Some other thoughts about using the Ipod Touch as a tool for composition, creativity, ensemble and to accommodate students with special needs.

Overall Pros and Cons

 Overall Pros…

•       - Students love being able to use the Ipod Touch for composition and find it very engaging

•       - There are an incredible array of great FREE applications that can be used for composition, rock band or group performance

•       - For students with special needs (physical, students have have difficulty with reading and interpreting notation, coordination etc.) this tool can be an incredible enabler for these students 

Overall Cons… 

•      -  depending upon how many Ipod Touch you need to synch for your classroom, charging them, loading the programs (as a separate ITunes Library), and doing period ITunes updates can be a very time consuming proposition

•       - managing the wires can sometimes be a challenge (keep in mind that you will have up to five 3.5 cables running into the “Rock Star”  at a time, plus another cable that runs into your computer

•       - mobility…you are limited by the length of the cables that you have…generally these cables are 6 feet long which seems like a lot until you actually plug it in and find out that your group/band members are huddled around the “Rock Star” 

Composition: 

Pros… 

•       - the variety of sounds that are available are an incredible addition to any composition that your students are doing

•       - students really appreciate being able to use a tool that they are interested in

•       - there are many connections that students can make to the instruments in their classroom

•       - they may realize after trying to use the instruments on the Ipod, that using the real thing is better for certain types of compositon 

Cons…

•       - external volume on the Ipod Touch is not loud enough to work with as part of the creative process with instruments (especially considering that most composition in a classroom takes place in s

•       - if students are working in groups, for this to work effectively, you need to have several Ipods for students to work with as well as a “Rock Star” and something to amplify the instrumention for these tools to be effective 

Creativity:

 Pros

•       - using the Ipod Touch, even if you only have  a few available loaded with 5-7 free Apps can be a great resource for discussion and exploration of sound, instrumentation and creativity 

Cons

•       - because it is novel to use the Touch for to communicate and express themselves, the novelty can take away from students being able to get to the task at hand…it would be best to use the Touch in a non-creative way first by giving students time to explore it’s capabilities, challenges and possibilities before deciding to select it as a tool to consider when working through the creative process 

Ensemble:

Pros

•       - For 1/3 the cost of a flute, students can make available to them an alternative way to communicate an perform in a small group

•       - When working with students in small groups in class, you might require them to work through “stations” where they need to communication their thoughts through composition (or group performance) using a variety of mediums such as Rock Band Instruments (Guitar, drums, bass guitar and keyboards), String ensemble (violin, viola, cello, bass), Brass Instruments (trumpet, French horn, trombone and tuba) or Reed Instruments (flute, clarinet, saxaphone and bassoon) or by exploring the many other types of ensembles that can be created using homogeneous instrument groupings 

Cons

•       - Each instrument grouping would best be added to a new page on the Ipod Touch to help students make good choices about instrument groupings…this would mean that you may need to have more than the 5-7 that I have recommended to this point available, and organize them on to separate pages on the Ipod Touch, which is not a problem, it just takes time

•       - One of the biggest challenges is around giving students an opportunity to hook in to your speaker system using the “Rock Star”, because otherwise, it is very hard to hear the Touch with the external speaker in a creative classroom…you might consider purchasing more than one “Rock Star”, and having students plug 3 Touch in and use the other 2 connections for earphones that could be shared so that they can hear each other 

Accommodating students with special needs: 

Pros

•       - there are Apps that require little manual dexterity or fine motor control

•       - students that might not otherwise be able to participate in music due to physical limitations can take part in music making 

Cons

•       - the touch is a rather small device and may be a challenge for some students (the IPad might be a better choice as it will have a larger screen) and some of the buttons within the Apps are extremely small and sometimes hard to use