Roger Whaley

We have got SmartMusic in the hands of kids. We have two practice room work stations. I'd say we are good to go.

There seems to be a lack of action from the kids. Several kids have everything ready. Program installed, activated, enrolled in class and confirmed by me through the web site. So it is possible to get this completed. What to do to get the laggards moving? HMMmmm.

I just sent an assignment to each of my classes.

We'll see how that works. I have really good kids that still care about grades. I'm guessing that this assignment gets things moving.

Posted by Roger Whaley at 9:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Mac minis have arrived. I am glad.

We originally were planning on using cast-off computers with the SmartMusic project at Grandview. But it turns out the computers we were planning on using had issues with the XP (or OS X) requirement.

We ordered two Mac minis and I understand there are some XP machines coming. Thanks to a generous donation. It is good to be covered. Thanks everyone!

The donor talked to our chief technology guy. That alone makes keeping him in the loop when you have a project like this. If he didn't know about the project, we wouldn't have the machines.

The Minis are interesting little machines. They really do take up very little space and are peppy enough to do Garage Band. The price was very reasonable as well. We had the monitors and keyboards and cost is an issue here so reusing when possible is a great idea.

If there is a drawback to the mini, the audio-in jack is a line-in, not a mic jack. We will need to get an adapter to use a mic straight into the machine. Time to go shopping for the adapter. Maybe I can talk the family into a night out and stop by the computer store... only 1 day, 12 hours til Leopard... I think my wife is right about the work to much. !-)

Posted by Roger Whaley at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Passwords are usually case sensitive. Are you dialed-up? Is there security software to ask your parents about?

We were struggling to get one student's SmartMusic working. There were several e-mails back and forth between us. Then a really close look at the SmartMusic code we were assigned revealed something...that O we were looking at was really a zero (and not a letter O!)

It's good to be working with kids that hang in there. It is also good to work with kids that aren't afraid to ask questions.

Posted by Roger Whaley at 5:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well we made it to teacher's convention and we have a good start on getting SmartMusic into the hands of the students. The activations are beginning. It will be interesting to see if there are a lot of installations during this rainy vacation.

Days off are a good time to reflect on how things are working.

If I was a little quicker and a little more ready for our school's registration days, I would have had the discs ready to go on the spot. Pay the fee, get your SmartMusic. If I had it organized then, we would have it all up and running now. Things always seem to take a little longer than they should at the middle school.

If the installations seem a little slow in getting done after the break it will be time to watch the videos from the website again. It will also be time to make an assignment. I am guessing that an assignment will turn the heat up on the procrastinators. I will have to make sure we are ready to go with the practice room computers as well, just in case there are a number of students who have over estimated their home computer capacity.

Posted by Roger Whaley at 2:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We are beginning to get set-up and running. We got the mics and discs last week and have sent them out to most of our students. Let the fun begin!

A few weeks ago we set up the big screen TV and watched videos from the SmartMusic web site. Hopefully that will take care of most of the questions. Just look for the quickstart videos on the support page. http://www.smartmusic.com/support/default.aspx?page=page6_4

By lucky accident, the rollout and parent-teacher-student conferences happend on the same day. I have never seen so many kids that wanted to come see me for a conference and pick up some software. Was it me or was it SmartMusic?

Posted by Roger Whaley at 8:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)