Keynote Whiteboarding

"If you stumble, make it part of the dance." 

—Unknown

Sometimes, in the midst of trials and/or failures, you can accidentally come across something brilliant. I have a new technique to share that you may find to be exceptionally useful—maybe even brilliant!

As part of an Apple Academy professional learning program in which I participated this summer, I gave some examples of how technology can be used to transform instruction. My example included using any Apple iOS device (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch) as a tool to present Keynote presentations using the presenter control features. Presenters can see the current and next slides, view presenter notes, make drawings on slides, and use a laser pointer effect to ditch your laser pointer. Those features alone are worth sharing with teachers.

But wait, there's more.

My new idea, which I call "Keynote Whiteboarding," allows teachers and students to wirelessly share their ideas on a digital whiteboard using Keynote. Using a Keynote presentation with blank slides built in allows students or teachers to use the highlighting and drawing tools to write on slides wirelessly as they walk around the room. The screen capture function (press the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons simultaneously) allows you to save the whiteboard ideas in your camera roll.

The following video demonstrates how to set up your iPad and MacBook Air for "Keynote Whiteboarding."

Current Research and Recommendations on Screen Time

In my seventeen years in educational technology leadership, the issue of “screen time” has been ever-present and often controversial. As technology device access and use rises among all Americans, including school-age children, the news media and popular culture increase coverage on the topic. At the same time, more and more schools continue to implement 1:1 technology device programs as the cost of devices falls and access to high-quality digital learning material increases.

Schools often find themselves caught in the middle in the screen time debate. The news media has an affinity for demonizing the idea of screen time, but often fails to explain or define the details and issues behind the supposed ill effects. Further, many screen time web and newspaper articles are written from a non-education perspective, but fail to mention this—or any context—for the studies, findings, or recommendations.

Not all screen time is bad. Devices are not manufactured imbued with some unnamed “evil factor” that is gradually released into human eyes over time. A child (or adult) sitting in a near-catatonic state watching Adventure Time in rapid succession is having a very different screen time experience than a child (or adult) writing, recording, editing, and sharing an original movie using an iPad.

Further, the defintion of “screen time” is seldom discussed in doom-and-gloom media coverage. In nearly every medical context that provides a definition, lack of physical activity is the primary issue of screen time. For example, the National Institutes of Health (www.nih.gov) state, “Screen time is sedentary activity, meaning you are being physically inactive while sitting down. Very little energy is used during screen time.” Using this logic, reading a book would present the same health risks as screen time.

If you find yourself in a screen time discussion, please consider reading a short article I researched and wrote on the topic of screen time. Please feel free to share the article with parents, teachers, and anyone else who may need more information about screen time.

bit.ly/220screentime

To Update, or Not to Update...

Over the past few weeks, Apple has been busy issuing updates to both iOS (for iPhones and iPads) and macOS (Mac laptops and desktops). On a Mac, available updates are shown in the App Store app (Updates tab), while on iOS, available updates are shown on the Settings app (Settings > General > Software Update).

In the tech department, we often get the question, “Should I update?” when new updates are released. The simple answer is, “yes!” Updating is important to maintain security and consistency across the district. At the same time, flexibility is available on when to apply the update.

Early Adopter

If you are a user who loves to have new features the moment they are available, you are likely in the category where you will update immediately. Two downsides are apparent for the early adopters:

1. While Apple tests updates extensively, often months before release, there is an occasional problem identified on the day an update is released. These issues are usually fixed immediately and a small number of users might be affected.
2. You may find that a specific Barrington 220 system has a conflict with the new system. For example, an update last year caused our iPrint printing system to stop working.

When a significant district-level issue is identified, the tech department will issue a district email with the information as soon as we know about the problem.

Cautious Majority

The technology adoption life cycle model identifies both “early majority” and “late majority” as separate categories, but for the purpose of this discussion, the “majority” is more cautious than the early adopters. The issue becomes how much time to wait before updating.

Since issues are identified usually on the first day of an update, more cautious users should wait at least a day. However, since district issues may take a few days longer to identify, waiting one week is probably as cautious as is necessary. One week will likely allow the district to identify and solve any potential problems.

Please note that if a significant issue is discovered, the district tech department will send an initial email stating the issue with a recommendation to users, and if necessary, send a later email explaining next steps or the suggestion to upgrade.

