Apple Distinguished Educators Institute 2012

Apple in Cork 

It has taken me a while to gather all my thoughts, ideas and inspirations from the best professional development I have ever been on. Apple is clearly the world leader for a reason and this institute highlighted why. Every detail was considered and every opportunity to develop taken. The worlds best educational innovators in awe at world class presentations from exceptional leaders. A nice fun start was a personalised 'Passport' to get to know all the different people from the global community that attended.

This was also the most trusting event I've been on and there were a few 'non-disclosure' talks, but needless to say there are some exciting times ahead.

The biggest thought to strike me during this last week was the fact that Apple have now become a world leading educational training centre, if not THE leader, could you say the same from its competitors? 

We have a great new intro to use at our own ADE courses and I can't wait. 

Fota Island in Cork was to host this event and the venue was inline with the quality of the event. We were given the opportunity to see the beauty of Ireland in what we were told was an unusually long sunny period, coincidence? But seriously I was never happier to work with colleagues long in to the night and early in the morning. 

Maybe it's because I come from a small island but I was also struck with the pace of change, many schools are finding themselves the wrong side of a new digital divide. I saw videos of many schools and districts from around the world who have already fully integrated the technology and are now looking to change the way they deliver courses. The word 'facilitator' rather than teacher was banded around many a time. We are no longer the experts, Google can easily out perform our factual recall but thankfully for all our jobs we are still (for the moment) better at linking, understanding and organising our specialisms, this is what we should be teaching not mindless content.

Without boring you with the geekier details there were a couple of big themes that emerged and I will share my experiences and personal projects. 

iBooks2

Now this is not a new concept but the real power of what iBooks can deliver was discussed and demonstrated. Even my beloved Moodle was given a potential death sentence.

We were shown new techniques to employ more creative and engaging content in our books. Abdul from Essa in the UK showed how his teachers use iBooks for their content saving considerable amounts in text books and printing. Open University showed us how linking pages together can produce large panoramic photos that have expectational video hotspot. Also they demonstrated how YouTube can be embedded to reduce file sizes. Now we know webpages can be embedded within the books automated assessment becomes exciting. Previously assessment widgets were kept inside the books and therefore of little use to the progressive teacher. Now with ether FileMaker or GoogleDocs you could embed recordable assessment to servers. Other widgets allowed for live polls and various exciting opportunities. I will investigate these an post the results.

iTunesU

For me this has the potential to change things in a big way.  iTunesU isn't as high quality as iBooks but allows teachers to use existing materials and publish them to the world, this can be done via iTunesU (pending approval) or by direct links. You can link Youtube (or other video), PDF's, Presentations, basically any content. Students can complete their own learning at their own pace with exciting content. Schools that do not allow Youtube and the like are going to face some serious questions in the future. Assessment is still not quite there yet on iTunesU but I would think that is about to change...

The main projects that I will be completing are both based around iTunesU. Firstly I will be making (with the help of my team, 4E) a starter guide for teachers who want/need to use the iPad. The series will start from extreme beginner to expert (eventually) and will be called 'Stepping Stones'. Teachers will find their natural starting point and can download as many or as little as they need depending on their needs. I will post a demo version as quickly as possible, so download iTunesU App now

Secondly I will be preparing my own A-Level ICT and Art & Design course for students to use. I have not told them yet but I will be posting some reading material online for them before the start of term as a trial to help students to start courses running and gain teaching/facilitating time.

iTunesUniversity?

There was much discussions on the last day between a few of us but before I go further I must state the following is total conjecture and we were not privy to any unique insight.  At the end of a long course we all like to predict the future and the following musing was banded around....

With added assessment iTunesU could potentially have the ability to record progress on the iTunes server. With enough quality material and correct assessment online students could access FREE courses that have certain credits associated, build up enough credits and you could gain an Apple Degree! Maybe this would not be recognised by anyone expect Apple but they employ enough people that they could get staff to train themselves for free before applying for jobs! Free access to training for all, that would quickly be a model employed by many large scale companies. We will see....

Extras

There was a lot of love in the room when Bill Rankin, ADE Class of 2009, presented his theories on education. His presentation was the slickest I've ever seen and only used Keynote for an array of special effects that many of us had never seen or thought possible. A few of us collared him afterwards and I will be demonstrating a few of these over the coming months. 

Some of the more crazy runners decided to join a nice little 5k fun run in Carrigtwohill. It's worth mentioning that we ran an extra 3k home after. Can you spot the GoPro trial video?

My worst/best experience was presenting in front of 270 Apple experts was a little daunting but I got through it on adrenaline and auto pilot, the blinding light helped a little too. 

The high quality of Film and especially audio was of an exceptional level and I will endevour to emulate the professonal experince I saw when I return. To help you with your own video join your first iTunesU course with this great example on how to produce quality film content:

Creating Quality Media - Course (View on iOS Device)

Once again thanks for giving up your valuable time to read my less than perfect grammar, I hope it interested you. 

@JerseyITguy

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I could resist the cheesy unofficial Apple Photo