I've decided to move this blog...with a new name...to http://techinmusiced.wordpress.com. First of all, I'm finding that I'm beginning to address more than just iPhone Apps (although that remains a focus). Second, it can be difficult to work with images in Blogger, whereas WordPress makes it easier.
For future reference, I've also reserved the URL http://www.techinmusiced.com in the event that I ever want to move the blog anywhere else.
From this point forward, this blog will no longer be updated at this location, and I may take down existing posts (they all exist at WordPress).
Thank you!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
App Review Requests...
I'll be honest...this blog doesn't get the heaviest amount of traffic, and considering the target audience (music educators who use iPhones/iPod Touches), perhaps that is to be expected. I've received a couple of e-mails or comments from iPhone programmers who would like you to know about their programs. Although some programmers offer a free download (promo code) to reviewers. I have specific needs as a secondary choral director, and I usually determine a program's usefulness to me by reading descriptions on the AppStore, looking at provided webpages, and seeing screen shots. I do acknowledge, however, that just because I won't use something that other music educators also will not.
So here are a couple of apps that I've been contacted about, but will not be doing a review about; so please feel free to check them out at the AppStore. They might work well for you:
iNoteTrainer (http://inotetrainer.blogspot.com/) (I'd classify this as a music theory app)
ToneTune (http://www.stanton-studio.com/ToneTuneEng1.htm) (I'd classify this as a tuning app for string instruments)
Just as a final note, I'm continually impressed by the community of iPhone programmers...they nearly always get back to you if you write with a question, comment, or concern. And many of the programs, such as my favorite tuner for the iPhone, ClearTune, not only continue to improve their product, but stay in touch about those updates. Let's hope the growing popularity of the iPhone does not take away the wonderful connection between programmer and end user we've experienced thus far in the process.
So here are a couple of apps that I've been contacted about, but will not be doing a review about; so please feel free to check them out at the AppStore. They might work well for you:
iNoteTrainer (http://inotetrainer.blogspot.com/) (I'd classify this as a music theory app)
ToneTune (http://www.stanton-studio.com/ToneTuneEng1.htm) (I'd classify this as a tuning app for string instruments)
Just as a final note, I'm continually impressed by the community of iPhone programmers...they nearly always get back to you if you write with a question, comment, or concern. And many of the programs, such as my favorite tuner for the iPhone, ClearTune, not only continue to improve their product, but stay in touch about those updates. Let's hope the growing popularity of the iPhone does not take away the wonderful connection between programmer and end user we've experienced thus far in the process.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Twitter Apps for the iPhone
I mentioned in a previous post how Twitter, as popular as it may be, might very well be an ideal app for education...music or otherwise. I stand even more secure in that opinion today than I did when I wrote that post in March. Here's why: although you're limited to 140 characters, we don't often need more than that to express issues in education. Some examples:
1) Concert Tonight. Be there at 6:40pm.
2) We need more Kleenex for the choir room. Please bring some.
3) Your assignment: Complete a concert review. Forms download-able at: (enter website or use bit.ly or tinyurl.com)
Soon I will be running four, yes four, Twitter accounts. One is personal. One is for the ERHS Choir. One is for my role as a technology integrations specialist at ERHS (so people can find me or for "tech notes."). The final one, waiting for district approval, will be for the school itself.
As of late, there have been some big developments with Twitter, notwithstanding Oprah's entrance into the program and the swell of popularity from that. Twitter has been going through growing pains, and has shut down occasionally to allow for upgrading of services, and they've been messing around with the function of the program, too (some big recent debates about the use of @ descriptions). If you don't know Twitter, this post isn't going to help you. I can work on that post another time. But two recent developments are the inclusion of multi-Twitter account support in most Twitter iPhone applications, such as greater choice and integration of attaching photos and web pages (including web-address-shortening programs) in all (or most of) these apps.
As a result, I've become increasingly interested in Twitter Apps for the iPhone. So far, I've bought or downloaded (some are free) five different apps, and I think I have a winner...although my opinion changed in the past 24 hours. I won't go into great detail, but I tend to download these after reading about them on the various iPhone blogs that I read. Here they are:
Twitterfon (Free)
Twitterfon is a favorite of iPhone users, partially due to price, partially due to options. I used Twitterfon exclusively over the last months, but as I added Twitter accounts, I had to leave the program. As of the date of this article (mid-May 2009), Twitterfon does not allow for multiple accounts. If you only have one Twitter account, and your primary goal is to write and follow tweets, this is a great option. As you can see from the image, there is also a search feature. I did try to e-mail the author, asking about multiple accounts, but I never heard back from them.