Bottom Line

When an update notification appears, update your device(s). To avoid a potential problem, wait a week.

2016 ISTE Recap

Every year I am overwhelmed by the sheer number of sessions offered at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference. This year in Denver, CO, I spent my time in sessions taught by those whose Twitter accounts highlight my timeline. I also chose to attend a few sessions led by people I didn't know, as long as they focused on the topic of blended learning. If you've been to the annual Illinois Computing Educators (ICE) Conference, you're aware of how difficult it can be to make a choice between two or more interesting sessions in a specific time slot. Multiply that feeling by at least a factor of ten, and you understand the weight of the decision I faced at the start of each session. Thanks to a strong culture of sharing resources and a well-constructed app, the materials for most sessions can still be accessed regardless of attendance.

Ignite
I began ISTE by selecting an "Ignite Session," 75 minutes worth of 5-minute, hyperactive, motivational proclamations meant to trigger creative ideas for improvements in education. I love "Ignite Sessions." I find them disruptive and validating at the same time, a balance between a call for creative innovation and righteous support for the ideas I share about the direction of instruction in 220. My favorite ignite speech by Michael Roush (@mdroush) focused on the rules of education being broken. Rather than follow the "rules" of teaching a lesson, assigning homework, giving a quiz—he fancied an analogy about Monopoly. He pointed out that although most people claim to play Monopoly by the rules, nobody has ever claimed to have read the rather lengthy instructions booklet, in 6-point font. He argues that it's good that we make up our own rules because they make the game better and more fun. Our lessons should provide the same fluidity and ability to change the rules.

Gizmos and Gadgets for Use In (but mostly Out) of the Classroom
I don't mind completely admitting that I am a gadget nerd, but Steve Dembo (@teach42) of Discovery Education and Adam Bellow (@adambellow) of eduTecher, eduClipper, WeLearnedIt, and more, make me look cool. They cruised through an hour's-worth of the latest and greatest technology toys available for purchase or pre-order. I included this session in my summary specifically for three reasons. First, I hope we can all claim a little technology nerd in us to best connect with an increasing population of technology nerd-students. Second, this session demonstrated the value of opportunities for all people to share their passion. The energy Steve and Adam injected into the session just from their own personal excitement about the topic catalyzed interest throughout all of the attendees. Third, there are some really cool technologies in the works specifically for education. My favorite is a set of in-ear buds that connect via Bluetooth to a device and simultaneously translate any language being heard into the language of choice in real time! A student who only understands Mandarin could use these ear buds to translate anything a teacher speaking English says into his native tongue as s/he says it! Incredible! For the low price of $200 a set, I am tempted to pre-order a pair just for myself.

Fear the Sitting Dead: Bringing PD Back to Life
The "Fear the Sitting Dead: Bringing PD Back to Life" session introduced a few quick tips for leading technology-based professional development for teachers, but I found that many of the strategies could also be used in the classroom as a way for students to share different educational apps and tools with their peers. Steve Dembo (@teach42) and Adam Bellow (@adambellow) the following ways for sharing ideas:

Allourideas—The All Our Ideas website allows leaders to provide choices for the entire group to “choose” by casting electronic votes through the All Our Ideas website. Teachers or students can, therefore, differentiate their message to their audience. This would especially benefit presenters working with a largely unknown audience.

Ignite—As mentioned above, Ignite sessions cover a larger number of topics with short, on-point presentations from different teachers or students. This provides the audience with multiple, excellent ideas in a short period of time. From a leadership perspective, the Ignite sessions can give any and all teachers the chance to share something from their lessons without the pressure of preparing anything more than five minutes worth of material.

Speed Dating—Speed Dating is a learning method that allows to half of the group to prepare something short to share with others and the rest of the group to rotate through the presenters. This method provides participants with plenty of tested ideas. Just like the Ignite sessions, any teacher can prepare and share a speed dating topic as it only requires a couple of minutes of sharing repeated several times.

Sketch-noting—Sketchnoting refers to taking notes on information by drawing images and words in an artistic way to best represent important information and learning. To find great examples of sketchnoting, perform a Google search for Sylvia Duckworth (@sylviaduckworth) and refine your search to images. In addition to being a great follow on Twitter, Sylvia has defined sketchnoting in education through sharing her own sketchnotes.

