Wii Music

My business partner and I decided we needed a little time away from our normal thinking and conversations. So, we got together and tried out Wii MUSIC. I was pretty excited to give it try for many reasons. One, I have not used Wii before -- I know - where have I been? The second reason is that I want to understand who our competitors are (we run viaAcademies). We have a pretty wide view of who are competitors are. After all, a narrow view can catch any organization, company or school off guard. So, I felt it was important to learn what we could learn -- and have some fun. Third, even if we felt Wii MUSIC was not really a competitor, someone, somewhere, at some meeting will ask, "So, how do you compare to Wii MUSIC?", or "What do you think of Wii MUSIC?"

This video is pretty funny - shows how connected you can get with the Mii Performers!




With that many reasons to check it out, so we did. Now, let me start by saying I was a bit skeptical of the value of the game. After a few minutes though, the game was fun. We spent most of our time playing the piano, violin, chord (a trumpet like instrument that plays chords, like a trio of brass instruments would add chordal harmony), drum set and a few others. We must have heard Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a thousand times, but it remained pretty fun (funny really). After laying down our own instrument lines for each, the three of us (including my wife and music teacher) made our recordings and watched the final video.

The theory section is actually really nice. The game includes pitch matching (like timbre), pitch matching (unlike timbre), high and low pitch recognition, mistake recognition (in a unison ensemble -- this is not all that easy at first), chord recognition (M, min, dim., etc), and reconstructing melodies in time and pitch). We made it through level 4 before we decided to hang it up for the night (4 more levels were possible).

While we did not exhaust the game in one night, we did find it fun and educational to a point. If anything, the theory section is pretty hard for someone with little to no background. The fun factor should keep users coming back, both young and old. I look forward to diving in a bit more. I give it 3 thumbs up out of 5. The only thing I think it lacks is a clarity of purpose around the game. It seems not so defined in what the goals are, leaving the user to "pop around" and discover on their own. The other VERY annoying aspect is the host. He reads the screen in a made up language that is repetitive and non-sense. I could do without his gibberish.

I am planning a test with a younger user base. More as I know it.

Being Diverse

I have been absent from blogging for a few weeks working on some training and business planning. For those you know, my other life is spent being a entrepreneur /musician / teacher. So, I have been busy building a new business, getting our Saxophone group out in the public eye through our blog and outreach communications, and planning for some upcoming training I will be delivering.

I have really taken the words of my mentors and friends to heart and wish to share them with you. Those who mean a lot to me have given me a consistent message over the last few months. That message is one I consider to be my new mantra.

"Everything we do as humans, contributes to our ability to lead, to teach, to help others, to grow, to be self sufficient or to benefit a larger organization (of 2 or a 1000)."

I encourage my fellow e-Learning experts, developers, colleagues, family and friends to think about how your diversity benefits yourself and the organizations you belong to.

Being diverse does not mean you dabble in things and master nothing.

Being diverse means you take the time to challenge yourself in everything you do and weave all that you do into what makes you a strong person.

Being diverse means that you strive to master ALL that you do and use true experts as role models. The important thing is to continue to strive. The reality of being a true expert in everything is impossible -- we all know that. Who would really want to be! By striving, holding ourselves up to the light of incredibly talent role models and challenging ourselves to achieve high standards and lofty goals, we can be inspirational role models ourselves.

My challenge to the blogging community is to share your diversity. Share your blogs with others, be open to discussions on all that you do. For those wanting to read a bit about my Sax Quartet, feel fee to visit my Keystone Sax Quartet Blog.

Be diverse -- enjoy it, treasure you talents and share!

ASTD Challenges, Plans and Predictions for 2009

Directly from the ASTD website, an opportunity for all to think ahead and create a personal plan (or industry challenge).

The Challenge is Simple: What are your Challenges, Plans and Predictions for 2009?

First, I thought a bit of history would set the tone for my thoughts. In November, I began a personal quest to re-market and re-define myself. More importantly, my quest was to start listening to myself and acting on my ideas. After 15+ years of devoting all I did to my employers, it was time for me to start thinking of my held positions as a piece to the complex puzzle that makes up who I am and the work I do. So, to begin with I quickly re-shaped my thinking about work / life balance and started to think more about how my professional life is PART of my LIFE. I had to start instantly giving myself permission to spend my free time on what I would have originally said was "work." Why? Because I am energized by the work I do, I find it incredibly rewarding and that the more I blend my thoughts on learning, education, music and technology, the more whole I become.

Challenges:

• Getting my thoughts in writing. Blogging has helped tremendously. I've built momentum, my challenge will be to continue.
• Becoming an X-Gen'er who truly understand the connected world we live in and how learning is changing, socially and technologically.
• Do more of what works and less of what doesn't, my time is valuable.

