HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Today I’ll be taking a look at some more of the new features of Leopard.

Time Machine

If you’ve ever mistakenly deleted or lost important files (or had your hard drive crash), you know how important it is to backup your hard drive. Time Machine is a FANTASTIC new tool that helps you keep everything safe and sound. You’ll need to purchase an external hard drive and make frequent (daily if possible) backups, but Time Machine lets you go “back in time” to restore your computer to the day that you backed up your drive. For example, if you set up Time Machine to back up your drive everyday, you can restore your drive to any day in the past. I believe that this new feature, if used correctly, will help a lot of people store their important data in a safe place. As someone who has lost tons of files in the past due to a hard drive crash, I will be using Time Machine frequently.

Stacks

Stacks is a great new way to organize the files on your desktop. I normally have about 20-30 documents saved on my desktop on any given day, and it gets pretty cluttered. Stack places a Documents folder in your dock (as well as a Downloads folder) where you can store your files. When you click on the folder, a vertical stack appears (unless you have more than 10 documents) where you can see a thumbnail preview of each file. If you have more than 10 files, you’ll see a transparent window appear over your desktop with the same thumbnail preview. It’s a great way to keep organized.

Parental Controls

The much improved parental controls included with Leopard give parents a very clear picture of what their children are doing while on the computer, and provides incredibly valuable controls to limit the amount of time spent on the computer, block certain sites, etc. As a parent of an almost 7-year-old who is just now starting to explore the Internet, this is something that I will most certainly spend some time setting up.

Tomorrow I’ll take a look at two final features: PhotoBooth and iChat - lots to talk about. Until then I welcome your comments, suggestions, and opinions.

Today I’ll be looking at two of the new features included in the latest operating system from Apple called Leopard.

Spaces

Spaces is a new way to organize your open applications and documents on your desktop.  Think of it as four separate desktops in fact.  By opening the Spaces preferences you can set specific desktops for applications.  When you Exposé your desktop, you only see the open apps in that Space.  For example, I have selected all of my online applications (Safari, Firefox, FirstClass, etc.) to Space 1.  All of my Microsoft Office applications as well as Keynote and Pages are in Space 2.  All of my music applications are in Space 3, and my iLife applications are all in Space 4.  Once you assign your applications to these spaces, you simply press CTRL and an arrow key to navigate between them.  For example, if you are in your email application (Space 1) and you download a Word document, you won’t see it unless you press CTRL and the DOWN arrow key.  It will take some time to get used to it, but in the long run, this is a killer feature.

Cover Flow

When iTunes 7 was released last year, they introduced a new way to look at your music - a gallery style viewer that let you see the cover art of the album.  This exact viewer is now called Cover Flow and it lets you see any file the same way when you open your Finder.  For example, when you open your hard drive, instead of viewing the contents as icons, as a list, or in column view, you can now view them in Cover Flow.  This lets you preview the first page of each document in that folder or the icon for each application.  It is  great way to see what you’ve got before you open it.  Again, it will take some time to feel comfortable with the new look of the Finder, but, like Spaces, it’s a killer feature.

Tomorrow: TimeMachine and Stacks.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

This week I’ll be dedicating most of my posts to review the new OS from Apple, Leopard.

After seemingly endless delays, Apple released their newest OS this past Friday and it’s name is Leopard.  Their marketing campaign tells Mac owners that you should “Add a New Mac To Your Mac” and upgrade.  I pre-ordered the family pack (which retails for $199 - same price whether you are an educator or not) and received it on Saturday.  I put aside some time last night to install and my first reaction to the process was: you’re going to need lots of time to install it.  You’ll also need lots of space.  Leopard requires 5.6GB of hard drive space to install the complete package (which is recommended).  I spent quite a while freeing up the space required by dumping lots of movies and audio files onto external drives.  Once I had 6.2GB free (you need more than 5.6GB of free space for Leopard to actually install) it took nearly 90 minutes for the software to install.  Perhaps I was so anxious to see what Leopard was like, but I found the wait excruciating.  When it was finally ready and it restarted, I have to admit that it was worth the wait.  The main features include:

• Spaces - a great new way to organize applications and windows management.
• Cover Flow - get used to the new iTunes interface because now you can see all of your files in a similar gallery.
• TimeMachine - select a drive and backup your machine - leave a few hours to do this.
• Stacks - a great new feature to keep your desktop tidy (I need this one).
• Parental Controls - incredible tools to monitor what your children are doing online.
• PhotoBooth - more fun features to play with, including video.
• iChat - a terrific expansion of features and seemless integration with other iLife apps.