Sketchnoting for Beginners from @sylviaduckworth

Any professional development experience should answer three questions:

1. What would you learn if you had the time?
2. How would this help you grow professionally?
3. How would this help your students grow?

I loved this conference. I highly recommend ISTE to anyone interested in attending in June 2017. If you have any questions or want to know more, please let me know: jjrobinson@barrington220.org, 224.230.8520, or @ijoerobinson

What's NEXT for Schoology?

The Schoology #NEXT Conference this past summer heightened my awareness to additional ways to use Schoology to transform our classrooms. I will review some of the best sessions I attended at Schoology NEXT below:

Keynote

During the keynote address, several Schoology executives presented the exciting changes they plan on implementing to the Schoology program during this school year. Two of these advances stood out from the rest for Barrington 220:

1. Schoology plans to engage more software companies to program their products to work seamlessly with Schoology (much like Google currently does). 
2. Schoology plans to offer a new assessment tool with increased options for assessing students.

Opening Schoology to more software companies will continue to streamline Schoology’s role in a classroom centered on creativity. Right now, certain programs and apps only allow links, rather than actual project files, to be posted to and open in Schoology. For example, an animation created in Explain Everything can only be posted as a link to the animation, rather than posting as the actual animation directly on the page on Schoology (for now).

The next session I attended described the new assessment options available within Schoology courses.

AMP: Assessment Management Program

Schoology’s new Assessment Management Program (AMP) incorporates some slick new options for assessing and tracking student learning using the Schoology formative and summative assessment tools.

Some of the highlighted additions featured included the ability for Schoology Administrators to measure all students across a district on common assessments offered through Schoology. This could be a tremendous addition to our data analysis practices for our department chairs at the high school, curriculum leaders at the middle schools, and the steering committees at the elementary schools.

Assessments can now be offered throughout an entire district rather than shared only by teacher to teacher. Assessment Coordinators can edit and revise those district assessments. Mastery grading options and live updates help teachers using standards-based assessment practices best communicate student progress to students and parents. All assessments now include the options to send alerts via notifications to keep students and parents up to date.

The assessment questions also received a boost as new question types will be added. Grading features will also be added to allow for anonymous grading, peer grading, and distributed grading.

Bill Nye Keynote

Bill Nye spoke eloquently with great humor about three main ideas to consider when thinking about how to use Schoology in a blended learning model.

1. Dr. Nye advised that teachers spend a great deal of time and effort on the design of the lessons. He compared the importance of design to how NASA spends time preparing the designs of their rockets, satellites, and shuttles before ever building them to ensure their success. Once the design is made, it becomes more difficult to make changes.
2. Dr. Nye stressed the importance of never blaming the students. He reiterated the importance of the design of lessons, whether online or not, leading to the success of students. When lessons are not successful, it probably speaks more about the lesson design than the students.
3. Dr. Nye encouraged everyone to be optimistic. He exuded a pleasant spirit throughout his address, exemplifying this message. He connected this idea to being passionate teachers and even referenced “Teach Like a Pirate” by Dave Burgess.

How Apple Caught My Eye

Apple continues to catch our eye with innovative, eye-popping, user-friendly devices and apps. Recently, I spent an entire week at the Apple Campus in Cupertino, CA. What I learned and experienced impacted me on a much deeper level than hardware and software. The Apple Educator Training helped shape my instructional passions.

The week began with meeting about 20 colleagues from around the United States along with our Apple Educators for the week. We then learned about our Apple Educator Training course objectives:

I personally related to the first and third objectives the most. Barrington 220's One to World initiative requires that we become acquainted with our new Apple MacBook Air and iPad Air devices. However, the intention of the One to World initiative has never been solely to provide students with devices. The intention is to open learning opportunities and experiences not possible without the use of a device. The One to World initiative is about instructional practices more than hardware and software. Therefore, the first objective, "Ensure educators understand the qualities and behaviors of learning excellence," leapt off the screen and into my heart. We need to build capacity for how technology can truly transform and—to borrow a term from Kristin Ziemke—amplify our instruction.

The third objective relates to the sheer size of our school district. Our many teachers cannot all rely on just a few people throughout the district to relay the messages of how technology impacts best practices in instruction. Rather, we need a growing number of layers of educators who understand the many paths to success and can help to bring others along to serve as an additional layer of support. Through our District Technology Committee and our LaunchPad program, we established our foundational teachers to "Enhance the readiness of individuals for their role in leading ongoing professional learning in an Apple learning environment." We now need to build additional layers.

Our initial Apple training activity embraced the idea that learning happens on two sides: an emotional side and an instructional side. 

We viewed the following video to dissect the emotional and instructional aspects of what we learned.

Here are some of the emotional connections we made about the iPhone:

• Everyone can relate to waiting for something exciting.
• Waiting can be frustrating.
• Cookie Monster's actions make the commercial funny and likable.
• We all at least smiled, and a smile during a commercial has positive ramifications.

Here are some of the instructional connections we made about the iPhone:

• You can activate Siri with your voice, without pressing a button.
• You can ask Siri to set a timer.
• You can ask Siri to play music from a playlist.
• You can ask Siri to check a timer.

This learning experience, in the form of a commercial, filled both the emotional and instructional halves of learning and struck two chords. On a personal level, the tone and character made the experience memorable. The learning content was embedded within the experience. Thus, the commercial married the emotional content with the instructional content. We reflected that when you verbally share this commercial with someone who hasn't seen it, the emotional half of the experience cannot be shared without also remembering and sharing the instructional half of the experience.

In the second activity, we covered the assessment part of a lesson. 

The list of activities that qualified as evidence of a learning experience includes:

• Shares knowledge
• Connects learning experiences
• Lets others know it's okay to risk
• Recognizes incremental accomplishments
• Accepts and links multiple perspectives
• Finds answers through perseverance and sleuthing
• Reflects on and assesses learning

This list opened my eyes to the idea that not all lessons end in a product. Further, not all lessons require an element that is measured using the SAMR model. There's more to this line of thinking, ending in a discussion about portfolios, but that's another post for another day.

We summarized our experience on learning by piecing together a definition.

Great learning occurs through an ongoing process of meaningful inquiry, connecting prior knowledge, leveraging personal interests, and addressing the unique needs of the learner.

Throughout the rest of the week, we experienced and modeled these aspects of the instructional and assessment parts of learning while creating infographics, videos, slideshows, documents, music loops, shared albums, and more using Apple's apps: Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Photos, iMovie, Garageband, iTunes U, and iBooks Author. Taking a deep dive into creating with those apps helped me widen my scope for how those apps can be used in our classrooms by both teachers and students. We can stretch the use of these apps so much further!

From my personal perspective as a professional learning facilitator, I loved the framework we used while creating in our Apple Education environment:

This instructional design framework includes five steps: Introduction, Demonstration, Guided Practice, Summary of Learning, and Independent Practice. Immediately, I knew that I would adopt this framework when working with our district Library/Technology Assistants during the 2016–17 school year. We will continue to provide learning opportunities with our technology devices and apps, but we can also go further. The framework provides a pathway for teachers as they look to guide students during lessons. As a guide, the teacher does not need to lead all aspects of instructional design—instead, the student can experience a full spectrum of teacher support during any of these stages. In this framework, technology allows teachers to empower students to direct their own learning, while also giving teachers the chance to reach each student on an individual level.

The week came to a close quickly. I enjoyed every minute. But most of all, I look forward to spreading the knowledge, the passion, and the details of the Apple Education Training here in Barrington 220.

Summer Links

Twitter provided hundreds of links throughout the past summer related to innovative instruction. I have whittled the list down to a few that I think any teacher in Barrington 220 would benefit from seeing.

1. Breakout EDU
Breakout EDU is a classroom game designed to provide students an inquiry-based experience of solving problems in order to unlock different types of locks and open a mystery box.

2. How Technology Should Have Already Changed Your Teaching

This article outlines how access to technology can transform the emotional, instructional, and assessment aspects of student learning. While visiting Apple, I experienced how Apple Design Team members interact to shape ideas and implement them into action. That experience makes #8 on the list in the article my favorite.

3. 15 Things Every Teacher Should Try This Year

This infographic/sketchnote includes some very easy ideas for teachers to implement this year to transform the learning experience for their students. The TPACK team in each building (Tech, LTA, Librarian, and iDAL coach) can help you with any of these easy, but meaningful experiences.

4. ISTE- Five Ways to Make Your Classroom Global
This article outlines five great, easy ways for teachers to expand the audience of their classrooms to include classrooms, experts, and people from around the globe.