Tweetie ($2.99)
Tweetie was my second stop after Twitterfon. It operates much like Twitterfon (and in most cases, learn how to access Twitter on any of these programs, and you can use all of them), but the winning idea for me was multiple accounts. I was able to post and follow all my various Twitter accounts without issue using Tweetie. It is another favorite program of iPhone users. I only had one problem with Tweetie, which is that it had trouble uploading a landscape photo from my iPhone to Twitpic. Twitterfon had no such issue.
Birdhouse ($3.99)
Birdhouse isn't a traditional Twitter program...it doesn't follow anyone. Its purpose is to allow you to write tweets (on mulitple accounts) offline, edit them, publish them, and even unpublish them as necessary. There are times when we may not have the time to character-smith to 140 characters but want to get the thought out of our heads for later publishing...or to very carefully chose our words. Birdhouse is great for this, and as I mentioned, you can unpublish posts from Birdhouse if necessary. This program is meant as an accessory to your main Twitter application.
Twitterrific Premium ($3.99, free version with ads and some less functionality available)
Time for a true story. Twitterrific, which also has a very popular Twitter client for Mac OS X, was one of my first downloads for Twitter, and my biggest purchasing error yet on the iPhone. Somehow, I managed to download Twitterrific Premium when it was still $9.99 rather than Twitterrific (non-premium). Lesson learned! So, I tried to use Twitterrific since I paid so much for it. I think most people will agree...Twitterrific is the best looking Twitter app for the iPhone, and it set the standard for other applications...but other applications quickly passed Twitterrific's functionality with support for various things, including multiple accounts. So I eventually abanoned Twitterrific Premium in favor of Twitterfon and Tweetie. (As I do with all apps I download but remove from my iPhone, I keep them in my iTunes account and do not delete them permanently.
About two weeks ago, Twitterrific came out with version 2.0, which added all kinds of features and embedded menus, including multiple account support. I switched back, and actually removed Twitterfon and Tweetie from my iPhone. It is a pleasure to use. And for $3.99 (instead of the $9.99 I paid for it), I think it's a good value if you are a person interested in Twitter beyond casual use. I don't know what the current differences are between Twitterrific Premium and Twitterrific, other than the inclusion of advertising.
Twittelator Pro (Free version with less options also available)
Twittelator is new to me in the past 48 hours. I saw a review for the program that made me want to buy it. Twittelator isn't as intuitive as Twitterfon, Tweetie, or Twitterrific, but it has some functionality that the others don't have, such as the ability to use it in landscape mode, a very strong search feature, customizable lists, and so on. It also has a "draft" option that can easily replace Birdhouse for most users (the abilty to quickly "unpublish" isn't there, but you can delete tweets). Ultimately, it has the most options for the twitter user (including multiple accounts, of course) of any iPhone Twitter application. I am not sure about the limitations of the non-pro version of this program. You can tweak Twittelator to look more like Twitterrific...and I've noticed that ALL user icons...as well as mini-icons of attached Twitter Pictures (such as TwitPic) show up in the feeds.
Conclusion:
I can't say anything bad about any of these programs. Clearly, the program with the most options is Twittelator. The best looking application is Twitterrific. Birdhouse offers great options for tweet authoring. Tweetie is a solid, popular program; and so is Twitterfon for the casual user. But if I had to choose only one program...which is what most of us do...Twittelator is the current choice for me.
1) Concert Tonight. Be there at 6:40pm.
2) We need more Kleenex for the choir room. Please bring some.
3) Your assignment: Complete a concert review. Forms download-able at: (enter website or use bit.ly or tinyurl.com)
Soon I will be running four, yes four, Twitter accounts. One is personal. One is for the ERHS Choir. One is for my role as a technology integrations specialist at ERHS (so people can find me or for "tech notes."). The final one, waiting for district approval, will be for the school itself.
As of late, there have been some big developments with Twitter, notwithstanding Oprah's entrance into the program and the swell of popularity from that. Twitter has been going through growing pains, and has shut down occasionally to allow for upgrading of services, and they've been messing around with the function of the program, too (some big recent debates about the use of @ descriptions). If you don't know Twitter, this post isn't going to help you. I can work on that post another time. But two recent developments are the inclusion of multi-Twitter account support in most Twitter iPhone applications, such as greater choice and integration of attaching photos and web pages (including web-address-shortening programs) in all (or most of) these apps.
