SCMTME#9: BYOD

BYOD is becoming commonplace in schools, with the individual ownership of various devices becoming ubiquitous in Australia. However, the disparity in the types and capabilities of devices that students own, the financial strain it could cause on certain families and the potential social issues for high school students presents some challenges with the program.

First, let's head to www.netmarketshare.com to look at the spread of devices and OS's that we're dealing with (these statistics indicate usage globally, but still gives a good starting point):

Operating Systems - Desktop/Laptop

Windows has a clear lead, and has had one for quite a while, over Mac OS, Linux and Chrome OS. In a music classroom, it is easy to focus on the apps and features available on Macs, but when considering BYOD, it is essential to look for alternatives.

Operating Systems - Tablets

Contrasting to Desktop/Laptop OS's, there is quite an even spread between Android and iOS (apple).

Device Types

Note the prevalence of Laptops and Desktops compared to tablets.

Browsers

When looking at web-based apps, finding those that run on Chrome (as opposed to Firefox, Safari, Internet Explore, and Edge) will probably be more useful considering Chrome's popularity.

So what does this mean? As educators, it is important to understand the different devices and OS's students use. These differences determine the format of content that students can read (e.g. iBooks only on Apple devices), specific applications that can be opened, and the usability in completing specific tasks. This is particularly crucial when integrating technology into music education, since the wide variety of native apps (apps that are downloaded onto the machine, not relying on the internet) and clear separation between Apple and Android or Windows means that it is difficult to find ways of providing equal opportunities to make music and complete tasks in the classroom. There are a few solutions to this:

1) Web-based apps

Instead of juggling the different OS's, app developers are moving toward web-based/browser apps. Apps like Soundtrap, Soundation and Bandlab are web-based, meaning that they are accessed/run via the internet, instead of being downloaded and run natively on the device. This means that any device can access and use these apps, removing that barrier of Windows vs Mac. (Check out the various capabilities and features of Soundtrap on their youtube channel, here). In terms of notation software, becoming familiar with MuseScore and Noteflight is essential in including all students. However, this relies on steady and fast internet access, something that is not quite a reality for some schools (no thanks to NBN).

2) Planning for school owned devices

Schools often have a class set of iPads or computer labs. When planning on integrating technology, for example performance technologies, making use of school devices removes the worries of different device capabilities, batteries being charged, and other distractions (with the restrictions set on school devices).

The challenges with BYOD makes it clear that it isn't worth using technology for technology's sake - bringing us back to the idea of being enthusiastic cynics from last week. However, BYOD and web-based apps do present opportunities for increased music making for situations where acoustic instruments are not possible (long-term, with lack of funding, or short term, with things like room changes). In terms of the effectiveness of BYOD, I'll have to wait until the research comes in. Until then, we just have to think critically and trust our judgements!

Amongst all this talk of BYOD, we explored some of the cool things that are becoming more widespread, as well as some awesome apps we could use in the music classroom.

Unrelated to music, freeware (software that is free to use) and open source software (software where source code is free to use, study, change or distribute) are really cool and collaborative ideas that have the potential to be integrated into technology classes. An example of open source software I am currently exploring is Arduino. The software is free to download on Mac, Windows and Linux, and there is an abundance of source codes for projects available on various sites (GitHub is a good place to go for these). The great thing about this is the collaborative attitude that is promoted throughout the community. This has great potential for education purposes - stay tuned for more in my major project! Another project I plan on exploring is Raspberry Pi.

Another open source project, relevant to the increasing prevalence in web-based applications, is Chromium (Chrome OS). The project allows people to download and use the OS, as well as inviting users to download the source code and contribute to the development of the project. I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops!

James showed us an incredibly useful resource - a database of apps coded according to various categories (e.g. LMS, productivity/creativity, content, drilling, and performance). The database also specifies the features of the programs and where they are available (e.g. native/browser, iOs, android, Chromebook, class compliant MIDI, class compliant audio).

Of course there was a practical part of the workshop, we got to play around with:

We played around with io808.com to simulate the experience of a drum machine and make some beats.

We also played around with DM1 (a drum sequencer for iPad), and this awesome app Gadget. Both of these are supported by Ableton Link, allowing the downbeat, tempo to be synced, and for multiple devices to be connected at once through the same wifi network. Using the Roland Session Mixer to do this was fun too.

Check out this beat Rohan and Su made on DM1: