If you’re in my classes then you’ve probably seen the new iPods, but it’s also time to upgrade to a brand new version of iTunes so that you can have more control over your music/video collection.
Remember, software updates and downloads shouldn’t be done from school. They’re an important part of our “digital life”, but if we all do this from school then we’ll just have a very slow, unworkable network, instead of something that we can all use and enjoy for work and fun.
Join us this afternoon on this open, collaborative Google doc to share examples of ways that you think people can actually live and demonstrate the EAGLES here at school.
You can work individually or as a small group. All submissions are anonymous, but we need to maintain a spirit of trust and cooperation – please take the task seriously.
We’re having a lot of fun with our Macs in 7th grade E.S.O.L. In preparation for some movies that we’re about to make, we started experimenting with sound recording today in GarageBand. Today we started looking at how Macs can be used as amazing multitrack recording studios. Daniel had heaps of fun playing around with a USB MIDI keyboard, and we recorded a 4 track a cappella (all voice) song that we made up on the spot. We then switched to Sally’s Mac, and recorded a very silly song called, “Go, Grandma, Go!” For this song we activated some of the auto-enhance/autotune features in GarageBand to make the vocals sound a bit like some of the hottest pop songs.
So why do you think we’re learning about making music in a language class? Music and video can make learning about words and ideas FUN. We can express our ideas in new ways, and we can share our ideas in new, innovative fashions with people who don’t just want to read dictionaries and read lists of words and grammar rules. This year we’re going to make songs and videos to communicate the things that we’re learning, and to share these ideas in new, original ways with other learners.
If you’d like to listen to “Go, Grandma, Go!” you can download it here:
This quiz is the ultimate test of intellect and endurance. Do you have what it takes to prove that you have a solid understanding of SAS’s “E.A.G.L.E.S.”?
This afternoon my elective class was interested in how to calculate pi. Here’s a widget from Wolfram to help you calculate the wonderful number “pi” (22/7) to your heart’s content.
This afternoon during our Homebase class we’re going to start thinking about what’s going on in the world, and what we can do to contribute.
Please take note of the new “Global Issues” link at the top of this blog: this is a Netvibes page to collect feeds from important sources of information about global issues.
In today’s class you’ll have the chance to discuss (1) how we can find out about issues and (2) how we can respond/contribute. There will TWO discussions going on in the class:
1. A live chat/brainstorm onto sheets of paper, and
2. A web-based “backchannel” where you can share your ideas and thoughts online.
This week a few of my Homebase students commented that they weren’t happy with the response of the graphics on their Macs. I’m going to teach you how to clear up all of the junk that you might have floating around in Safari, Firefox, or Chrome, but in the meantime, here’s a way to focus on the performance of your iMovie, games, and other applications that need to use a massive amount of math in order to render fast graphics on your laptop’s screen. This week Apple released a graphics update for OSX, and there are some very easy steps that you need to take. Just make sure that you’ve saved everything first, closed down the rest of your applications, and you’re ready to completely reboot your laptop.
That’s it! Just go to the Apple Menu, choose “Software Update…”, and then install the “Snow Leopard Graphics Update”.
This graphics update is designed specifically for your Mac, and it should improve the response of some of the Steam-based games that you might be playing, along with other new popular titles, like Starcraft II.
I want you to remember how fortunate you are to have your very own computer as both a learning tool and a “fun” machine. We can do amazing things with these tools, and there are plenty of people around the world who aren’t nearly as lucky as we are to have them. I’ll show you heaps of cool tips and tricks this year. Let’s keep learning and having fun on our Macs this year!
If you’re in my classes then you’ve probably seen the new iPods, but it’s also time to upgrade to a brand new version of iTunes so that you can have more control over your music/video collection.
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