Anyone who works with groups of children knows how sometimes, despite our best efforts, the noise levels get a bit out of control. Teachers, day care providers and even parents will be pleased to know there’s a simple, practical app for monitoring noise levels and to help keep things under control.
Too Noisy Pro is an educational tool for iPhone and iPad that provides a metered measurement of noise levels and lets everyone know when it has reached an unacceptable level. Too Noisy Pro has several features that make it useful and user-friendly in just about any environment where noise levels matter.
Too Noisy Pro has a “noise meter” that fluctuates with the sounds it picks up. An onscreen animated face responds with expressions that indicate his satisfaction with the noise level. If the noise level remains in the green, he’s happy. But if the noise level begins to escalate, he begins to show concern, and finally dissatisfaction.
When the noise has reached an unacceptable level for more than 3 seconds, an alarm sounds and screen animation makes it appear as if the screen has cracked. It’s an effective noise monitor that even young children can relate to.
Additional features of Too Noisy Pro include an “incident” counter, which keeps track of the number of noise level “violations” that have occurred since last resetting the counter and an adjustable sensitivity level setting.
Sensitivity is measured as “more” or “less” and can correspond to the level of activity you are engaging in. In other words, a classroom birthday party or group art project may warrant less sensitivity than say, a test or assigned “quite time.” Regardless of the activity, Too Noisy Pro will serve as a noise level monitor for small or large groups.
While compatible with all iDevices running iOS 5 or later, Too Noisy Pro best serves a larger group of kids on iPad. Whether you place it in full view of a classroom on a stand or project it to a monitor or other screen using an Apple TV device, the intent is for the whole group to be able to view it.
If you’re a teacher, Scout leader, parent of multiple children or anyone who works with children in groups, Too Noisy Pro is a simple, but handy tool for controlling noise levels. Introducing kids to the concept is simple enough and they can relate to the changing expressions of the animated face and anticipate the alarm, thus practicing self-monitoring.
Sure, there are a few kids who will want to test the limits of the app and I would recommend showing them what the alarm and screen crack looks like just to satisfy their curiosity. When you’re ready to employ Too Noisy Pro, set your own rules and rewards based on the incident counter and see if your group responds.
To try out the Too Noisy Pro concept, you can download the free version, Too Noisy first. It includes only the noise monitor, with no incident counter and eliminates Facebook and Twitter integration as well as the in-app link to the developer for suggestions or questions. You can’t go wrong with the concept and yet for a mere dollar, the noise monitor with incident counter found in the pro version is money well spent.