Plans:

• Complete my business plan and swing open the doors.
• Commit to an employer where the culture is one of teamwork, where students come first.
• Continue the growth of my Saxophone Quartet (2 recitals in 2009 and our first album)

Predictions:

• Social Networking will demonstrate to corporations the importance of diverse, idea generating employees.
• Schools (k-12) will find the need to update their existing technology use policies to be applicable to all of the latest technologies (IM, Web 2.0, Texting, Cell Cams, etc.)
• Learning complex arts and skills will become more prevalent through online tools.
• LMS's will adapt to the needs of an individual learner or they will begin their decline.
  

The list seems incomplete and probably always will to me. But, it is a snapshot for me in the here and now.

Top School LMS Choice Issues

My list of LMS topics to cover is 50% complete. I have written a lot in the last month with more to come. I firmly adhere to the 80/20 rule in planning. So today's post is focused on a summary of high level decisions to make should you be thinking about integrating an LMS.

After 9 years of LMS experience, I have witness a number of priority concerns for various levels of users. Users include students, teachers, administrators, dba's, website managers and marketers, curriculum development staff and parents (of school age students).

Considerations for Choosing an LMS

1. Does the LMS deliver curriculum in a way that matches your instructional model? Look at how your course content can be organized and presented to the students using the LMS. Does it make sense to your organization? If the LMS would require you to rethink the way you present course materials, you must decide if you like the different approach and would be able and willing to spend the time and energy to change gears. Or, would the change be unacceptable? Do not let the vendor convince you their model is perfect for you.
   
2. Does the LMS offer too many or not enough bells and whistles? The key here is growth. Some schools know what they want from the beginning. For example, if you know you want an LMS to deliver non-authenticated materials for marketing or community building, make sure the LMS has a portal system. If you don't need that now but think you will, make sure you can turn if off now and on later. Or, if you don't want to invest in the added technology, don't.
   
3. Is the LMS age appropriate? If you are educating elementary students, the LMS should deliver an appropriate navigational scheme including learning paths, navigational aids, tools, icons and look / feel that is appropriate out of the box. Or, it will allow you to create that environment. Remember, creating your own environment will take time, and potentially will be met with road blocks due to application design. This is a great time to get a sandbox environment for your team. Test and test and test various ways to make the LMS a part of your learning environment. If you have to work too hard or make too many compromises, seek advice first, try again, and then make a decision. This will take some time but it will be worth it. Try button layout, colors, icons, course area names, course structures, ways to guide students around the content, etc. Look for flexibility. If the environment seems right out of the box, consider the flip side. Using our elementary school example imagine if you wanted to open the school up to high school students. If the LMS is more suitable to elementary with NO flexibility, it will quickly create a need for your to make a decision to end the use of the tool for your school, or release a new tool just for the HS students. Your planning should also include a vision of what lies ahead.
   
4. Does the LMS offer teacher efficiency tools? This area could be its own white paper. Think about an LMS as expense every time teachers use it. Their time is money. LMS should provide an intuitive work flow. For example, when a teacher logs into the LMS, they should be able to INSTANTLY, yes, instantly determin what work they need to complete. They should see a list of items that need a response or to be assessed. They should not have to dig through the content or gradebooks looking for work to do.
   
5. Does the LMS offer management tools to ensure quality? Similar to number 1, you must ensure the LMS fitst your management model. For example, Blackboard was designed to provide independent professors with a tool for their classroom. As professors, they ran their own classes with little direct oversight from supervisors. However, as more and more LMS find their way in the businesses and school (running themselves like businesses), teacher efficiency has become a larger issue. Managers who must ensure teachers respond quickly, accurately and educationally to a student's needs, must have tools to help them manage all teachers. Some LMS's will allow all data to be transferred to reporting applications. Those applications can help you determine if teachers are responding quickly and efficiently. But, they do not help you determin if the teacher is responding with quality. LMS's are behind on this technology. Overall, we must all push toward new tools to help us ensure quality instruction through LMSs. Never-the-less, we must consider what is available and consider our ability to extract the data we need.
   
6. Doe the LMS treat students as a class or as individuals? Imagine wanting to exclude a student from a homework assignment in your traditional class. This is pretty simple to do. Based on a students IEP, or on something much simpler like the quiz being optional, teachers always have a need to customize the ribbon of grades for a student. Not all LMSs allow for customization at the student level. Knowing up front can save you a ton of grief on the backend. This question is easy to overlook. However, finding this out when you are training your first group of teachers is not a good place to be.

This may be a simplistic list. However, from within this list many other considerations will be developed. Content types, types of assessments, roles, customization options, branding, management tools, teacher efficiencies, are all considerations that can come out of the 6 Points above.