5. Julie Smith on Mastering the Media
If you're looking for organic, real-life examples of lessons learned about digital citizenship, Dr. Julie Smith's website is a great place to start. She covers basic digital citizenship practices with examples and even scales up to current pop culture and time sensitive issues.

6. Edcamps
Edcamps are becoming all the rage. These grass-roots unconferences planned and run by teachers for teachers are free and popping up all over the Chicago area. This article outlines the idea behind Edcamps and leads to schedules of Edcamps in our area.

Infinite Campus: Campus Community

Your best source for IC training and support is at Campus Community. Log into Infinite Campus and use the link in the top-right to find Campus Community. The videos listed below are available in Campus Community along with a wealth of additional documentation.

Your Campus Community account requires an initial log in connecting you to the Barrington 220 School site.  Once activated accessing Campus Community is a single click when logged into IC.

Visit Campus Community
Log in to Campus Community
Navigate to and from Campus Application
Log off Campus Instruction

Send a Message 
View messages in the Message Center
Create a template for a general message to students and/or guardians
Send a general message to a user-selected group of students and/or guardians

HEAD-Grade Book Setup
Set up Grade Book
Configure Grade Book display settings

Explore the Planner
View schedule details in the Planner
View curriculum details in the Planner
Print schedule details
Print curriculum details in the Planner
Manage the to do List
View student attendance via teacher's schedule
View student attendance via teacher's curriculum planner
Print student attendance for a specific section via teacher's schedule
Print student attendance for a specific section via teacher's curriculum planner
Add an assignment via the Planner
Manage assignments via the Planner

Manage Assignments
Manage all assignments for a section
Manage assignment categories
Add a new assignment
Copy assignments between sections
View categories and assignments in a list
Manage assignments and categories via Assignment Overview
Enter student grades for a grading task and/or standard
Enter grades for a selected student for a grading task and/or standard
Generate list of assignments and standards to which each is aligned
Display all standards aligned to the course section
Manage scored assignment details and alignment in the Grade Book
Enter scores, flags, and comments in the Grade Book
View students' score statistics
View students' score trends

Student Groups and Seating Charts
Set up seating charts
Print seating chart
Group students who should receive the same assignment

Student Attendance
Complete attendance for a specific period
Generate report of student attendance changes for specific course sections
Generate student attendance data for a specific term
Generate summary of student attendance data

Post Grades
Post grades and standard scores

Grade Book Reports
Generate report of missing assignments for selected students
Generate report of Grade Book data for a section
Generate report of student scores for distribution
Generate report of student responses for a selected assessment
View section specific student information
Generate section specific student roster information
Generate mailing or student/teacher labels for a section

Exports
Generate the section roster as blank spreadsheet for use outside the application
Export Grade Book data for use outside application
Generate blank spreadsheet with student names

Next Year Course Recommendations
Create Recommendations for Future Enrollments

Student and Parent Portal
Monitor parents' and students' portal usage

Meet the Tech Support Team

Barrington 220 is pleased to welcome a few new faces to our Technology Support Team—and re-introduce some familiar faces. Although the team is based at Barrington High School, you will likely see our District Technology Support Associates, Technicians, and Specialists in all our buildings across the district. Meet the Barrington 220 tech support team...

Kim Martinez
District Technology Support Specialist

I started working in District 220 in 1995 as the library clerk at Sunny Hill. I have been a Computer Technician for the District since April 1999. Over the past 20 years we have gone from a Mac district to a PC district back to a Mac district. Providing quality customer service has always been one of the most important aspects of my job. Knowing that our staff and students trust me and my ability to service their needs has been very fulfilling.

My life outside of D220? It's all about family for me!

Jason Bryant
District Technology Support Specialist

If you ever emailed or put in a tech ticket request, then you’ve probably communicated with me, Jason Bryant. In 2007, I started my journey as a computer tech in Barrington. With over 20 years of computer technical background, I'm well versed in both Mac and Windows computers. I love all aspects of tech and how it works (and getting new toys to test).

When not at work, I spend most of my time with my loving wife and 2 kids.

Charlie Parkinson
District Technology Support Technician

I find my job to be extremely rewarding. I enjoy working in the school environment and assisting teachers and students with their technology needs. This is my first year in Barrington, and I look forward to creating great relationships with the students and staff here in Barrington 220.

I graduated from Northeastern Illinois University, and I married my best friend from high school in 2013. I am a sports enthusiast and am involved in softball leagues. I also enjoy fishing and billiards.

