educator's companion to PD

Season 1, Episode 3 of the Educator’s Companion to PD (Show Notes)–Taking a Byte Out of Apple

By Judy Imamudeen | June 20, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

I know that a lot of people enjoying reading and skimming through podcast show notes to get a gist of the highlights of the episode. This podcast was originally recorded back in June 2017. To listen to the podcast, please go here.

Can you think back to your first experience with an Apple product? Was it with an iPod, iPhone, Mac or iPad?

My “aha” Apple moment was several years ago when we went on a trip to India with my family and friends. My daughter was turning 1 year old at the time and she was eager to explore and crawl around. Now I don’t know if you have ever been to India, which is a fantastic country, but with over a billion people, there is a lot of humanity and it was really hard to contain my daughter’s eagerness to crawl all over the ground. My friend Eric, in his wisdom, had downloaded a few toddler apps on his iPhone, and I can’t begin to tell you how much this saved us during our adventures in India. Although she was barely 1, she could completely navigate and engage with the games on his device. It blew my mind away. Clearly, Apple had designed such a user-friendly interface that even a toddler could use it. After this trip, I was transformed and became a technology optimist and began an advocate for its use in classrooms.

Now let me just say that Steve Jobs, the well-known founder of Apple, had been conspiring to hook us educators on its products nearly since The company’s inception. You see Apple has always been vying for its place in education ever since the Apple 2 was introduced into classrooms in 1978. Back in the early 80’s Jobs marched up and down the halls of Congress for weeks to actively lobby them with an initiative called Kids Can’t Wait. This allowed corporations to make it easier to get tax breaks for donating to schools, libraries, and museums. It was after this push that Apple soon came to dominate the education PC market (for a while at least), and developed initiatives like the Apple Distinguished Educator program and research projects like Apple Classroom of Tomorrow. So you could say that educators have been taking a “byte” out of the Apple for quite some time now. With the advent of iPads, tablets have become a staple in schools around the world, with over 8 million iPads in schools across the globe.

What is it?

So now that you know this, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Apple has created an online Apple Teacher program. When Apple first started teaching teachers about computing, its focus was on programming with LOGO. Nowadays the Apple program is focused specifically on the features and tools of their products, allowing you to take 2 tracks–either on the MAC or iPads. And you can deep dive into the tools on applications such as Numbers, Garage Band, iMovie, and Keynote. You may think you know these apps well, but I guarantee that you will discover new things they can do with Apple Tools. Once you complete the training, you are provided Recognition with a special badge that you can put on your resume or CV, website or blog.

How does the program work?

How you get the certification?
What the certification means?

First of all, yuh need to head over to Appleteacher.apple.com and sign in using your Apple ID. Once you’ve logged in, you have to select your learning track, which will be with Mac or IPad. There you will review and study materials and pass the quiz for each app which will earn you a badge. Once you earn all 8 of the badges, you get the certification. For example, when I got my certificates, I had to get learning badges for the iPad, Pages, Numbers iMovie, GarageBand, keynote, creativity, And productivity with the iPad. Once I had all the badges, I was emailed my Apple Teacher logo and certification. It was a very straightforward and easy system.

The 3/2/1: 3 Pros, 2 Cons, and 1 Tip

The Pros:

The program is constantly evolving and expanding. Since the program launched in the summer of 2016, Apple has already added badges for teaching coding with Swift Playgrounds. I expect more apps will be launched and the training will go with it. Also, earning badges in education is a trend that teachers need to pay attention to. I think in the future, our degree programs will be either augmented or replaced by badge systems. My opinion, but I think earning these symbols of recognition will be an important aspect of determining whether a teacher is “highly qualified” when it comes to 21st-century learning. Apple means to be a mover and a shaker in education, so I believe that their badges are going to carrying more clout as the program continues to evolve. After becoming an Apple Teacher, be sure to get the little badge/graphic so you can advertise your expertise either on your classroom door, blog, or website.
There is a growing community of Apple Teachers. You can get your geek on and join Follow #appleteacher on Twitter to connect with other like-minded educators.The resources are fantastic. It’s not just about the badges. There are some fantastic resources here. Stories of technology being used in the classroom, starter guides for the most often used apps, teacher-created iBooks and much, much more.
You can go deeper and apply to become an Apple Distinguished Educator. As per the 2017 guidelines, you must be employed in an academic capacity and submit a 2-minute video that demonstrates how you transforming the learning environment and creating success in the learning as well as extending your reach in education beyond your classroom walls. All applicants must attend an in-person ADE Academy event, which would cost a chunk of change, but you could imagine what an inspiring and life-changing event this could be. Perhaps something to look forward to doing some time in the future if you’re an Apple Geek.