LMS: Sub Prep

This afternoon, a family member of mine received his first call to sub (Congrats Tom!). This led me back to thoughts of my subbing days and how I wished their were ways for me to be more prepared. I remember having the same questions the night before I was scheduled to sub:

1. What classes will I teach (if they just asked - "Can you come in for 7th grade tomorrow?)
   
2. What topics will we cover?
3. Would I have anything that I could share with the students?
4. Do I know the slightest bit about the topics?
5. How many students are in each class period?
6. Would I need to give an exams?
7. What homework did the students have last night?
8. When was lunch :-)
9. Can I get a seating chart and class roster (really useful for teachers that are new AND for those that are returning or are familiar with many students)
   

With these questions in mind, I think it is time to pull out my list and see where we stand in regards to our discussion on LMS integration. The following topics make up our list. Those in red are those we have covered including the one for today.

• Substitute Teacher Prep (thanks Dr. Karl Kapp)
• Homework Assignments
• Recording Live Sessions for review
• Community Building
• Direct Parent Communications
• Progress Reporting
• Delivering Media
• Course Content Delivery
• Group Projects
• Gradebook use and distribution
• Enhancing Teacher Preparation Skills (and Instructional Design)
• Assessments
• Reaching Non-Participants (from your class)
• Assisting with Absenteeism

An LMS is a perfect tool for helping substitutes. I tend to think this use is something schools have not experimented with, but they should. Of course, having all of the class information in the LMS is a prerequisite. As a technology leader, I would use this need as another way to incentivize all teachers to make use of the school LMS. That is if the chocolate didn't work!

Additional prereqs for this to work would be an account for all school board approved subs. Since this list is often a finite list, this would be easy to mange. Next, account roles would have to be set so that the sub has read only access to the information. Also, subs would need access to a brief tutorial on using the system. This could easily be handled in a "pre-teaching" session with all subs (often not part of school systems now - but should be).

Although I may have missed a few minute details, the items above should serve as the miniumum needed to get subs into a useful system to aid in their prep. The goal of the system should be to shift substitute teachers away from hallway monitors and toward being productive educators. From my experience, subs do want to be productive. However, they are often not given the support or tools to be truly beneficial to the students.

So how does an LMS answer the questions from above? Here a some examples.

• What classes will I teach (if they just asked - "Can you come in for 7th grade tomorrow?)

Since the account should give the sub access to all of the teacher's load, including a "common" area, the LMS is a great place to publish a copy of the teacher's schedule. Schools should have these readily available in "marketable" form anyway to share with parents.

• What topics will we cover?

Two options here. Option 1 -- a complete curriculum. Most schools have complete curriculum guides for all classes. However, if that does not exist, Option 2 -- the teach who is ACTIVELY keeping up with their class should already have posted notes about what is coming up for the week. At minimum, messages from the teacher can help a sub see what is coming up.

• Would I have anything that I could share with the students?
  

A great place to check out are the projects the class may be working on. Often, if I had to sub for a class that was a bit outside my expertise, we would focus on longer term projects. I could offer a new insight into a subject, or make suggestions on how to conduct research, or offer a true to life story that could help those struggling become more motivated to dive in.

• Do I know the slightest bit about the topics?

As a sub, spending 30 minutes the night before researching topics, or dusting off the college books can be extremely powerful. Imaging walking into the classroom already knowing the vocabulary!

• How many students are in each class period?

For no better reason that to give some idea of the scope of your day -- will I teach 10 students at a time or 2, or 30. Subs who know what they are walking into are more confident and can be more prepared!

• Would I need to give an exams?

Students should not be the ones telling you as a sub "We don't have an exam today" -- hummm! Really! Coming prepared with the plan already in place gives you the edge on classroom controll from the very beginning. Kids like to get out of exams and they can be very persuasive.

• What homework did the students have last night?

Similar to the exams comment above, kids will want to say "We didn't have any homework!" By reviewing the LMS homework assignments list, you can see if that is the case at a glance. Of course, they may still try -- but as a sub, you are wiser.

• When was lunch :-)
  

Seriously -- subbing is hard work. I have subbed in schools that wanted to get every ounce of time from me. So, they would often ask me to cover classes during prep time and other "off periods." For many schools this is perfectly fine and noted in the sub agreement or teacher contract. Knowing when you have some time to breath is great. For example, I once taught at a school where lunch for me was at 1:00pm. I am hungry by 10:30am. So, I knew I would need to take something with me -- or the kids would find me passed out in front of them -- not good.

• Can I get a seating chart and class roster (really useful for teachers that are new AND for those that are returning or are familiar with many students)

Now, we should never assume kids aren't who they say the are. But, believe me -- they will sometimes try that little trick. Don't make a big deal out of this as a sub -- ie -- don't flaunt that you have a seating chart. If available, school pictures of the class could be made available to the sub in the LMS -- not too hard to do actually. Many schools have picture based seating charts for this reason. This tool could be made available to the teacher all day for reference. Especially if the teacher is giving exams as noted above.

As you can see, there are lots of solutions and options. I just scratched the surface. I am sure all of you reading this can add your own experiences and solutions.