Josh Beatty
District Technology Support Technician

I moved to the Chicago area from the Oregon Coast in 1999. I completed a Bachelor of Musical Arts Degree from Pacific Lutheran University and earned a Systems Administration and Security Certificate from College of Lake County. My school tech support career began as a summer worker for Barrington 220 and later I worked as a substitute tech in the district. For the last two years, I was a Technology Support Technician for West Chicago Community High School and rejoined the Barrington 220 tech team this August.

I am also a private saxophone instructor for Barrington 220. In my free time I enjoy spending time with my wife and son, playing saxophone in several bands, taking photographs with my collection of classic film cameras, or pursuing the perfect cup of coffee.

Derrick Kovell
District Technology Support Technician

I have been doing technology support in an academic environment for almost twelve years. Previous to Rock Valley I worked in McHenry School District 15. I graduated from Western Illinois University and earned my Master's degree from DePaul University.

I took the position here in Barrington due to the appeal of Technology and Innovation, specifically the innovation. I am looking forward to collaborating with my colleagues, as well as other district personnel, in continuing to support and integrate district technology.

I live in Crystal Lake with my wife, Erin, and enjoy watching basketball and baseball, especially the Bulls and Cubs.

Summer Technology Updates (What We Did on Our Summer Vacation!)

It is hard to believe that we are starting year four of our Barrington 220 One to World program! This is the first school year where all students, Grades 1 through 12, have an Apple iPad or MacBook Air available to them 24/7.

While there was much to do on the curriculum side of technology to prepare for the rollout of iPads at the elementary schools, there were plenty of fun projects this summer to work through on the hardware and device side of technology.

• Installed approximately 140 new wireless access points in the elementary schools. While the schools had wireless coverage, they did not have the wireless “density” to handle 20 to 30 iPads in each classroom. Venture into any school classroom within our district and you will now see an access point somewhere on the ceiling or a classroom wall. Each of the new access points is connected to our “wired” network system. Miles of new network cabling was needed to accomplish this task.
• Replaced approximately 120 access points at Barrington High School and other locations, making sure that we have appropriate, high speed wireless technology within each classroom.
• Worked with Comcast to install a new Internet connection to our district.  This connection provides double the speed at less cost. A bit of contract negotiation occurred with Comcast earlier last school year to help make this project a reality.
• Deployed two new firewalls. These new network security devices were needed to handle the new higher Internet speeds.
• Prepared our mobile device management system to deploy 3,000 new iPads and re-deploy 1,500 existing iPads without the use of Apple IDs. iPad apps can now be distributed to students without the need for parental approved Apple IDs.

These were just a few of our more noteworthy projects, but there were many projects on the list. The summer was busy and relatively short. We hope the work that our department was able to accomplish in a short time helps transform the way technology is used within Barrington 220, helping to make the 2016–17 school year a success.

By the way, do you have a technology issue that you need some help with? Our tech department is available at x 1500. Give us a call!

Apple Teacher Professional Learning for PDH Credit

At the beginning of September 2016, Apple announced Apple Teacher, a new program created to support and celebrate educators. The program provides self-paced learning experiences with tips, inspiration, news, and learning materials to help teachers use the iPad, Mac, and built-in apps in the classroom. Teachers can earn badges and an official “Apple Teacher” recognition to share the achievement with the world.

Joe Robinson, our Director of Instructional Technology, and I have completed the Apple Teacher program and both of us highly recommend it! We believe that this program is an excellent starting point for any teacher—and it reaffirms the skills of teachers with more technology integration experience with recognition. At the same time, the process for earning badges is set up to suggest classroom activities for even advanced Apple technology users. Teachers can choose to pursue either iPad or Mac training paths—or complete them both.