In tomorrow’s post I will take a closer look at a few of these new features.  Until then, I recommend checking out the guided tour on Apple’s website.

I welcome your reactions to Leopard!

The 2nd Annual TI:ME NJ Technology In-Service Conference was held yesterday at the Franklin Avenue Middle School in Franklin Lakes, NJ.  Nearly 50 teachers attended 12 different sessions focusing on various strategies for implementing technology in music education.  Dr. Sand MacLeod delivered the Keynote Address titled: Transformative Technology: The Vermont MIDI Project.  Her work with the VMP over the past 12 years serves as an inspiration to all and the videos of students conducting their pieces at the Opus Concerts that the VMP produces were priceless.  The always-captivating Robin Hodson from Sibelius USA did a wonderful job highlighting the features of Sibelius 5.0, Groovy, Compass, and ProTools.  It was also great to have the new Education and Sales Director of Sibelius USA, Dr. Lee Whitmore, with us.  Joe Cantaffa showcased the amazing work that he has done at Howell High School with his Next2Records project.   Amy Burns, TI:ME NJ Chapter Secretary/Treasurer, presented a fantastic session on technology as an assessment device in the elementary classroom - her passion & enthusiasm are infectious!   Dr. Rick Dammers from Rowan University presented a very informative session on integrating technology into the instrumental music program.  He also served as the Conference Committee Chair for the event, and he did a magnificent job!  Jonathan Kalafer, a teacher at Dickinson High School in Jersey City and founder of the Harmonic Frequency Institute, had the audience in tears.  He played original videos and songs written by his students.  One students’ song Why You Cryin’?, written about the passing of his grandfather, was a beautiful tribute and a testament to the power of music therapy.  I was happy to present a session titled School Music Ensembles Join the Digital Music Revolution - the presentation is now posted on my website.  Finally, we were thrilled to have Jason Panucci and Steve Lucas from SoundTree.  They presented two fantastic sessions on the logistics of building a music technology lab and for getting started with digital audio recording.

If you’ve never attend a TI:ME event before - NOW IS THE TI:ME!  I urge you to attend our National Conference coming up in January and many other events throughout the spring.  Check out the TI:ME website for details about these conference opportunities.   The feedback forms yesterday were unanimously positive - including one that said “this was probably the best professional development workshop I have ever attended!“  I hope to see you at a TI:ME event soon!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

My good friend and fellow TI:ME Board Member Dr. Scott Watson has just started a new podcasting site called “What Music Means to Me“.  You might know Scott as a composer (my 6th Grade Band is currently working on one of his pieces), or as the creator of the incredible Home Practice Online.  He also serves as the Chair of the TI:ME Publications Committee.

What Music Means to Me already has six well produced podcasts that contain Scott’s thoughts on a wide variety of topics relating to music, technology and education.  I strongly recommend checking the site out, and I am thrilled that Scott has joined the world of podcasting.  Subscribe to his feed today!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Fellow Sibelius Ambassador Marc Schonbrun recently teamed up with a company called KB Covers to create two exciting new products for Sibelius users. Sibelius Keyboard Covers include two new QWERTY keyboards that were designed by Marc. Similar to a higher priced model released by Sibelius, each key includes reminders for the many keyboard shortcuts that are part of the Sibelius interface. There are two models, one stand-alone QWERTY wireless keyboard for Apple, and one that covers the MacBook Pro laptop keyboard. The wireless keyboard is afforably priced at $39.95 and the laptop keyboard cover is only $29.95. I know that I’ll be ordering the cover for my MacBook Pro.

Great ideas Marc. Coming from someone who is a master of Sibelius, you can rest assured that the design is well thought out and includes everything you need to help make remembering keyboard shortcuts even easier. I strongly recommend getting one today!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

The 2nd Annual TI:ME New Jersey Technology In-Service Conference, sponsored by SoundTree and Sibelius, will take place on Thursday, October 25th 2007 from 8:30am to 3:30pm at the Franklin Avenue Middle School in Franklin Lakes, NJ from 8:30am - 3:30pm. Our Keynote Speaker this year will be Dr. Sandi MacLeod, Co-Founder of the Vermont MIDI Project. To register for the conference, please send the following information to dammers@rowan.edu as soon as possible.