As a result, I've become increasingly interested in Twitter Apps for the iPhone. So far, I've bought or downloaded (some are free) five different apps, and I think I have a winner...although my opinion changed in the past 24 hours. I won't go into great detail, but I tend to download these after reading about them on the various iPhone blogs that I read. Here they are:
Twitterfon (Free)
Twitterfon is a favorite of iPhone users, partially due to price, partially due to options. I used Twitterfon exclusively over the last months, but as I added Twitter accounts, I had to leave the program. As of the date of this article (mid-May 2009), Twitterfon does not allow for multiple accounts. If you only have one Twitter account, and your primary goal is to write and follow tweets, this is a great option. As you can see from the image, there is also a search feature. I did try to e-mail the author, asking about multiple accounts, but I never heard back from them.
Tweetie ($2.99)
Tweetie was my second stop after Twitterfon. It operates much like Twitterfon (and in most cases, learn how to access Twitter on any of these programs, and you can use all of them), but the winning idea for me was multiple accounts. I was able to post and follow all my various Twitter accounts without issue using Tweetie. It is another favorite program of iPhone users. I only had one problem with Tweetie, which is that it had trouble uploading a landscape photo from my iPhone to Twitpic. Twitterfon had no such issue.
Birdhouse ($3.99)
Birdhouse isn't a traditional Twitter program...it doesn't follow anyone. Its purpose is to allow you to write tweets (on mulitple accounts) offline, edit them, publish them, and even unpublish them as necessary. There are times when we may not have the time to character-smith to 140 characters but want to get the thought out of our heads for later publishing...or to very carefully chose our words. Birdhouse is great for this, and as I mentioned, you can unpublish posts from Birdhouse if necessary. This program is meant as an accessory to your main Twitter application.
Twitterrific Premium ($3.99, free version with ads and some less functionality available)
Time for a true story. Twitterrific, which also has a very popular Twitter client for Mac OS X, was one of my first downloads for Twitter, and my biggest purchasing error yet on the iPhone. Somehow, I managed to download Twitterrific Premium when it was still $9.99 rather than Twitterrific (non-premium). Lesson learned! So, I tried to use Twitterrific since I paid so much for it. I think most people will agree...Twitterrific is the best looking Twitter app for the iPhone, and it set the standard for other applications...but other applications quickly passed Twitterrific's functionality with support for various things, including multiple accounts. So I eventually abanoned Twitterrific Premium in favor of Twitterfon and Tweetie. (As I do with all apps I download but remove from my iPhone, I keep them in my iTunes account and do not delete them permanently.
About two weeks ago, Twitterrific came out with version 2.0, which added all kinds of features and embedded menus, including multiple account support. I switched back, and actually removed Twitterfon and Tweetie from my iPhone. It is a pleasure to use. And for $3.99 (instead of the $9.99 I paid for it), I think it's a good value if you are a person interested in Twitter beyond casual use. I don't know what the current differences are between Twitterrific Premium and Twitterrific, other than the inclusion of advertising.
Twittelator Pro (Free version with less options also available)
Twittelator is new to me in the past 48 hours. I saw a review for the program that made me want to buy it. Twittelator isn't as intuitive as Twitterfon, Tweetie, or Twitterrific, but it has some functionality that the others don't have, such as the ability to use it in landscape mode, a very strong search feature, customizable lists, and so on. It also has a "draft" option that can easily replace Birdhouse for most users (the abilty to quickly "unpublish" isn't there, but you can delete tweets). Ultimately, it has the most options for the twitter user (including multiple accounts, of course) of any iPhone Twitter application. I am not sure about the limitations of the non-pro version of this program. You can tweak Twittelator to look more like Twitterrific...and I've noticed that ALL user icons...as well as mini-icons of attached Twitter Pictures (such as TwitPic) show up in the feeds.
Conclusion:
I can't say anything bad about any of these programs. Clearly, the program with the most options is Twittelator. The best looking application is Twitterrific. Birdhouse offers great options for tweet authoring. Tweetie is a solid, popular program; and so is Twitterfon for the casual user. But if I had to choose only one program...which is what most of us do...Twittelator is the current choice for me.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
New Challenges
In the Fall of 2009, we're opening up a new high school, which will be a technology based high-school. For a number of reasons (schedule and a missing senior class for the first year are two of the major issues), we have only 38 students in our choir program next year. The school is keeping me as a full time teacher, but part of my day will be to act as a technology support specialist for the other teachers in the school...helping other teachers put hardware and software into practice. I'm looking forward to that opportunity...but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I wish the choir program was larger from the inception, too.
