iOS Music Project in New Zealand

Thank you to all the wonderful schools who have invited me in to their classrooms for some explorative music creation with iOS and other resources. On this page you will find an overview of what we will be covering in the session and some resources that you can follow up with afterwards. I find music and sound related play to be a terrific way to learn about universal design for learning, play and the potentials of technology in the classroom, and for having a dialogue about these elements across school settings. 

Introduction

We have around one hundred students in our school. We located in the Hunter Valley area of New South Wales, Australia, and many of our students are very curious about what other students are like in different countries around the world. When they heard I was traveling to New Zealand to talk about the way we learn in our school, our students were very excited to think about ways they could see and hear what school students in New Zealand experienced each day. We then came up with the idea that in the schools I visit, students in these classes could create sound art made up of field recordings of noises on the playground, of surrounding nature, and by making unique music with iPad apps, and by taking photos and video of New Zealand schools. Then, when I return to Australia, I can show my students back home what the students I have met across different schools in New Zealand have made. Then, my students in Australia can create their own sound art, with recordings of what it sounds like in Australia, the sort of music our students make in Australia, and photos and videos of their own schools, to share across the Internet with students from New Zealand. That way, our students across countries can get to know each other better through unique creations :)

How will this work?

I have provided a visual timetable below of what we'll be doing when I arrive. First, I'll introduce myself, and then I'll talk through the above, about how our students would love to hear what students in New Zealand can create with our music tools. Then, I'll show a few different apps on the iPad that we can use (I will have six iPads with me that we can share in small groups), as well a Skoog, MaKey MaKey, a MIDI keyboard and some other tools. Then, in small groups students will go off and record sounds and create some musical ideas for ten minutes. Following this we will return to the group, I will record what students have come up with, and we'll listen back to our creations. Then, we will be finished. I will then keep in contact across the week and share with the class what other classes are creating across New Zealand as well, so we can put all the sounds together to form one large musical composition that I can take back to Australia to show our students. Then, we will do the same in Australia and share our composition with you!

iPad apps

There are many amazing iPad apps available for creating music in ways we never used to think about creating sound. By moving our hands across an iPad screen and using apps that explore sound in very different ways, we can compose sounds that nobody has ever before made.

Skoog

Skoog is a soft, rubbery cube that interacts with iPad. When you push down on the colourful dots on Skoog, it plays musical notes in an iPad app. It has its own app, and it can also play sounds in other music apps such as GarageBand. It is a unique new way of performing with sound.

MaKey MaKey

MaKey MaKey is a clever little circuit board that connects to any computer and to any object that conducts electricity, allowing you to play music