First of all, I run Radio Lingua Ltd and we produce language courses made up of audio and video podcasts and ebooks. We have over 30 language courses across 27 languages, from Arabic to Zulu! We offer lots of free content for language learners on iTunes and you can find out more about what we do at the Radio Lingua website.

I’m also an Apple Distinguished Educator and Education Mentor and spend a fair bit of my time supporting teachers and learners on using Macs and iPads in the classroom. Some of you asked about the ADE programme, and you can find out more about how you could become an ADE at the Apple website.

Most of my presentation was spent on taking a closer look at a number of iPad apps which offer huge possibilities for young learners. The links for these can be found below.

Apple apps

We started by looking at GarageBand (€3.99) which allows your learners to create amazing pieces of music, even if they don’t play an instrument. The latest version of GarageBand includes beautiful stringed instruments and allows learners to make music together through the Jam Session function.

We also created a video podcast using iMovie (€3.99). iMovie is a fully functioning video editing app, but we chose to combine still images with a voiceover. These still images could be based on photos of children’s artwork, or on photos they have taken with the iPad themselves. Adding voiceovers, music, titles and live video can be done in minutes with iMovie.

The third part of iLife is the new iPhoto app (€3.99) which is a powerful image editor and allows you to edit, enhance, organise and share your images.

The other Apple app we looked at today was iBooks (free), the iPad ebook reader which is a free download from the app store. Books can be downloaded through the iBookstore which offers both free and purchasable content.

Third-party apps

We used Puppet Pals HD (free app with additional in-app purchase of “Director’s Pass” at €2.39 for extra characters) to create animations. Puppet Pals allows learners to develop story-writing skills and create effective animations with voiceover. The resulting movie can be brought into iMovie for further enhancements and editing.

Drawing Pad (€1.59) allows children to create art on the iPad using a variety of media including virtual felt pens, crayons, pencils and lots more. The images created in Drawing Pad can be saved to the iPad Camera Roll and then shared with other apps, including Book Creator as the backdrop of a picture book.

We created digital story book using Book Creator (€3.99) which is a fantastic app allowing learners to create their own digital books for use in iBooks. The books can include photos or other images from your Camera Roll (e.g. art created in Drawing Pad) and you can add text, changing font, size and colour as required. Book Creator also allows you to add sound recordings to your books, both as background sound or music for the page and as voice recordings for “read-aloud” books.

Here are some of the other apps we looked at briefly in either one or both of the sessions:

• iWriteWords (€2.39)
• Didakto (€2.99)
• Math Bingo (€0.79)
• Eggs on legs (€0.79)
• Disney’s Learn Chinese with Toy Story (€2.99)
• FunFelt (€0.79)
• Music for Little Mozarts (€0.79)

Resources

There are many places on the web where you can find out more about using iPads in the classroom, including a number of sites produced by fellow ADEs. Here are some recommendations:

• Ciarán McCormack’s Technology Made Easy site featuring mini video reviews of iPad apps in the classroom
• Ian Wilson’s iPad in Education website which provides lots of information and ideas for iPads in the classroom
• Joe Moretti’s Apps4Education site offering more app reviews from an educator’s point of view
• The IEAR app review site created by US ADEs – search by subject area and level
• Quixey, an app search engine: type in what you’re looking for, e.g. “app to teach alphabet to 5 year olds“

Using AirPlay to project wirelessly

The iPad can be connected to a VGA projector or IWB using a standard iPad-VGA connection cable. It is also possible to project wirelessly using AirPlay. There is more information on how to set this up with an Apple TV here. If you don’t have access to an Apple TV it’s also possible to share wirelessly to a Mac using the Reflection Mac OS app. You can find out how to do this here. If you need to find an adaptor to connect the HDMI output of an Apple TV, I’ve written about this previously on my blog.

I hope this information is useful to you and that you’ve enjoyed the conference in Athens. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like more information or if you’d like me to come to your school to deliver workshops or training with your teachers and students. You can contact me by emailing mark [at] radiolingua.com

Please note that I’ve only been able to test these on the VGA input on a TV, rather than on a projector. I’m not 100% sure if this affects the findings but I would imagine that the image displayed on the TV through the VGA connection will be similar to that displayed on a VGA projector. In each case I’ve tried setting the resolution of the Apple TV at 1024×768 60Hz which I believe is the native resolution of the iPad. With solution 3 it defaulted to 720p 60Hz.

Solution 1 [FAIL]

Product: HDMI Male to VGA+3RCA Male Gold Plated 1.5m Cable
Price: £4.99

I wasn’t at all convinced that this cable would work: I figured that the HDMI signal from the Apple TV was a digital signal and that a passive cable wouldn’t be able to convert the digital signal to an analog signal. Having tried various options on the Apple TV settings I wasn’t able to get the cable to work at all, so this will be going back to Amazon!

Solution 2 [SUCCESS]

Product: Konig HDMI to VGA Converter Price: £46.00

This active box has an HDMI input and outputs the video to VGA and the audio to twin RCA sockets. It’s a powered box so you’d need to take that on board when planning power sockets at the presentation lectern or wherever your projector is located. The fact that the cables come out both sides of the box mean that it’s a bit of a “messy” solution, but nonetheless it seems to work well. A photo of the output can be seen below:

Note that the image is off-centre. The Apple TV display takes up the full screen, but something seems to happen when the 4×3 image of the iPad comes through AirPlay. I’ve had the same problem with Solution 4 which I used live with a projector at the conferences this week, so there must be some issue which prevents any of these boxes properly aligning the image on the screen.

Solution 3 [SUCCESS]

Product: High Quality HDMI to VGA L/R YPbPr SPDIF Sink Component Optical Audio RCA Video Converter Adapter Monitor Projector HDTV (!!)
Price: £42.25

As you can see from the image, this box is a bit “tidier” than the Konig: all the connections are at the rear. In addition to VGA and 2x RCA outputs, this converter also offers optical audio (SPDIF), although you could take that straight from the Apple TV itself. It also has a component out option (YPbPr) and I’ve included a photo of that output below in addition to the VGA.

The image above is the VGA output. Again, notice a slight misalignment in that the image is not centred on the screen. It’s less pronounced than with the Konig, though.

The image above is using the Component out. It’s a bit crisper, but I suppose component options are less likely on standard projectors in schools. I have seem some schools with wall plates for VGA + audio etc., and some of these have component options, so it’s maybe worth considering.

Solution 4 [SUCCESS]

Products: HP HDMI to VGA Display Adapter and LINDY SPDIF Digital to Analogue Stereo Audio Converter
Price: £52.74 + £39.99 = £92.73

This is the only option I’ve used “in the real world” as it was the only one delivered before my conference last Friday. The HP adapter feels quite substantial – and more of a “professional” product than the converter boxes above. However, there are no screw holes for the VGA cable and it did have a tendency to disconnect, eg. when I lifted up the Apple TV to show how AirPlay was working. Note that the HP adapter does not require external power. The other issue is that the HP adapter is video only, so a secondary solution for the audio has to be found. Since the Apple TV only has digital audio out, I had to get a digital to analogue converter. I went for the Lindy box as you can see in the photo. No complaints with this: I connected an SPDIF cable (not supplied, so a further expense) to the Apple TV and the Lindy box converts this to analogue sound through twin RCAs. There’s also an option to use optical coax instead.

The output of this solution worked well, after playing around a bit with projector settings. It can be seen below – again it’s a bit off-centre.

Conclusions

So which solution seems to be the best? I think probably solution 3 is the least messy and provides the most connectivity options, but I’ve yet to try this in the real world. I’ll probably have the chance to do that this week so I’ll keep you posted on my findings! I hope that you’ve found this useful and please add any solutions you’ve found in the comments!

We have started publishing ebook versions of our Radio Lingua language courses on the iBookstore but earlier this year we encountered a problem when trying to upload our ePubs through iTunes Producer. We use Pages (part of Apple’s iWork productivity suite) to generate our ePubs. Through simple paragraph styles, Pages allows you to create rich multimedia ePubs easily. However, it seems that when Pages exports the ePub, any media files – even if they’re produced in Compressor and/or iTunes using the exact specifications dictated by Apple in the iTunes Connect iBookstore Asset Guide – are renamed with the extension .mov, rather than their original .m4v and .m4a.

Earlier versions of iTunes Producer let these files slip through, meaning that our first ePubs which made it to the store worked perfectly. The iBooks app itself on iOS doesn’t care what the extensions are – it plays the books perfectly, even with the .mov extension. The problem comes from the verification process in iTunes Producer which reports an unsupported media file format, referring to the .mov audio and video files.

With apparently no solution for this problem, we pretty much stopped production of our iBooks and focused instead on getting some of our content ready for Kindle. However, in the past few days, I’ve been able to solve the problem by piecing together various bits of information on websites and with the help of some patient people in Apple Education with whom I’ve been working on other projects. I’m posting my solution here, but I hope that Pages is updated soon to save us having to go through this fiddly process every time we want to upload a new title to the iBookstore!

The solution

1. First of all, it will make a real difference if you’ve used a standard naming system for your audio and video files in your document. Since we export our video files using compressor and there are multiple versions of these files, we happen to name all our video files ending in -sd.m4v, eg. video-213-sd.m4v. Our audio files are numbered and end with the extension .m4a. However, with the Pages export, all of these files end up with the .mov extension, so the fact that we know our video files end in -sd.mov and audio files in a number will help as we work through these steps.
2. Export the ePub in Pages using the standard settings as normal. The ePub file will work perfectly on the iPad, but as it is you will have problems uploading it to the iBookstore because of the verification process in iTunes Producer.
3. Download the Automator-based contextual menu commands from Tidbits.com and install these following the instructions included. Since the ePub file itself is really just a zip file, you need to edit the files inside the zip file. That bit is easy enough, but if you recompress the zip file using the OS Compress command, you will get a different error in iTunes Producer and you’ll still not be able to upload the file. The reason for this is that the individual files need to be in a particular order within the zip file.
4. Having installed these contextual menu commands as Folder Services, you can now control-click / right-click on the epub document and choose Expand EPUB. This will create a new folder on your desktop called work and inside that folder you will find the files which make up your ePub.
5. You should be aware that the Pages export has simply renamed the media files – the .mov files are still .m4v and .m4a files, but they’ve just been renamed as QuickTime video and audio files.
6. Open the OPS/media folder and you need to rename all the video files as .m4v instead of .mov. If you only have a couple of files you can change these manually. If you have many files to change you can create an Automator script which does this. I’ve created two mini apps which change the .mov to .m4v or .m4a and they’re available here. [Use at your own risk - if you prefer to create your own, here are the instructions] Remember only to change the video files at the moment.
7. Repeat the above task for the audio files, renaming as .m4a instead of .mov.
8. Now that you’ve changed the file names themselves, you need to change the links to these files in two places. We’ll start with the .xhtml files – your chapters of your ePub. I’ve used BareBones brilliant TextWrangler to edit my files – the Find and Replace functions work perfectly for this task. With the OPS folder, open each of the .xhtml files one by one. Again, if you’re just dealing with one or two videos or audio files you can change these manually. However, if you’re working with many audio and video files you can do a Find and Replace based on the names of your videos. In our case we find -sd.mov and replace it with -sd.m4v (as I’ve said before, we know all our original video files ended in -sd.m4v). Having done that, all the video files will be changed and it’s safe to assume that the remaining .mov files are audio, so we can do another Find and Replace, this time finding simply .mov and replacing it with .m4a.
9. You need to work through all of the .xhtml files doing this find and replace so that there are no more references to any .mov files in your publication. Make sure you save changes.
10. The other place you need to change the filenames is in the manifest file where all the associated files for your ePub are listed. Open the epb.opf file in the OPS folder, again using TextWrangler to edit the file. For each of the video files you need to change both the filename and the media-type. So this involves changing .mov to .m4v and media-type=”video/quicktime” to media-type=”video/mpeg4″. Likewise, for the audio files, change .mov to .m4a and media-type=”video/quicktime” to media-type=”audio/m4a”. Remember that iBooks for the iBookstore need to have .m4a audio – mp3 files won’t be accepted by iTunes Producer.
11. Almost done! You now need to rezip the ePub folder, so select the work folder on your desktop and control-click / right-click and select Services > Zip EPUB work folder. This process will zip the files together in the correct order, and run epubchecker. After a few seconds you should find a new file on your desktop, book.epub and you’ll probably get an error message. Don’t worry too much about this error message – it’s coming from epubchecker and since media files are not permitted in the epub standard checked by epubchecker, the error message will relate to the media files.
12. Finally, rename the file book.epub and you should be able to upload it without problem to the iBookstore.

I hope this is helpful to those of you who have had similar problems and that it helps more Pages users to get their enhanced content onto the iBookstore. Next challenge: get non-linear content to work from within Pages, so that we can create pop-ups or answer keys for our books! If anyone can help with that, please let me know!

Seven useful tips for creating enhanced podcasts in GarageBand and Keynote

The first five of these tips are very general and apply to any teacher creating podcasts. The final two tips are a bit more techy and refer specifically to creating artwork in Keynote with a view to adding it to GarageBand to create an enhanced podcast.

1. Always start your podcast with the title and episode number or date. Remember that your learners may not have an mp3 player with a screen, so they’d rather hear the podcast title than a lengthy jingle before they know they’re listening to the right episode! A clear, announcement, eg. “French Verbs Revision Podcast, episode 3″ before any music or jingle will help your podcast sound more professional.
2. Think more “late night radio voice” than “teacher voice”. As teachers we’re used to addressing a whole class using our “teacher voices”. However, it’s likely that your learners will be listening to the podcast on headphones or earbuds, so you need to change your voice accordingly.
3. Teach one learner, not a whole class. The listening experience will be improved if you imagine one learner rather than teaching to a whole class. If you can’t think of one learner, think of explaining a concept to a son, daughter, niece or nephew! This will change the quality of your voice and your intonation.
4. Short and sweet and often is best. It’s often best thinking of a podcast as a review of one piece of learning which you have perhaps covered in class. If a podcast lasts five minutes and covers one concept or topic in an interesting way, ideally with an example or two, then it’s more likely that you’ll engage your learners and that they will listen – and perhaps even listen again!
5. Silence is golden. Leave thinking time for your learners. Ask them questions, give them thinking time and then work through the answers with them.
6. Try to use a square image for your artwork. You can create square slides in Keynote by going to the Document tab in the Inspector and choosing “custom slide size” from the drop-down menu. An appropriate slide size is 600×600 pixels. GarageBand is set to use square slides by default, so if you’ve made your artwork square this will work well.
7. Think carefully about font sizes. If you’re using text on screen, think carefully about the font size you use: your learners will probably be viewing the podcast on a small screen so don’t use small fonts, and keep the words on screen to a minimum. It’s better to have two or three words in 96 point text than a full sentence in 18 point text!

A word of explanation on our group’s name, GC/DC: to keep things simple we chose a song with very few chords – and “I’m a believer” fitted the requirements: G, C, D and a couple of Fs thrown in. So it seemed only right to name our band GC/DC!

Since 2005 I’ve been part of a community of educationalists from around the world who are recognised for “doing amazing things with Apple technology”. I first became an Apple Distinguished Educator while I was working on the Partners in Excellence languages and technology project where we were using film-making, animation, music production and podcasting to motivate language learners in three education authorities in the west of Scotland. Since then I’ve worked with colleagues from all over the world on various events, conferences and training sessions, and of course I continue to use Apple technology every day producing content for Radio Lingua language courses and in my educational workshops with Radio Lingua Schools.

The closing date for applications to become an ADE in the “Class of 2011″ is fast approaching. If you’re an educator who uses Apple technologies in an innovative way, consider applying to become an ADE. The application process involves completing a form and then creating a two-minute video about your story in which you need to show Apple how you’re “integrating Apple technology into your learning environment in meaningful ways”. According to the official application documents, the profile of an ADE is:

• a “digital” educator actively engaged in a modern learning environment
• an inspired user of core Apple technologies personally and professionally
• uses and integrates a full range of mobile devices for teaching, learning and creative expression
• an early adopter of promising emerging technologies, pedagogical models and digital content
• actively shares best practices by authoring authentic content, delivering professional presentations, or conducting and publishing research
• a full-time professional employee in a public or private school, local education authority, college, university or non-profit agency/organisation.

The deadline for applications is February 15th at 11:59pm GMT, so you still have a couple of weeks to complete your application if you’re interested. Find out more about ADEs here and start your application process by clicking the link below!

ADE Class of 2011 Application

Radio Lingua

Four years ago, in an attempt to keep my language teaching roots alive while focusing on other things working with the East Ayrshire education team, I decided to start teaching Spanish via a weekly podcast. Since then Coffee Break Spanish has become one of the most popular education podcasts in the world and this year we reached our 33rd language learning series and our 24th language. We now provide language lessons for languages from Catalan to Zulu. Hopefully early next year we’ll add Arabic, Afrikaans or maybe even Alsacien, and then we’ll really be able to offer language-learning from A to Z!

I’m delighted with how things have gone Radio Lingua-wise this year: we’ve now had over 82 million downloads – averaging around 1.7 million per month now; we have had three podcasts in the Best of 2010 iTunes Rewind list; and we’ve just found out that Coffee Break French, Coffee Break Spanish and Show Time Spanish were #3, #4 and #5 in the UK Professional Podcast category of the European Podcast Awards. We’ve also just found out that we currently have the #1 or #2 educational podcast in iTunes not only in both the UK and USA, but also in Australia, Canada, Egypt, Finland, Jamaica, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa and Sweden! I love a bit of end-of-year stats!

What constantly blows me away about the whole Radio Lingua adventure is the huge amount of support we get from our faithful listeners around the world and the comments they post on our Facebook pages (CBF | CBS | Radio Lingua), on Twitter and in iTunes reviews for our shows. This support is hugely appreciated and we hope that learners around the world continue to enjoy our shows.

We are still a very small company with only 3-4 key staff, but I have a fantastic team of teachers and native speakers around the world with whom I have collaborated over the course of this past year to produce our new shows, and this remote team is growing all the time. I’d like to say thank you, merci, gracias, tack, ngiyabonga, дякую and 谢谢 to all of my colleagues with whom I’ve worked this year, and I look forward to further collaboration in 2011!

It’s not just the end of 2010, but also of the first decade of the 21st century and what amazes me is that my business could not have existed ten years ago. Even six or seven years ago it would have been difficult to create a company based on the publication of regular language lessons reaching a world-wide audience through mobile devices which learners can carry with them wherever they go. Who knows how language learning will be happening in 2020! In recent weeks I’ve heard about the launch of Word Lens, a new iPhone app which translates signs and information instantly simply by directing the camera towards the image, as shown in the screen grab below.

Is this the future? Or will we have this function built into contact lenses? Of course, the translation is dodgy, and can only be as good as automatic translation can be, but that’s improving all the time. I don’t think it replaces the traditional skill of language learning, and to have successful multilingual business and personal relationships, holding an iPhone up between you and your interlocutors would perhaps be a bit inconvenient! Who knows what the next decade will bring, but I hope to be involved in it and I hope that our style of language-learning through whatever medium the future brings will continue to help people around the world learn languages!

Radio Lingua Schools / Consultancy work

This year has been a big year too for Radio Lingua Schools – we launched our schools site last year and it has been developing nicely over the course of the year. It’s difficult to balance the workload between the consumer side of the company and working in schools, but it’s very often the schools workshops which I particularly enjoy.

In 2010 I’ve been in Strasbourg twice running Euroscola activities along with the inimitable Gerry Toner. In 2011 it seems I’ll be taking a greater role in the organisation of the Euroscola activities, so I look forward to that. It’s always a pleasure working with enthusiastic young people and working with them in intense language immersion activities in one of my favourite towns in France.

In the past year my work as an Apple Distinguished Educator and Apple Education Mentor has increased too. It’s been a pleasure joining a team of talented and committed individuals from all over the UK, Europe and further afield. I’ve had some fantastic opportunities to travel to amazing places, but more of that below.

Travel

Taking my liking for end-of-year stats to the extreme, I’ve been calculating my travel this year. I’ve apparently travelled over 34,000 miles in Europe and Africa. Before any comments about “too much time on my hands, these distances are calculated automatically by Tripit.com which I use for organising my travel plans! My work has taken me to Copenhagen, Dublin, Dundalk, Johannesburg, Kiev, Moscow, Nantes, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Pornic, Prague, Pretoria, San Remo, Strasbourg and Svendborg as well as various trips in the UK to London, Edinburgh and Manchester. The links above are to my photos of each trip on Flickr. While I love travelling and seeing new places, I don’t like being away from home and it certainly makes keeping up with the ongoing Radio Lingua work that bit more difficult. It looks like 2011 is going to be quite busy for travelling too, so I’m looking forward to discovering new places and will hopefully get the chance to take lots of photos too. In addition to all the work travel this year, we also had a lovely family holiday this summer in France and Belgium, and we have some interesting plans for 2011 too

Music

This blog has been the home of my 365songs project and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting back into my piano playing again this year. I’ve also been playing a bit more of my accordion, and still stand by my challenge of being able to play Monti’s Czárdás by my 40th birthday! I’ve got 16 months to get that one sorted out!

Languages

I always seem to have a number of languages on the go in my personal language learning, and these are often linked to what we’re doing with Radio Lingua. This year I’ve dabbled in Zulu, tried my hand at Russian and Ukrainian before my trips in March, had an ongoing on-off relationship with Chinese, and continued my love of Scandinavian languages with various attempts at improving my Norwegian, converting it all to Danish for my trip to Svendborg in May, then trying to squeeze it into Swedish as we produced One Minute Swedish later in the year. I think 2011 will bring further interest in Scandinavian languages and Chinese, and I may have to rapidly improve my German before a trip to Switzerland in March where I may have to do a workshop in German! I’m not going to set myself any challenges this year, but I would definitely like to get more into Chinese – I just haven’t found the right course yet, so perhaps we need to make one! I’d also like to read some of my favourite Scandinavian crime novels in their original, so perhaps that’s a challenge I should try to complete this year: Mankell in Swedish? Nesbø in Norwegian? Or even Indriðason in Icelandic?!

Best wishes for 2011

I’m not sure who – if anyone – reads this kind of year’s review. I’m sure everyone is far too busy to spend time reading my thoughts, but they’re really just for me anyway – some thoughts on my plans for 2011, and perhaps I’ll look back at this next year or in ten years’ time. Anyway, if anyone is reading this, very best wishes for 2011: may it be a year of happiness, good health and success for you and all those who are dear to you.

A year ago today, late in the evening I had what seemed like a great idea: I’d just bought a new piano and since I wanted to encourage myself to play more I thought it would be a fantastic idea to record a different piece of music every day of the year. I was fairly certain I knew 365 songs and I’d be able to choose particular songs to play for particular occasions or particular reasons. Over the past twelve months I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this challenge, although at times it has been difficult, particularly with so much travelling this year. On some occasions I had to record up to two weeks’ worth of songs in advance before a long trip, which made getting ready for the trip that bit more hectic! One of the best things about the challenge has been that I played much more this year than I have done probably in the last ten years – and indeed that was one of the main aims of the project. I’m not sure if I’ve “improved” – perhaps if I’d played the same song each day it would be easier to determine, if a little less interesting! I’m afraid I’ll not be continuing to publish daily songs in 2011, though I may add a few songs which I never quite got to round to playing this year, but the daily commitment is just a bit too much to continue.

I wonder if anybody listening to my songs has had any particular favourites over the past year? I’ve particularly enjoyed playing many songs – jazzy numbers like Bess, you is my woman now, A wink and a smile, Makin’ Whoopee, At last, All the things you are and My baby just cares for me; pop numbers like You’ve got a friend, She’s always a woman, Footprints in the sand, Make you feel my love, Both sides now and Up on the roof; show tunes and songs from films including A little fall of rain from Les Misérables, Wishing you were somehow here again from Phantom, Lift the wings from Riverdance, Gabriellas Sång, the theme from Schindler’s List and Gethsemane from Jesus Christ Superstar; and of course the Abba classics including When all is said and done, One man, one woman and Slipping through my fingers. I’ve also really enjoyed playing some folky/traditional songs – with or without accordion! – including Ae fond kiss, She moves through the fair, and Caledonia and some Latin songs including Tico Tico, Perfidia and Sway. I think if I had to choose, my favourites would probably be The way you look tonight, Gabriel’s Oboe from The Mission, Fields of gold and the beautifully simple And so it goes by Billy Joel. If you have a favourite, please let me know in the comments!

As we reach the end of this year and of this project, I’d like to thank everyone who has listened to my music. There have been over 20,000 downloads of the songs over the past 12 months, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed listening to them. Have a very happy Hogmanay and very best wishes to everyone for 2011.

Here’s the video I made:

In the bleak midwinter from Mark Pentleton on Vimeo.

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Today is St Lucia’s day and is a special day in Sweden, and indeed in other parts of Scandinavia and Northern Europe. St Lucia or St Lucy was sentenced to be burned, but the flames did not consume her. In Sweden a girl in each town is chosen to be Lucia and leads a procession. wearing candles in her hair which symbolise the fire that refused to burn her. The traditional Neapolitan song Santa Lucia is sung in Swedish, and the Swedish lyrics talk of the light which Lucia overcomes in the darkness. After this other Christmas carols are sung, so I’ve chosen to combine one of the most traditional Swedish carols, Nu tändas tusen juleljus (”Now let a thousand lights be lit”) with Natten går tunga fjät, or Santa Lucia.

Bing Crosby’s version of this 1940 Irving Berlin song has sold over 50 million copies. Berlin is said to have composed it sitting by the pool of the Biltmore Hilton in Phoenix, Arizona. He told his secretary, “grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written – heck, I just wrote the best song anyone’s ever written!” It featured in the musical Holiday Inn, and won an Academy Award for the Best Original Song.

Winter Wonderland is one of the most well-known Christmas songs. It was written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith, and has been recorded by hundreds of artists from around the world. I hope you enjoy my rendition!

I’m currently sitting in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport waiting for my flight home. I can’t wait to get home! Here’s hoping the snow won’t cause any problems…

If you’re not familiar with Michael Bublé’s song, here it is on YouTube.

A tradition on these Euroscola days is that when the young people join their compatriots from around the EU (some 700 16-18 year-olds will be sitting in the MEPs’ seats today) in the hémicycle of the Parliament, the music which signals the start of the day is the theme from the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise. This is normally followed by Toto Cotugno’s Insieme (which I played back in February, for my previous visit to the Parliament). I’m looking forward to today and I’m sure that our Scottish group will do us proud!

I’ve also just remembered that 22nd November was the date of the first time I ever played the piano in public. I can’t quite remember the year – possibly 1980 or 1981, but it was at a church concert in the Volunteer Rooms in Irvine!

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That marks our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

John McCrae

There was only one piece of music I could play today: Elgar’s 9th variation from the Enigma Variations, known as Nimrod, and used at the Cenotaph in London as the wreath is placed in honour of those who lost their lives in war.

Image courtesy of the Abbaworld blog

The reason I chose to play this song today is that today marks the 40th anniversary of the first live performance by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvæus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson at the Festfolk på Trägård’n in Gothenburg. It was 2 or 3 years before they started calling themselves ABBA, and apparently the performance didn’t go too well, but it was also when the group apparently learned what not to do at a live event. There’s more info here.

Music of the night – SLF 2010 from Mark Pentleton on Vimeo.

Highland Cathedral is undoubtedly my favourite pipe tune and it always sends a tingle down my spine – I defy you to watch this version on YouTube and not feel the same! It’s probably better suited to the pipes than the piano, but I hope you enjoy my version!

One of us was one of the last songs recorded for the Visitors album in 1981 and became the first single from this album. Despite its rather melancholy air (I guess Benny and Björn had also been to Ikea when they wrote it!) it was a hit, and was the last number 1 for the group.

So, Frank and Johanna, I have fond memories of perfect breakfasts in warm summer sunshine watching the squirrels in your back garden, so I hope that you enjoy tomorrow’s musical accompaniment.

The words “perfect day” came to mind last night as we walked along Ayr beach in beautiful late-summer sunshine (even if it was a bit cold!) so I decided to play Perfect Day as the last song of August’s 365songs. Dating from 1972, Lou Reed included this on his Transformer album. It also featured in the 1996 film Trainspotting, and then in 1997 the BBC released a version of it performed by various artists which became the 1997 Children in Need charity CD.

Barn är ett folk och dom bor i ett främmande land, detta land är ett regn och en pöl.
Över den pölen går pojkarnas båtar ibland, och dom glider så fint utan köl.
Där går en flicka, som samlar på stenar, hon har en miljon.
Kungen av Träd sitter stilla bland grenar i Trädkungens tron.
Där går en pojke som skrattar åt snö.
Där går en flicka som gjorde en ö av femton kuddar.
Där går en pojke, och allting blir glass som han snuddar.
Alla är barn, och dom tillhör det gåtfulla folket.

Barn är ett folk och dom bor i ett främmande land, detta land är en äng och en vind.
Där finner kanske en pojke ett nytt Samarkand, och far bort på en svängande grind.
Där går en flicka, som sjunger om kottar. Själv äger hon två.
Där vid ett plank står en pojke som klottrar att jorden är blå.
Där går en pojke som blev indian.
Där, där går Kungen av Skugga runt stan och skuggar bovar.
Där fann en flicka en festlig grimas som hon provar.
Alla är barn, och dom tillhör det gåtfulla folket.

Barn är ett folk och dom bor i ett främmande land, detta land är en gård och ett skjul.
Där sker det farliga tågöverfallet ibland, vackra kvällar när månen är gul.
Där går en pojke som gissar på bilar, själv vinner han jämt.
Fåglarnas sånger i olika stilar är magiska skämt.
Där blir en värdelös sak till en skatt.
Där, där blir sängar till fartyg en natt och går till månen.
Där finns det riken som ingen av oss tar ifrån dem.
Alla är barn, och dom tillhör det gåtfulla folket.

Rough English translation:

Children are a people, and they live in a strange land. That land is a rain and a puddle.
Over that puddle the boys’ boats go sometimes, and they glide so nicely even without a keel.
There walks a girl who collects rocks. She has a million for herself.
The King of Trees sits quietly among the branches of the Tree King’s throne.
There walks a boy who laughs at snow.
There walks a girl who made an island out of fifteen pillows.
There walks a boy, and everything he touches turns to ice cream.

All of them are children, and they belong to the mysterious people.

Children are a people, and they live in a strange land. That land is a meadow and an attic.
There a boy may find a new Samarkand, and rides away on a swinging gate.
There walks a girl who sings about fir cones. She owns two herself.
There by a wooden fence stands a boy who scribbles that the world is blue.
There walks a boy who turned into an Indian.
There, there walks the King of Shades around town, he is shadowing thieves.
There, a girl found a funny grimace that she is trying out.
All of them are children, and they belong to the mysterious people.

Children are a people and they live in a strange land. That land is a back yard and a shed.
There, the dangerous train ambush happens sometimes, on beautiful evenings when the moon is yellow.
There walks a boy who is guessing on cars; he himself always wins.
The songs of birds in their many variations are magical jokes.
There, a worthless thing turns into a treasure.
There, beds turn into boats one night and go off to the moon.
There are kingdoms that nobody among us takes away from them.
All of them are children, and they belong to the mysterious people.