At any rate, I've been learning how to make Notebook presentations, as each classroom will have a SMART Board. That is the industry leading (or at least the industry's most popular) interactive white board, and it comes bundled with software that both lets you interact with traditional applications (Internet, Office Suites, and we'll see how it does with Finale later), and it also comes with its own presentation software called "Notebook."
Ultimately, I've found that SMART Technologies has released that software for both Macs and PCs. But the Mac version is severely crippled in some ways: it cannot import PowerPoint files, it cannot export to PowerPoint files, and traditional cut & paste methods for slides DO NOT work. The PC version is much more powerful, but it too has caveats...if you generate a PowerPoint from a Notebook presentation, the result PowerPoint is messed up in terms of "squeezed" elements on each page and incorrect page margins. Ultimately, you end up going back through each slide and fixing each item on each page; although I'm not fully convinced that pictures in the original Notebook presentation ever look the way they are supposed to look. I'll be receiving training on the SMART Board this summer (officially...but my natural tendency is to play and see what I can do), and I'm going to be asking lots of questions. I'm already discussing these problems in some SMART forums...and finding some work-arounds, but sadly, no easy solutions.
That said, I'm seeing how these SMART Boards have TREMENDOUS (strong emphasis intended) application for music education, but the caveat is that there do not seem to be a lot of resources for music from other SMART teachers, and basically none for high school teachers. This may be true due to a number of reasons. First, schools may be buying these SMART Boards for only the "core" subjects, as those are the subjects we are tested in, and those tests determine state funding or sanctions. Second, there may be few music representatives working on the software side at SMART Technologies. And finally, teachers may just be creating their own resources and not sharing them, as what happens (a lot) in other fields.
At this point, I can see that I'll be presenting on SMART Boards for Music Education at MMEA next year, and perhaps even TIES. We'll see. And the iPod project continues both at my current school, and will begin at the new school next fall as well.
At any rate, I've been learning how to make Notebook presentations, as each classroom will have a SMART Board. That is the industry leading (or at least the industry's most popular) interactive white board, and it comes bundled with software that both lets you interact with traditional applications (Internet, Office Suites, and we'll see how it does with Finale later), and it also comes with its own presentation software called "Notebook."
Ultimately, I've found that SMART Technologies has released that software for both Macs and PCs. But the Mac version is severely crippled in some ways: it cannot import PowerPoint files, it cannot export to PowerPoint files, and traditional cut & paste methods for slides DO NOT work. The PC version is much more powerful, but it too has caveats...if you generate a PowerPoint from a Notebook presentation, the result PowerPoint is messed up in terms of "squeezed" elements on each page and incorrect page margins. Ultimately, you end up going back through each slide and fixing each item on each page; although I'm not fully convinced that pictures in the original Notebook presentation ever look the way they are supposed to look. I'll be receiving training on the SMART Board this summer (officially...but my natural tendency is to play and see what I can do), and I'm going to be asking lots of questions. I'm already discussing these problems in some SMART forums...and finding some work-arounds, but sadly, no easy solutions.
That said, I'm seeing how these SMART Boards have TREMENDOUS (strong emphasis intended) application for music education, but the caveat is that there do not seem to be a lot of resources for music from other SMART teachers, and basically none for high school teachers. This may be true due to a number of reasons. First, schools may be buying these SMART Boards for only the "core" subjects, as those are the subjects we are tested in, and those tests determine state funding or sanctions. Second, there may be few music representatives working on the software side at SMART Technologies. And finally, teachers may just be creating their own resources and not sharing them, as what happens (a lot) in other fields.
At this point, I can see that I'll be presenting on SMART Boards for Music Education at MMEA next year, and perhaps even TIES. We'll see. And the iPod project continues both at my current school, and will begin at the new school next fall as well.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
New Program - A Metronome Named "Tempo"
It has been a while since I've added any new iPhone programs for music education. This evening, as I was looking through Apple's featured programs, I saw a program called "Tempo" selling for $0.99. I had previously looked at a program called Dr. Betotte TC, which is an iPhone program modeled after the Dr. Beat Metronome that retails for $9.99 and has very good ratings. As a choral director, my need for a metronome is somewhat limited, and I didn't want to drop $10 on a program I would seldom use.
