Not all teachers are this lucky. But for those that have access to an iPad and a Macbook, Google Drive (for Education) offers unlimited storage. This combination of Apple hardware and Google infrastructure makes sense for many, many educators!

This video was made for new staff teaching at Heygreen and St Silas Primary Schools in Liverpool.

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This year I am introducing more Google tech into the classroom. I am still 100% iPad orientated, but Google Classroom is so much more accessible and easy to implement than Apple’s offering. They are different tools, but Google’s Classroom is all about collaboration and Apple’s Classroom is all about and controlling.

Here I’m just testing the camera in Google Streetview. See if you can see my dog in Corbar woods in Buxton?!

Click the animation to open the full version (via PennyStocks).

The arrival of the Seesaw app has opened up so many creative possibilities for sharing and reflecting on the content we create. We can of course speak directly into Seesaw and record  voices. However, there are times when we want to create something more sophisticated.

This video  looks at sharing a soundtrack or sound bed created in iMovie to Seesaw. The music could be the background music for a podcast or a video. It also shows how you could create class Seesaw blog purely as a music channel or podcast style channel and share music and audio recordings beyond the classroom.

Above is a short video (made 3 years ago) that shows how to “tame” Garageband and use it as a simple voice recorder. By defaultt Garageband is set loop after 8 bars, which is great for jamming music but not so helpful if you want to record a voice for a longer period.

Combining these two approaches enables students to combine voice and music easily. I’ve also shown how to save a speaking and listening template. This could be shared using Airdrop  to student devices to kick start an activity. Finally, whenever possible use headphones when recording in Garageband. You will get a better result as you can hear what you are recording and there is less noise emanating from the speakers in the classroom.

 

Paper 53 is one of those free apps that every now and then I return to and wonder why I don’t use it more. Here we are exploring some expressionist style mark making. The actual project will be about Liverpool skylines. Here I’m just showing the possibilities. In this demo there is only one image, but if each student contributes an image, the overall effect will be more interesting! Also creating an ambient soundtrack in iMovie would be another way to develop this work.

I’ve used a range of tools to create music, audio projects, plays and podcasts. There are some great publishing tools like Podbean and Soundcloud.  With GarageBand on the iPad I have tended to publish projects directly to Soundcloud. Last year some of Mr Morris’s Y6 class at St Silas were featured on BBC Radio 5’s  App of the week via Soundcloud. The class and their parents were very proud!

It’s great to have pupil GarageBand projects sitting along side the “stars”on Soundcloud. However, there are times when we want to keep things closer to home/the classroom and GarageBand and Seesaw make for a great combo.

So here’s my idea for a Seesaw Radio/Music channel created using GarageBand and Seesaw!

In Seesaw we can make a “class” specifically for GarageBand projects. The students can design  funky header image to give it an ID and of course you have the choice of making it public facing blog or keep it private. To publish your projects from GarageBand to Seesaw you need to choose “open in” as the IOS default share will try and post a Garageband format file. Native GarageBand files, unsurprisingly  won’t publish.

“Open in” will merge the tracks into a Seesaw compatible file. It’s then just a matter of selecting your Open in app as Seesaw and you are good to go.

Of course you can’t subscribe to the published recording  like a traditional podcast, but it makes easy work of sharing/publishing those amazing GarageBand Projects made on iPads.

Here’s my demo Seesaw Radio station.

I have a series of new videos in the pipeline that cover this in more detail. So keep watching/reading/following. GarageBand’s new “automation” feature is really helpful for managing levels of sound beds and spoken word. Here’s a screenshot.In order to access “automation” you need to tap on the track list on the left, once to select and a second time for the options. Once in automation mode, you need to switch on the edit/pen and then adjust the timeline. You can add nodes/keyframes and the move them. Below you can see the sound bed track being ducked when the speaker presents. This emulates the ducking effect we hear when a presenter speaks and the music mixes down. There are fancy  (er expensive apps) that do this like Ferrite automatically.

It’s not auto ducking as we used to have on the Mac, but it works well. Seesaw and Garageband make for a great create and share combo.

What will you and your class create?

 

People talk about “Appsmashing” (combining apps as part of a workflow). I don’t like the term. I’ve always used a combination of software on computers and iPads.

Like this for example,

We used, iMotion HD (because its free), Do ink Green Screen, Paper 53, iMovie and Garageband.

Here you can see us hard at work (or more like play!). We used Airplay (Reflector/Airserver) on the Laptop so the children could see the outcome and make shared decisions about the framing of the objects.

 

 

 

 

Save paper use responsibly!

Being able to link a child’s exercise book to their own digital creations is essential. Seesaw offers the best roundtrip means of doing this.

Well done! Seesaw people!