Apple technologies for Personalised Professional Learning

How do you leverage Apple technologies for staff personalised professional learning?

I'm Adam Slater, an Apple Distinguished Educator (class of 2019) and school Principal at St Joseph's Memorial School in Adelaide, South Australia. I am currently undertaking my PhD, and I have led the successful application for my previous school, Holy Family Catholic School, to become an Apple Distinguished School.

There are endless ways to harness Apple technologies to create professional learning opportunities that effectively transform how we all work for the better. My intention as a leader of a school has been to develop teachers' capacities for the impactful use of Apple technology to redefine learning and improve the quality of content and work produced. My clear aim to provide personalised professional learning using Apple technology has enabled teachers to expand the ways they think and create to have an integral tool to use when they need to effectively connect, collaborate, and create.

Providing professional learning that uses technology to connect

Technology used at its full potential allows teachers to provide their students with engaging content, new ways to have access, and tools to make impactful learning that is relevant to the world of each class member.

So what are the impactful ways to do this…..

Apple teacher professional learning

We have used Apple technology and resources to enable all staff to undertake the Apple teacher accreditation, to provide the opportunity to demonstrate and learn new ways to use the technology as a tool to have an even greater impact on learning. As Principal, I have found that guiding staff through undertaking the Apple Teacher accreditation has always been met with 100% buy-in by all teachers and leads to a great sense of understanding and accomplishment.

When leaders provide staff with the opportunities to learn from experts in the field to develop teachers’ collective knowledge skills and efficacy, this can have profound impacts on how they connect and use technology to redefine learning. At my previous school as Deputy Principal, our Principal Kerry White (ADE) at Holy Family Catholic School (ADS), organised for Paul Hamilton from ‘Using Technology Better’ to work with the staff to prototype apps, use co-spaces, and create animated gifs. As leaders, we only know so much, so when we have opportunities for experts to lead staff professional learning, there are great impacts on their own practices and, more importantly, the learning that is passed onto their students.

Providing professional learning that uses technology to collaborate

Technology can also enhance the ways people create and work together toward a shared purpose, allowing more opportunities for individuals to form relationships and contribute their unique talents to meaningful work.

Last year, at St Joseph's, our school organised two teachers to work with Maker's Empire consultants to undertake a collaborative project between two-year levels (years 2 and 6) to use their provided Macbook Air Apple laptops, Maker's Empire software, and our school's 3D printer to create and share a showcase of a problem they have solved by creating a constructed device to stop the school soccer nets from wear and tear.

At my previous school, Holy Family Catholic School (ADS), we led teachers through professional learning that enabled them to undertake a project with schools in Australia and the USA using Flipgrid to collaborate with the American school to create pouches that the Australian school would pass onto a rescue centre to help the animals impacted by the bushfires in our region.

Providing professional learning that uses technology to create

The staff can take ownership of how they learn and demonstrate mastery of that learning. Students can use assistive technologies to move at their own pace and build a personal learning path.

As a leader, it is important to provide teachers with trust, autonomy, and agency to take their own learning further. At my previous school, I was aware of a specific staff member who had a deep interest in using technology to present new ways to engage and enhance learning. We would connect, and the teacher had permission to try new things, such as exploring how to make holograms with iPads, how to use Keynote to create transparent layered animations, and using 2D student designs to be transformed into 3D augmented reality environments. The video outlines the teacher’s personalised journey to take their own knowledge and use of technology in redefined ways.

How do you leverage Apple technologies for personalised professional learning to enable staff to connect, collaborate and create impactful learning opportunities?