“What’s the educational value of 1-to-1 computing for teaching and learning and why Apple?”
In my role I am often asked this question. My response is that technology is just a medium through which learning can be enriched.
More crucially, it is continuous professional development and the communities of practice that one participates in that creates value.
This has been further reinforced through my participation in the Apple Professional Development Workshop 2010, Singapore.
The caliber of educators attending this event far surpassed my expectations and I have come away inspired and humbled by my peers. Apple Education run this workshop annually for a select group of people with the goal of providing a forum for sharing good practice around the planning, delivery and review of comprehensive professional develop experiences for schools integrating technology.
In addition to constant communication from our regional representative and annual events, this workshop clearly demonstrates to me that Apple are seriously committed to education and educators. This workshop involved 15 professionals from several innovative international schools in South East Asia. Working for the better part of 14 hours over 2 days we were given an opportunity to ‘cross-pollinate’ each other with strategies, activities and resources intended to enrich the educational experience with Apple technologies.
Being given the opportunity to work with these amazing people has reaffirmed my response to that question.