The Cons:

Learning through iBooks: Currently, the program’s content is offered through ebooks, which I personally found a bit bland and I really wanted more of a multimedia approach with the How To’s, especially when I worked through the module on Garage Band and iMovie. I ended up going onto YouTube to watch videos, which was a bit confusing since there are different ways to navigate features on the iPad vs. the Mac, and there are different versions of the apps.
It’s easy to Cheat: Meaning that you can take the quiz over and over again without really demonstrating true expertise in an app. Once you know the questions, it’s easy to go back and find the answers in the ebook without really developing the skill. I have a confession, I totally did that with the Numbers module. I am not a spreadsheet person so the least amount of effort I could put into that module, I did, but I didn’t feel that I really mastered the nuances of the app because the quizzes didn’t demand it from me.

So head on over to appleteacher.apple.com

Judy Imamudeen

Developing learners as leaders is my joy! I am committed and passionate International Baccaluearate (IB) educator who loves cracking jokes, jumping on trampolines and reading books. When I’m not playing Minecraft with my daughter, I work on empowering others in order to create a future that works for everyone.

judyimamudeen.com

Season 1, Episode 2: Getting a Harvard Education with MOOCs on The Educator’s Companion to PD Podcast (Show Notes)

By Judy Imamudeen | June 6, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

I know that a lot of people enjoying reading and skimming through podcast show notes to get a gist of the highlights of the episode. This podcast was originally recorded back in May 2017. To listen to the podcast, please go here.

Today we are going to talk about one of my favorite free learning resources: MOOCs. Spelled M. O. O. C. Perhaps you have heard of them. But otherwise, you might be thinking, Huh what’s a MOOC? Yep, it’s a real word and it stands for Massive Open Online Course.

Massive means there’s a ton of choice of courses and the opportunity for many people to sign up. In a typical course, maybe 30 students sign up, but here you could literally have hundreds, if not thousands.

Open means that anyone can sign up and take the course, anytime and from anywhere. Its content is unlicensed and is free if you choose to audit it.

Otherwise, certification can cost you upwards to 100 USD. In some cases, there are micro-credentials programs, which would cost beyond that, but today we are just focusing on one-off courses.

Online means that all of the learning content happens via the internet. Most of the interaction happens on one platform and in the online forums. Participants sign up and work through the modules, which can be done at any time of the day. The learning is asynchronized and so you needn’t complete work on specific time deadlines and can be very much self-paced.

Course means that it is structured with the intent to develop knowledge and skills. There is a curriculum to work through, complete with class outlines or syllabi that a participant works through during the class. Oftentimes you can get college credit or certification by completing the course and paying a fee.

Sounds pretty good, right! Yes, it is! And MOOCs are really making it possible for people to be lifelong learners because there is no shortage of courses or programs that one can explore. In fact, they are poised to really disrupt higher education with the focus on competency-based education that emphasizes what students know and are able to do, rather than on how long it takes them to do it. Although I don’t want to really go into how MOOCs are challenging the status quo when it comes to getting degrees, let’s just say that MOOCs are evolving and creating “micro Masters” programs so that one can really uplevel their knowledge and skills. So this is really a fantastic time to get on board the MOOC train because you have some fabulous professional development from high-quality universities.

So although there are many MOOC providers, I want to explore a few of them that have relevant courses for educators.

1. EdX: Courses are offered by well-known universities like MIT, Harvard University, Boston University, UC Berkeley, Kyoto University, Australian National University, University of Adelaide, University of Queensland, IIT Bombay, IIM Bangalore, Dartmouth College, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Curtin University. You can learn anything from Design thinking to strategies for inquiry-based learning to Big Data and education. There’s no shortage of interesting and relevant courses that you can take so that you can become more informed and innovative in your classroom.

