E-learning @ KC
From the E-learning Strategic Planning Day | Term 1, 2020
Introducing your e-Vangelists
- Melissa Irving — Deputy Head, Pedagogy | ELT
- Stuart Mainwaring — Director of Information Services | SLT
- David Parr — Head of E-learning | Art, Technology and Computer Science
- Melyssa Banham — English
- Steve Kiesanowski — Mathematics
- Steph Collingwood — Sciences
- Mike Stewart — Social Studies, History and Geography
- Lauren Lethbridge — Classics, Modern Languages
- Mark Johnson — Economics and Commerce
- Simon Filice — Music
- Matthew Way — Information Services Engineer
We decided at our most recent meeting that we should publish our deliberations so that all staff could be aware of developments in e-learning at the College. This is our first newsletter.
A sponsored feature about the important role played by our eVangelists in the College’s e-learning programme appeared in the New Zealand Herald on 13 January. Read it here.
Core Competencies and how your e-Vangelist can help
- iPads at all levels (Year 9 – 13)
- iTunes U for all courses
- a digital unit of work aimed at the Modification or Redefinition levels of the SAMR model
- meeting core competencies by gaining Apple Teacher badge in iPad
I referred to Rachel Ellis’ and John Hattie’s research on Collective Teacher Efficacy which identified it as the second highest influence related to student achievement [link]. I suggested Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR and Mishra and Koehler’s TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge) models as conceptual frameworks on which to structure your thinking about the last two goals. Remember putting the pizza into pizzazz…
Technology
The result…
Content
Pedagogy
In the meantime, we are keen to find out what aspects of e-learning about which you want to learn more, and Lauren will be sending out a questionnaire to this end soon. One of our focuses this year is to get the e-Vangelists more involved in helping you develop your TPACK.
Federated Authentication (Nerd Alert)
Because our iPad programme requires parents to provide their son’s or daughter’s devices, we have limited control over them: if we provided the iPads, as many schools do, we would have almost total control over them. Enter federated authentication, an initiative between Microsoft and Apple which integrates these systems:
- Microsoft Azure Active Directory — this controls our institutional identity (username and password). Our institutional IDs are then used as Managed Apple IDs by…
- Apple School Manager — Managed Apple IDs are required for device management and apps such as Classroom and Classwork. It extracts classes from Synergetic so they appear in your Classroom, Classwork and iTunes U apps rather than you having to Invite students to join. If a student leaves or joins a class, the changes will appear automatically.
- JAMF Mobile Device Management — this is our MDM, which we can use to control devices and usage. In combination with Apple School Manager we can distribute apps and books purchased with the VPP (Volume Purchase Programme) at considerably reduced prices.
- Your personal Apple ID — used for all your personal stuff such as apps, books, music and video purchases. Some apps, such as Mail, Safari (favourites, bookmarks, history, passwords) and Notes, straddle both IDs as you’re likely to be using them in both contexts.
- iCloud — Managed Apple IDs give staff and students 200GB free iCloud storage. This is an important component of collaborative features in Classwork, Pages, Keynote, Numbers
So rather than having to invite your students to join a class in Classroom, for example, all your classes will automatically be populated in the Classroom app by Apple School Manager from Synergetic.
Stuart Mainwaring, Steven Porter, Matt Way and I have had conference calls with Apple engineers in Australia to work through the project and we should be ready to trial federated authentication with select classes soon.