Take a Bite! The impact of Apple technology in deepening teacher and student learning.

Technology in the modern world is all pervasive and nowhere more so the in the field of education. Schools are constantly striving to ensure that their staff and students have both the best and most efficient hardware and infrastructure. They seek opportunities to be able to harness its transforming power and ultimately enhance the learning experience for students and teachers alike. The 3 parish schools in the Emmaus Catholic Parish, St. Thomas Goodwood, St. Therese Colonel Light Gardens and St. Joseph’s Kingswood – have been on a journey of collaborative partnership in developing their technology capacity, through an ongoing partnership with Apple education.

While each site has its own unique identity and strategic plan for school improvement, for the past 3 years they have been working with Apple education to improve the depth in digital learning for each site. This partnership had its genesis in the fact that each site improvement plan included targeted and coordinated provision for Apple technology across the schools. Once the IT ‘backbone’ was in place, it then evolved. In 2017, a targeted support and facilitation program sponsored by Apple Education Australia and led on site by Mr Matt Richards, who was not only an experienced educator and leader in Catholic education SA but also an Apple Distinguished Educator who had been working for Apple education. Matt worked with like-minded groups of educators at all 3 sites in action research cycle to develop their teacher’s capacity for utilising the technology available to them and to deepen their learning. At the same time, Matt partnered with staff in leading learning in the classroom.

At the commencement of the 2018 school year, each site decided to employ Matt Richards – who had become known as “Apple Matt” among the teachers and students – as a contractor, providing educational leadership and digital technology coaching services. Each site began a journey with their staff to become Apple certified educators (Apple Teachers) through online professional learning provided through Apple Education, as well as progressing toward becoming Apple Distinguished Schools. Two of the three sites have achieved this, with plans in place for all three to achieve this distinction. Across all three sites, professional learning of staff, and learning for students continued, and the available technology enabled the students to work towards becoming confident and careful creators and users of ICT – which is a key goal of CESA’s ‘Living, Learning, Leading Framework for school improvement, and the Australian curriculum.

During 2019, in partnership with Apple Education a significant learning showcase was undertaken during term 3.  A bus tour of each site was planned, where leaders and teachers provided brief snap-shot presentations about their learning improvement initiatives. This was followed by the more significant aspect of the day where participants visited classrooms to see this learning in action - and have it explained by the students themselves. This was a key aspect to our tour’s success. There were close to 70 participants from across all SA education sectors involved in the day, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive!

Apple education Business Development Executive, Sebastian Croce, highlighted many significant positive responses from the event, but best summed up by stating that from the many events Apple had run over the years, this particular event achieved a quantity and level of positive feedback that was unprecedented. The depth of teacher sharing, professionalism of the schools, planning of the day and most importantly, the level to which our students could speak about their digital learning made this possible.

Our goal was to simply share as a cluster, the deep, engaging and purposeful learning by our students and ongoing vision, through Matt Richards’ coaching, of our teachers.

Teachers from all three sites have been affirmed and empowered through their involvement in this partnership, and Principals Dan Cowan, Amanda Humeniuk and Phil Schultz look forward to the partnership continuing to deliver whole school improvement in digital technology into 2020 and beyond.