This beautiful Italian song was first recorded by Zucchero in 1984, but it was the 2006 Laura Pausini version which I first heard. The title means “Like unexpected sunshine”, and the song deals with perseverance in the face of adversity. Ever since I heard Come il sole all’improvviso in France a few years back, I’ve loved this song. It was released on Laura Pausini’s Io Canto album, as a duet in Italian and French with Johnny Halliday, but the solo version was included on an ‘iTunes extra’ album, and I much prefer this version. If you’re interested, the solo version is on YouTube. I hope you like this song!

The song All I know is a tender Bertrande/Arnaud duet from the original version of the musical. In the 1998 version of the musical it was reworked into The Day has come which features the whole cast, very similar to the song One Day More from Les Misérables. I actually prefer the original version, and it’s this version I’ve based my performance on today!

I hope you enjoy this song today, Dad, and that you have a fantastic birthday!

I was sent a video last week filmed by one of the students who was taking part in a visit to Strasbourg which I organised earlier this year. We had a ’soirée musicale’ one evening and along with the Italian bus driver who accompanied our visit, I sang (or rather tried to sing!) ‘O Sole Mio. I thought I’d post the video here for a laugh – apologies for the bad singing, particularly towards the end! I should also perhaps explain that Nino was holding my iPhone on which the lyrics were written in very small text! Next time I’ll take the iPad – and start playing the song a few tones lower to avoid the high G!

Anyway, here is When you wish upon a star from the 1940 Disney film Pinocchio, originally recorded by Cliff Richard as the voice of Jiminy Cricket. My version is based on the Nelson Riddle arrangement included in Linda Ronstadt’s 2000 Christmas album.

Looking for space was released by John Denver in 1976 and reached #1 in the Adult Contemporary charts in the US.

Variation 5 became Unexpected Song when Don Black wrote lyrics for the one-woman show Tell me on a Sunday – have a listen to my previous performance of the title song from this show from back in January.

The lyrics were written by Tim Rice and the music was by Elton John, who also recorded a pop version of the song included on the soundtrack album. I hope you enjoy today’s song!

So, any ideas for the next 165 songs? Is there a song I’ve not played yet which you like? Or an artist which I’ve not really covered? By now I’m sure that you know my style, so let me know if there’s something you think would fit!

Today’s song is the first of month seven on 365songs, and tomorrow we move past the half-way point! Thanks to everyone for continuing to listen to my daily tunes – keep your requests coming!

Like many other Scottish teachers, Pierre-Benoît will be stopping for his summer holidays today, so I’d like to wish him and all my other Scottish teaching friends a good summer break – bonnes vacances à tous!

While researching my notes for today’s post, I discovered a new recording (iTunes link) of the Misa Campesina by Nicaraguan singer Katia Cardenal. Coincidentally, this was released in Norway under the same Kirkelig Kulturverksted label as Sigvart Dagsland – see my song from 18th May.

First of all, I run the Radio Lingua Network of language-learning podcasts, and our educational branch is called Radio Lingua Schools. On our Radio Lingua Schools website you can read about all the digital creativity workshops we run, working in the field of languages in primary and secondary schools up and down the country.

Introductory Discussion

I spoke about Twitter – sign up for your own Twitter account at http://twitter.com and you can then start following me – @markpentleton – and all the other MFL Twitterati I mentioned via Joe Dale’s MFL Twitterers group.

I also mentioned Wallwisher where you can “build a wall” and have your students post their homework as graffiti on the wall. You can read more about Simon Howell’s use of Wallwisher within MFL and there are more details of Helena Butterfield’s work here.

Another technology we had a brief look at was Voicethread which is a tool for talking about and sharing images, documents and videos. Jo Rhys-Jones has discussed various ways of using Voicethread in primary MFL here.

Fiona Joyce has created a wiki for MFL teachers using Storybird and Lisa Stevens has some examples on her site, including video versions of the Storybird stories she has created.

I suggested that using Google Maps, and specifically Street View is an excellent way of bringing the foreign culture into the classroom. It’s worth using http://maps.google.fr rather than the English language version, so that the interface is also in French. Google Maps and Street View are particularly useful for talking about the town, working with prepositions (eg. next to, opposite, etc.) and for practising giving directions. In addition, using “real” shops and services, street signs and even adverts and notices can bring added authenticity to a lesson.

Creating content

I showed examples of animations and film-making projects. Useful software links include:

• Kudlian’s I Can Animate
• Boinx iStop Motion
• Windows Moviemaker
• Audacity
• GarageBand

The two podcast hosting services I mentioned were Podomatic and Libsyn.

For further information on making podcasts and using the apps mentioned, see these previous posts:

• Making use of free educational content for mobile devices
• Effective language-learning through creative technologies

You may also be interested in our Creative Classroom series of tutorials and screencasts from CrunchEd Productions.

iPod Touch Project for Gateshead Schools

Peter has asked me to remind you that if you want to be part of the MFL iPod Touch project then please email him at p.haywood [at] hgclc.org.

