Howdy from a cold and wet London!
I have been fortunate enough to be in London to attend two stunning Edtech conferences - the Apple Leadership Summit and BETT.
The Apple Summit, held at the amazing Crystal in the Docklands, was a great opportunity to see the best of what iPad’s can do to transform education. There were real life stories from different schools across Europe who use technology to create personalized learning for students from a variety of backgrounds. This ranged from making their own music using GarageBand all the way to using code to program drones!
Attendees were put in the shoes of students and experienced capturing new ideas, working with others and then ultimately creating something personal for themselves. This is where education can be really powerful - when learning is tailored to their own individual needs and they are themselves involved in creating this learning.
Sustainability is a big feature at the Crystal, with displays about saving water (very pertinent for us Capetonians!) and recycling waste used as the content for creating lessons. What I am most struck by is how big an impact a device like an iPad can have on a field trip - the ability to record information through photos and videos and then immediately use this information to create learning materials, whether in the form of a blog post or a creative video using the amazing new Clips app (a firm favorite at the Summit, by the way!).
Seeing educators from around the world with a twinkle in their eye, excited at the possibilities that technology can bring to the classroom also creates some excitement in those around them. The vibe was one of enthusiasm and I’m sure most people who were at the Apple event are going back to their respective schools and asking them to get the cheque books out!
I’m off now to attend day 1 of BETT and I will surely let you know how it went - stay tuned!
TTT