Granted, there are a series of different metronomes available, but for some reason, I wasn't willing to shell out the money to try any of them out...until tonight. Three things stood out to me on the program...the icon (it is a catchy icon), the look, and the price. The most recent update of the program received excellent reviews (I love the fact that Apple is now posting ratings based on the most recent update of a program).
I've only used the program a little bit this evening, but so far, it does everything I need a metronome to do, and it is far more useful than the little Seiko metronome that I own (it's in the house somewhere). It is easy to use, easy to adjust, and easy to hear (with three different tones...digital, analog, and drum kit). You also have the option of seeing a "flash" on the downbeat, or turning that feature off.
For the band director, on the second screen (pulled up by hitting the "information circle"), there is also a tuning pitch, making the device even more friendly for band applications.
Here's another bonus...the program only operates in landscape mode. That might be slightly problematic if a musician would want to attach a 1/8" audio jack patch cable to a speaker for additional amplification and still hold the device. On the other hand, it makes all of the buttons larger, and it also causes the musician to rest the iPhone or iPod Touch on a music stand (or desk) with the speaker NOT buried in the stand. This is pretty important, as the iPhone can be muted when the speaker is covered. I'm not sure many other reviewers would catch that particular value in the landscape approach to a metronome.
I think this is a real winner of a program for $0.99. It works well, and you would be hard pressed to find situations where another, more complex program (Such as Dr. Betotte) would be needed...even for the high school band director. I do have one suggestion for the program, and I am going to e-mail that suggestion in a few minutes to the company. I'll report on what their response is.
So, if you have been looking for a good, inexpensive, and easy to use tuner, this is it!
****
Edit 3/31/09
I just wanted to log in and mention that the author of the software did indeed get back to me after I submitted my suggestion. The author mentioned that there will be future revisions, and that he is submitting other programs as well. As I've mentioned before, one of the strengths of the iPhone software model is that in many cases, the software engineers do respond to questions and concerns. I really think Tempo is a winner, and I urge you to try it and let us know what you think. You can always leave comments on this blog. I will only moderate false ads, inappropriate language, or non-related content.
Granted, there are a series of different metronomes available, but for some reason, I wasn't willing to shell out the money to try any of them out...until tonight. Three things stood out to me on the program...the icon (it is a catchy icon), the look, and the price. The most recent update of the program received excellent reviews (I love the fact that Apple is now posting ratings based on the most recent update of a program).
I've only used the program a little bit this evening, but so far, it does everything I need a metronome to do, and it is far more useful than the little Seiko metronome that I own (it's in the house somewhere). It is easy to use, easy to adjust, and easy to hear (with three different tones...digital, analog, and drum kit). You also have the option of seeing a "flash" on the downbeat, or turning that feature off.
For the band director, on the second screen (pulled up by hitting the "information circle"), there is also a tuning pitch, making the device even more friendly for band applications.
Here's another bonus...the program only operates in landscape mode. That might be slightly problematic if a musician would want to attach a 1/8" audio jack patch cable to a speaker for additional amplification and still hold the device. On the other hand, it makes all of the buttons larger, and it also causes the musician to rest the iPhone or iPod Touch on a music stand (or desk) with the speaker NOT buried in the stand. This is pretty important, as the iPhone can be muted when the speaker is covered. I'm not sure many other reviewers would catch that particular value in the landscape approach to a metronome.
I think this is a real winner of a program for $0.99. It works well, and you would be hard pressed to find situations where another, more complex program (Such as Dr. Betotte) would be needed...even for the high school band director. I do have one suggestion for the program, and I am going to e-mail that suggestion in a few minutes to the company. I'll report on what their response is.
So, if you have been looking for a good, inexpensive, and easy to use tuner, this is it!
****
Edit 3/31/09
I just wanted to log in and mention that the author of the software did indeed get back to me after I submitted my suggestion. The author mentioned that there will be future revisions, and that he is submitting other programs as well. As I've mentioned before, one of the strengths of the iPhone software model is that in many cases, the software engineers do respond to questions and concerns. I really think Tempo is a winner, and I urge you to try it and let us know what you think. You can always leave comments on this blog. I will only moderate false ads, inappropriate language, or non-related content.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
What about other mp3 players?
I recently had a good question from one of the music educators that attended my session at MMEA this past February. The question went something like this:
That was a really good question, particularly as you can find decent mp3 players from other companies at places like buy.com for under $20. Why would you spend $229.00 on an iPod Touch in that case?
I can think of two reasons why you might want to consider an iPod instead of some other player, as well as an additional reason why the iPod Touch may be a good purchase as well.