NAME:

SCHOOL NAME & ADDRESS:

SCHOOL PHONE:

HOME ADDRESS:

HOME PHONE:

PREFERRED EMAIL ADDRESS:

Registration for TI:ME Members is $25, and Non-Member registration is $40. Please make all checks payable to “TI:ME”.

If you have not yet registered, it’s not too late!  At this point, please send either Dr. Dammers or myself a quick email letting us know that you are planning on attending.  We will be accepting on-site registration on Thursday, but we need to make sure that we have enough food.  The final schedule of the conference is now available.

Hope to see you there!

Tomorrow morning I’ll be heading up to Frost Valley, in beautiful Claryville, NY for a three-day camping trip with the 6th graders from the Franklin Avenue Middle School in Franklin Lakes, NJ.  While some might think that such a trip would be something to dread, I actually look forward to it.  Not so much for being responsible for kids for 24 hours a day, but for the “technology holiday” that it provides.  It is literally the only three days of the year where I won’t be touching a computer or even a cell phone.  I am unreachable.

While I love what technology can do for education and for my own personal uses, like many I find myself chained to it.  I sometimes long for the days when I was unreachable.  While it’s true that I could certainly make myself unreachable while at home, I find that even having the technology available makes that impossible.  It practically calls to me.  Email messages would pile up to an unmanageable heap if I didn’t check it periodically.  In this instant gratification culture, I find myself trying to answer emails as soon as possible.  Even if I tried, I wouldn’t be able to not pick it up, unfortunately.

So, I head up to Frost Valley tomorrow without my computer or cell phone.  There is absolutely no reception up there, and there are no computers.  It is a chance for me to have a technology holiday.  The funny thing is, I’m bringing up a notebook to work on the book that I am currently writing, on technology and copyright law.  At least I’ll be writing it by hand.

I’ll be back next Monday!  Until then, I welcome your comments and suggestions.

A True Story

Many people use the argument of “I’ll never get caught violating copyright law in my classroom, so why should I be cautious if no one else is?” The following email was sent to a former TC graduate student of mine from a parent. Thanks to his diligence in making sure that his website is compliant with copyright law, this story has a happy ending. Imagine if he didn’t….

Dear Mr. _______: 
My son asked me this evening if he could sign
up for the _________ Wikispace.  Prior to giving permission I wanted to know
a bit more about this.  What is it and who has access to it?  Also, he
mentioned something about music sharing and downloads and I need to know
more about this.  I am an attorney registered to practice before the United
States Patent and Trademark Office and thus am more sensitive than most
parents to any music file sharing to ensure that there is no downloads on
any of my personal computers is violation of copyright law from any file
sharing source.  It appears to me from what I could see about the site that
the file sharing pertains to music generated by the children.  If you could
let me know a bit more about the types of music files, if any, that are
available for download and sharing on this website.  If you would like to
speak with me about this I can be reached during business hours at (***)
***-****.  (My son) seems excited about this and I would like to let him
know whether he can participate in this so I would appreciate if you can get
back to me as soon as conveniently possible.  Thanks.

Thank you very much to my student for sharing this email with you. I hope that it helps to illustrate the need for music educators to be well versed in copyright law and fair use guidelines.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

NEW! The final schedule of the conference is now available.

The 2nd Annual TI:ME New Jersey Technology In-Service Conference, sponsored by SoundTree and Sibelius, will take place on Thursday, October 25th 2007 from 8:30am to 3:30pm at the Franklin Avenue Middle School in Franklin Lakes, NJ from 8:30am - 3:30pm. Our Keynote Speaker this year will be Dr. Sandi MacLeod, Co-Founder of the Vermont MIDI Project. To register for the conference, please send the following information to dammers@rowan.edu by Friday, October 19th 2007.

NAME:

SCHOOL NAME & ADDRESS:

SCHOOL PHONE:

HOME ADDRESS:

HOME PHONE:

PREFERRED EMAIL ADDRESS:

Registration for TI:ME Members is $25, and Non-Member registration is $40. Please make all checks payable to “TI:ME”. You will need to mail your personal check or school PO to the address below by October 19, 2007. While we can accept payment at the conference, we would strongly prefer you mail in your payment ahead of time. Please mail your checks to the following address:

Rick Dammers

221 Wilson Hall

Rowan University

201 Mullica Hill Road

Glassboro, NJ 08028

Be sure to write “TI:ME NJ Conference” on the envelope.

While walk-in registrants will be accepted, we need to know approximately how many people will be attending to make plans for lunch, which is included in the registration fee.