Background

I run the Radio Lingua Network (website | iTunes link) of language-learning podcasts, and our education branch website can be found at radiolinguaschools.com.

iTunes

iTunes is a tool which allows you to organise your digital content: music, audio files, movies, tv shows, podcasts and much more. It can be downloaded free from the Apple website and is available for both Mac and PC. It comes bundled on all Macs and on many HP and Dell PCs. Anyone who has an iPod, iPhone or iPad must have iTunes, so there are millions of copies of iTunes worldwide, and many of your students will be very familiar with iTunes.

iTunes Store – Podcasts

In addition to allowing you to organise your own content, iTunes lets you access content from around the web, and around the world. Click on the iTunes Store link in the left hand menu of iTunes to access music, movies, tv shows, etc. This content is available for purchase, but the iTunes Store also offers three main areas of free content which are of huge interest to educators:

• iTunes Podcasts
• iTunes U
• the App Store

Examples of podcasts used are:

• Coffee Break French
• News Time Spanish
• Mr Allsop’s GCSE History Podcast

iTunes U

While the range of materials available within the iTunes Podcasts area can be daunting and at times difficult to filter, iTunes U provides an area of content categorised by subject and organised by institution which has already gone through a quality assurance process. Examples quoted include:

• Open University Exploring Sports
• Birmingham City University
• MOMA
• HTMi: How to open a white wine

iPod Touch / iPhone apps

Time does not allow for a thorough demonstration of iPod Touch and iPhone apps. However, the following apps were mentioned:

• Dress up and make up (£1.19)
• Make a Martian (free)
• Decibel Meter (£1.19)
• Coastermate / XSensor (free)
• iRevise (£1.19)
• iStudiez Pro (£1.79)

iPad apps

I discussed various ways of using the iPad bundled apps in the classroom. Links for third party apps and content I mentioned can be found below:

• Walk Talk and Learn French podcast
• iWork for iPad (Apple website)
• Pages – Word processing (£5.99)
• Keynote – Presentations (£5.99)
• Numbers – Spreadsheets (£5.99)
• Omnigraffle – planning, mindmapping (£29.99)
• National Geographic Atlas (£1.19)
• The Guardian Eyewitness Photos (free)
• TypeDrawing – (£1.79)
• Pianist Pro - (£5.99)
• Korg iElectribe – (£5.99)
• forScore – (£2.99)
• Vuvuzela – (free)

Other resources

The Creative Classroom – a series of video podcasts produced by Apple Distinguished Educators including episodes on creating content for mobile devices.

iPad in Education – a new website created by ADE Ian Wilson looking at using the iPad in classrooms.

iPods in Essa Academy – Times online article about Abdul Chohan’s introduction of 1:1 iPods in his school.

Mobl21.com – Create mobile learning content quickly and easily, and serve it on your students’ devices

The song comes from the 1954 film of the same name which tells of three American girls looking for romance while employed by the American Embassy in Rome. Despite not being allowed to see the film or read the script, lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne came up with the song in an hour. It was recorded the following day by Frank Sinatra.

Update: Thanks, Dad: here’s a photo from 1980 taken by Mum – from left to right it’s my Dad, me, my sister Clare and my brother Derek at the Trevi fountain. Weren’t shorts short in 1980!?

It seemed only appropriate to play something Italian in memory of my gran and her brother and sisters who lived through these sad events. Rather than play something poignant, however, I’ve decided to choose a song which my gran always loved. The song Luna Caprese wasn’t released until twenty years later, but it has always been a favourite in our family. I hope I’ve done it justice.

The song is based on a popular Christian poem which tells of a dream in which the writer is walking along the beach with God. Looking back along the beach the writer identifies various stages in his life and notes that at times the two sets of footprints become one, particularly at the lowest points of his life. He questions God about why He deserted him at these difficult times. God explains that in his lowest times He didn’t abandon the writer: instead He carried him.

The song was written by Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, Richard Page and Simon Cowell and was given to 2006 X-Factor winner Leona Lewis. It was used as the 2008 Sport Relief song.

Eurovision udpate: I hope my performance of the Belarussian song on Friday didn’t bring bad luck to the performers – it came second last! Although that wasn’t as bad as the pitiful UK entry. I’m glad Germany won and hope that next year I’ll make it to the contest in person!

Norwegian

Det e ein ensom vei me går
Eg ser det klart fra der eg står
Om solen skinne litt
På meg og livet mitt
Kan eg gå den ensomme veien samen med deg

Det e ein ensom vei me går
Eg ser det klart fra der eg står
Om solen skinne litt
På meg og livet mitt
Kan eg gå den ensomme veien samen med deg

My rough translation

It’s a lonely road we go
I see it clearly from where I stand
If the sun shines a little
on me and on my life
I can walk that lonely road with you

It is not easy
to always have known where you stand
I can see the way
But do not know how possible it is.
So I can’t lead you along it,
But hand in hand, you and I,
Can watch over each other’s steps.

It’s a lonely road we go
I see it clearly from where I stand
If the sun shines a little
on me and on my life
I can walk the lonely road with you.

Now, a bit of explanation about the song I’ve chosen for today. Two years ago we had a wonderful meal (elk stew, I believe!) at Knut and Ane’s house and after the meal we had a bit of a sing-song. Knut taught us all a well-known Norwegian song which had something to do with strawberries. And that’s where the story ended. When I was trying to think up a song to play today (I felt Ja, vi elsker was maybe a bit much, and I’m keeping my Jan Teigen Eurovision classics for later this month!) I thought it would be a nice idea to find this song, work out a piano version and perform it. Armed with nothing but “Norwegian song which has something to do with strawberries” I began my research, finally finding a version by Maj Britt Andersen. I’ve based my recording on this version, and hope you enjoy it.

Så, jeg håper dere da i Norge har det kjempebra i dag og vi snees snart!

Sing-song at Knut and Ane's house