2. The next one is Cousera. Courses here are offered by universities such as Stanford University, Princeton University, Arizona State University, University of Maryland College Park, Yale and Duke Universities. Here you can learn about topics such as emerging trends and technology for virtual classrooms, music in the 21st-century classroom, autism spectrum disorder, digital storytelling, copyright for teachers and librarians. The list goes on.

3. My 3rd favorite MOOC provider is FutureLearn and most of these universities hail from the UK such as the University of Birmingham, University of Edinburgh, King’s College London, University of Leicester, University of Reading, Open University, University of Southampton. There you can explore topics such as Assessment for Learning in STEM teaching, Mindfulness, Dyslexia and foreign language teaching, science writing, Getting a grip on mathematical symbolism, learning how to code, and social well-being. Again, a plethora of choices.

4. Another great MOOC provider is Open2Study which offers courses from a mulititude of Australian universities such as James Cook University, Griffith University, University of Wollongong, Flinders University, RMIT University, Central Institute of Technology, Sydney Institute, University of Western Sydney, Polytechnic West, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Newcastle, Jordan University of Science and Technology, University of Tasmania, International College of Management, Sydney, Massey University. There you can explore topics such as Early Childhood teaching, Sports and recreation management, the Human Body as a Machine, Education in a Changing World, Foundations in Psychology, the Art of Photography, and World Music. Again, a multitude of topics to pique your interest.

5. Lastly, I want to speak about the Canvas Network whose courses are made from a network of American universities based in Utah. You can take courses about digital tools for K-12 educators, art appreciation, chemistry, grammar, educating girls, digital citizenship. and economics. One of my favorite courses I’ve ever taken, and probably the one that hooked me into taking MOOCs was offered by then. It was about becoming more creative.

There are more MOOC providers but these are my top picks for educators. Since you have figured out your learning goal already and know what topics you want to explore, you can easily browse on any of these sites to find courses that would match your professional interest. Complete one course at a time. It’s tempting to sign up for 10, but stay focused. Most courses will tell you how long it will take to complete, with roughly 2-4 hours a week being an average.

Now I’d like to do a segment that I am calling the 3/2/1. 3 pros of this of the resource. 2 Cons and 1 idea to help you succeed.

3 pros of this resource:

These are high-quality courses, nearly the equivalent of a college class.
You can participate at any time or as much or as little as you want, so your level of engagement is defined by you.
You can explore a variety of perspectives on an educational topic, or gain timely content knowledge that you can use in your lesson plans.

2 Cons

Since these classes aren’t going toward a degree, courses aren’t usually offered over and over again as they might in a traditional college with its semesters. If you missed the sign-up date, there’s a chance you can still access an archived version of the course, but it just depends on how it was set up.
On some MOOC sites, they are really pushing that you pay for the courses. For example, on Cousera, you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the sign-up page before you see an “audit this class for free” button. If you need continuing education credits for your teaching license certification, then you have to pay for it. So that’s the caveat on this, however, if you want to enroll in the class for free, you can always upgrade and pay for it later to get credits towards your certification and the price is rarely more than 50 USD. So I might suggest that you sign up and see your willing to see this class to the end before I make the investment in it if you need professional development certification credits.

1-Idea for success

There are a ton of interesting subjects being explored via MOOCs. Before signing up for a MOOC, look back at your goal–is this course really in alignment with what you’re trying to accomplish? Read through the syllabi to ensure that it’s covering topics that will move you towards accomplishing your goal. Looking through the syllabus carefully will also help you to make sure that you have the prerequisite skills for completing it. For example, I signed up for a Robotics MOOC and then later I found out that I had to take a pre-test that tested my knowledge of Linear Algebra. Since it’s been ages since I took higher math, I went over to Khan Academy to reteach myself. When I did that, I realized that I would really need to invest more time in getting the prerequisite skills to do the MOOC. So I re-examined why I wanted to take the course and decided that my time invested in this course wouldn’t really help me become a better teacher, hence I dropped the course.

Hopefully, this overview was helpful and got you thinking about how you can deepen your knowledge of current and important pedagogy without spending loads of money. If you have any other MOOC providers that you also feel are worthy of notice, then comment below. Thanks!

Judy Imamudeen

judyimamudeen.com