TME Week 3A Notes
Recap on DAWs
You should expect to have tracks, that can either be midi or audio
They should be linear editors
They will often have loops as well
When we go into schools, you will have to get used to (potentially) different programs --> they will have similar elements though
New loops for GarageBand
Pick the thing you want to create a loop from
File --> Add region to loop library
Name them clearly
Putting them on other things
Library --> Applications --> applications supports --> audio --> Apple --> User Loops -> SingleFiles
You can build your own loops and then put them on all school computers if you want students to be able to access other sounds
Using Screenflow
You might want to script your audio, but make sure you check that the audio isn’t set too high (System preferences)
The ‘Action’ menu is your friend
Opacity: you can remove your face from the bottom of the screen
Callout: highlighting one part of the screen and making everything else dark --> You can download Screenflow for free, but it has a watermark when you export it
If you zoom in on the timeline at the bottom, you can just drag out the time for any action so it is slower and faster
Unfortunately it’s a mac-only program
Some options if you don’t have a Mac:
Free screen capture apps on websites (just type in ‘screen capture’ to Google)
More on Copyright
Technically, even transposing a song is illegal!
Levels of Technology
Using text --> Microsoft Word/powerpoint
Using images--> can use photos, but can also get our own images from Sibelius
We still need to check out copyright (50 years after the composer’s death, and/or if the publisher’s latest edition is not still in print)
Sometimes people will copy down a score
What do we do about images? Go to google --> images --> search tools --> usage rights --> pick what level of copyright you want
Places with creative commons: Wikimedia commons, Flickr, Pixabay (legit)
The other option is just to take the photos yourself
Audio --> We can record with midi, audio, multi-tracking, live performance and syncing with film
Video --> Could be tutorial content, videos made from Sibelius etc.
Interactivity --> all the other things are about giving information, but with interactivity we can ask questions, collect feedback
iBooks author
A recap on iBooks author
Remember to use the Inspector and fill in the book author and title so that on the iBooks app, the author and title come up there as well
Also make use of chapters, sections and pages (so not 27 chapters of one page each or 1 chapter with 100 pages)
Don’t fill it with tonnes of text! You might as well give students a book if you are just making them read lots
Try to make as many elements interactive (i.e. clickable)
As well as having score images that you can click on or scrubber bar audio, you can make a video of Sibelius and have it there
Or you could have 3 images that students can scroll through, while the scrubber bar is below it
Remember the widgets!
E.g. using keynote presentation within iBooks
Review: Go to the widget bar, and click the options for different kinds of questions you can ask (accessibility description)
Build your own widgets!
Bookry --> go to the widget library and there are tonnes of options (e.g. embed soundcloud, google maps, complex forms, vimeo)
There is another website with free widgets but I forgot to write it down ;(
Hype! This is an app that you can use to make crazy interactive websites (paid app)
Final provocations
While iPads still dominate the market, it has gone from 90% a couple of years ago to 65% of the market --> so is the iBook format the best way to learn about technology?
You can include the elements of digital learning (text, images, audio etc.) in websites
Interactivity is more difficult (in websites), but there are more and more apps that can be embedded into websites
The problem when you are in internet black spots, is that large internet file downloads (like for long audio files and videos) might be too much for students
If you’re at a school where they have a BYOD policy, the web browser is your best friend (but then you may have the same problem of needing the internet all the time)
Check out epub – it’s an open source format that you can save your iBooks author files