"Do I have to use an iPod, or can I use one of those other mp3 players? And what do you suggest for a portable amplification system?"
That was a really good question, particularly as you can find decent mp3 players from other companies at places like buy.com for under $20. Why would you spend $229.00 on an iPod Touch in that case?
I can think of two reasons why you might want to consider an iPod instead of some other player, as well as an additional reason why the iPod Touch may be a good purchase as well.
- Students are familiar with the interface of an iPod (shuffle, nano, classic, or Touch), and if not, will figure out that interface in seconds. Steve Jobs has always wanted to make it so that you can find your item in less than 3 clicks. With an upcoming search feature in the new iPhone 3.0 Operating System (coming this summer), there will also be a way to do a search through your whole system without manually flipping through your applications, documents, or audio/video files. Those other mp3 players tend to have different styles of interfaces, and the task of finding a file and getting it to play may prove to be far more difficult than on an Apple iPod. Is the potential time lost enough to cover the cost difference? I don't know...that is up to you.
- I love iTunes. I love how I can search for anything in a fraction of a second (even with a music library of over 100 GB). I love how I can create playlists for my choirs...or sections of a choir...and upload them seamlessly every time after the first time I do so (you do have to go into that iPod and tell it to selectively upload playlists the first time). That is a time saver. On previous devices (Dell Axims, for example), I had to drag and drop for each device...which took time. Now I can plug in an iPod, let it sync, then go to the next one...at my availability. Here's the catch...iTunes isn't meant to work with other mp3 players...and if you have your audio on AAC files, other players may not be able to play those files, requiring you to convert all your audio to mp3 anyway. Thankfully, iTunes makes that pretty easy as well...but that's another discussion for another time. Here's the thing...some companies write software that allow iTunes to interface with other mp3 players. I haven't used them, so I don't know how they work. iTunes Agent (http://ita.sourceforge.net/) is one of those programs. You can try this approach...let us know how it works. As for my house and my music program, we're sticking with Apple.
- My last point...for the Touch...it is one simple word...Applications. I think having the access to various programs, such as tuners, pianos, and so on is worth the extra money, even from a standard iPod. As the devices are Internet enabled, you might have to do some extra monitoring of students (such as looking at history after they use the device) to keep them on track. But most of your students will do what they are supposed to do, and they will be grateful for the technology.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Have You Considered Twitter?
One of my strengths, as well as one of my flaws, is my continual attempt to integrate new technology into my life...which means my teaching as well. There has been a lot of discussion about Twitter lately, which basically allows you to broadcast short, 140 character messages to the world. People can "follow" you on Twitter (or you can make your account private, which defeats the purpose).
I've long been a proponent of having a web page for your music program. Parents and students need a central location for documents, calendars, and so on. But are they going to check that web page for up-to-date news? What if you have to cancel a concert?
I've spoken about the power of using cell phones for reminders...with services like www.txtblaster.com, but Twitter fits the bill quite well, too. And you can do both with just a few clicks on your keyboard (and using copy and paste).
I created a Twitter Account for my new high school choir program. Check it out: I think you'll be able to see the potential:
www.twitter.com/ERHSChoir
And to make this even better, you can access Twitter from just about anywhere...on the web, in special add-ons for your desktop (widgets, Firefox Plug-ins), Cell Phones, etc. As I say on the ERHSChoir webpage at ClassJump, I want every possible way of staying in touch with parents and students...Twitter is a great application for this. I urge you to consider using it, too! And then tell your students about Twitter!
Need to know more about Twitter? Check out this video by David Pogue!
I've long been a proponent of having a web page for your music program. Parents and students need a central location for documents, calendars, and so on. But are they going to check that web page for up-to-date news? What if you have to cancel a concert?
I've spoken about the power of using cell phones for reminders...with services like www.txtblaster.com, but Twitter fits the bill quite well, too. And you can do both with just a few clicks on your keyboard (and using copy and paste).
I created a Twitter Account for my new high school choir program. Check it out: I think you'll be able to see the potential:
www.twitter.com/ERHSChoir
And to make this even better, you can access Twitter from just about anywhere...on the web, in special add-ons for your desktop (widgets, Firefox Plug-ins), Cell Phones, etc. As I say on the ERHSChoir webpage at ClassJump, I want every possible way of staying in touch with parents and students...Twitter is a great application for this. I urge you to consider using it, too! And then tell your students about Twitter!
Need to know more about Twitter? Check out this video by David Pogue!
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