GarageBand - An underused resource!

This past week, I was asked to come to Homma for one of their iChallenge days. One of the sessions was on using GarageBand with students. The teachers were interested in the ESL possibilities as well as use in Music classes.

Garageband seems to be getting better and better with each new version. I shared a resource with the teachers that I had put together a year or so ago with some idea starters: making PSAs, recording poetry readings, doing a radio play based on a novel or fairy tale, interviewing a historical character or author, creating news bulletins or weather reports - the list is almost endless. Since it is installed on all the lab computers, it makes sense to explore this great program.

Here's the link to my handout: [LINK] [some notes]

I also sent out a list of some more up-to-date resources to consult, which I posted on my webapps blog: [LINK here]

BCALMER - Copyright basics

BCALMER asked me to do a short presentation on Copyright basics at their Fall AGM.

The implications for teachers and publishers has consequences for how resources are shared, promoted and used in the classroom. While there were some raised eyebrows at some of the new freedoms teachers have in using materals, the group did some good brainstorming about how some of the implications could turn into a "mal pour un bien". (à la Napster as the impetus for iTunes and a new model for music distribution.) We also talked about the fragility of the Canadian market, and the value of home-grown resources. No answers, but lots of discussion.

See my presentation web-page here: [LINK]

RTLA Fall Conference 2013

This year's RTLA mini-conference was on the theme of "Creating Engagement"

Our video-keynote kicked off the day with a look at Challenge-based and problem (or project) based learning. There was a lot of interest in exploring these ideas at future pro-D sessions.

We spent some time looking more closely at EBSCO magazine resources, and then there was a "roll-out" or Learn360 and FollettShelf.

Here's the link to the conference web-site: [LINK]