Technology Integration Foundations for iPad and Mac

We like this program so much that we have worked with Dr. April Jordan, Barrington 220’s Director of Extended Programs and Staff Development, to create a blended learning professional development course for teachers to earn official Professional Development Hours (PDHs), formerly known as CPDUs. In Barrington 220, we call the course Technology Integration Foundations for iPad and Mac. The online learning part of the course is the Apple Teacher program. The Apple Teacher program is comprised of online training sessions that can be completed over a period of time. The face-to-face part of the course is a meeting with a Barrington 220 facilitator and other teachers who have completed the training. During a one-hour final meeting, teachers share activities completed with students using the content learned in the online training modules.

iPad Online Activities
Each activity is credited 30 minutes:

• iPad
• Pages for iPad
• Keynote for iPad
• Numbers for iPad
• iMovie for iPad
• GarageBand for iPad
• Productivity with iPad
• Creativity with iPad

Mac Online Activities
Each activity is credited 30 minutes:

• Mac
• Pages for Mac
• Keynote for Mac
• Numbers for Mac
• iMovie for Mac
• GarageBand for Mac
• Productivity with Mac
• Creativity with Mac

Several Options

Any teacher can sign up for and complete all or part of the Apple Teacher program and receive Apple’s badges and/or Apple’s Apple Teacher recognition.

Barrington 220 teachers can sign up for the Technology Integration Foundations for iPad and Mac course, which includes completing the Apple Teacher program, logging online hours, and attending a one-hour meeting. Teachers who successfully complete the Technology Integration Foundations for iPad and Mac may earn up to 10 Professional Development Hours (PDHs):

• Complete 8 Apple Teacher iPad online sessions (30 minutes each) and attend a one-hour meeting = 5 PDHs. 
• Complete 8 Apple Teacher Mac online sessions (30 minutes each) and attend a one-hour meeting = 5 PDHs.
• If you complete both the iPad and Mac online sessions and attend one one-hour meeting, you will earn 9 PDHs. 
• Participants who complete the iPad online sessions and attend a one-hour meeting, and later decide to complete the Mac online sessions and attend another one-hour meeting, can earn up to 10 PDHs.

Online Learning

Each online learning session delivered through the Apple Teacher program includes a multi-touch digital book that is downloaded from the iBooks Store. These books are written specifically for teachers and include ideas for using Apple apps and devices in the classroom.

Teachers demonstrate mastery by completing a summative evaluation at the end of each activity. Each successfully completed module results in the teacher earning a digital "badge." The successful completion of all eight digital badges in the iOS category also allows the teacher to earn an "Apple Teacher 2016" recognition.

The summative quizzes at the end of each online session incude several types of questions, including multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and drag-to-reorder questions. A few of the questions, especially in the productivity and creativity activities, suggest interesting ways of using apps in real-world situations.

This question presents potential uses for several iPad apps.

How to Earn PDHs in Barrington 220

Step 1: Sign up for the Apple Teacher program
Use your personal or Barrington 220 Apple ID to sign up for the Apple Teacher program.

Step 2: Log each of your Apple Teacher learning experiences
Sign in to log each module as you complete each digital badge.
(Educators outside of Barrington 220 may view the non-interactive sign-in page here.)

Step 3: Sign up for one monthly face-to-face meeting
Using the log, sign up for one of the monthly face-to-face meetings with a Barrington 220 instructor and a group of your peers. Schedules meetings for 2016–17:

• Monday, September 26, 2016, 3:00–4:00 PM, James Street Engleking Room
• Thursday, October 27, 2016, 7:30–8:30 AM, James Street Engleking Room
• Tuesday, November 29, 2016, 3:00–4:00 PM, James Street Main Conference Room
• Thursday, January 26, 2017, 7:30–8:30 AM, James Street Engleking Room
• Thursday, February 23, 2017, 3:00–4:00 PM, James Street Main Conference Room
• Thursday, March 23, 2017, 7:30–8:30 AM, James Street Engleking Room
• Tuesday, April 25, 2017, 3:00–4:00 PM, James Street Main Conference Room
• Thursday, May 25, 2017, 7:30–8:30 AM, James Street Main Conference Room

Step 4: Attend the face-to-face meeting
You may attend any face-to-face meeting after you have completed your online training to complete the course requirements to receive PDH credit.

Schoology Course

You may also sign up for the Barrington 220 Schoology course:

1. Log in to Schoology.
2. Select the Courses dropdown menu at the top.
3. Click on the Join link in the Courses dropdown.
4. Enter access code X8ZJK-JMXNS
5. Click the Join button.

Future Opportunities

Hopefully, this blended learning structure will be replicable for future PDH opportunities in Barrington 220. Whether you plan to only participate in the Apple Teacher program or also pursue PDH credit through the blended learning course, best of luck! We hope to see the Apple Teacher 2016 recognition in many Barrington 220 email signatures and elsewhere.