary to some reviews, it IS possible to create geo-location codes – use the ‘Note’ option to type (or copy/paste) the information in. This will be made easier in version 1.9.2 – due very soon!
  • Save to Photo album by holding down on the QR code image and selecting ‘Save Image’
  • Automatically scan a wide variety of QR code data formats
  • Save specific QR codes for quick sharing – perfect for sharing your business card!
  • Keep a history of QR codes created and scanned for easy recall.
  • Want to scan or generate codes in French? Japanese? No problem! Optiscan supports UTF-8, ISO-8859, and Shift-JIS.
  • Select the contact details you want to send, so the right people get the right information.
  • Found a QR code on the web? You don’t need two devices. Save the image to the photo gallery from Safari (tap and hold the image) – and Optiscan will decode them for you!
  • Optiscan runs without a network connection, and keeps your data private. Why put up with anything less?

£1.49

QR Codes do seem to be going mainstream at the moment and there are lots of people who are now embedding and using them in education.

In my own college one of the Sports Lecturers on a newsletter about College Sport put in a QR code that linked to a Flickr page with more photographs on.

The iPhone doesn’t come with a QR code reader and the older iPhones, the 3G and the 3GS, had a poor quality camera that often failed to render QR codes properly. When I had a 3GS I tried a few free QR code reader apps, but in the end after reading a review bought Optiscan.

Of course the camera in the iPhone 4 and the 4S is superior to previous cameras and as a result the newer iPhones are much better at reading QR codes.

It did the job really well, so have stuck with it since then.

It reads virtually all the QR codes I have thrown at it. I also like how it retains a history of all the QR codes I have read.

There are free QR code readers that work well on the iPhone 4 such as the QR Reader for iPhone that probably means paying for a reader isn’t necessary. However if you have the older 3GS or 3G have problems with one of the free readers then I would recommend Optiscan.

Get Optiscan in the iTunes Store.

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