So now your school has iPads how will you use them? This is the first issue teachers are invited to investigate during this course.

Google docs allows for comment & conversation on blogs, articles, research & case studies by all participants at the same time. They look into the pedagogy behind the use of iPads including models such as TPack, Blooms’ Taxonomy, SAMR & Gardiners’ Multiple Intelligences. Many of these articles and more can be found here in my Scoop.It! Educational iPad apps http://www.scoop.it/t/educational-ipad-apps-1 All resources for the course are accessed from Edmodo which is also used for communication and uploading of files.

As many of the participants are at different stages with the management and implementation of iPads in their schools, there is often a great deal of sharing of ideas as to how this is achieved. This is also true of the sharing of new apps, so that newly discovered apps and ideas are frequently added to those in the course.

The middle session involves teachers playing with a variety of creative apps which are mainly free and experimenting with the many ways in which they can be used in the classroom. A list of some of these apps can be found here: http://eduiphone.symbaloo.com/mix/creativeapps   Added to this is the value of iPads as mobile document cameras and their ability to record activities, excursions etc via photographs and videos, as well as creating simple digital portfolios of students’ work throughout the year. The use of QR codes is also investigated.

The highlight of this session, however and the one which gets the most “wow”s is the interaction with augmented reality apps such as Aurasma, String, ColAR Mix and the stunning book The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore which virtually comes to life when viewed via the Imag.N.O.Tron app.

In the final part of the day participants use the knowledge gained from the previous sessions to construct two or three lessons via the NSW BOS Program Builder which they will teach to their class in preparation for a showcase using Adobe Connect a few weeks later. This is all part of the deliverables of the course in which the participants upload their lesson notes and a video in the form of an Animoto showing how the integration of iPads was used in their classroom. You can see some of these amazing Animotos at the end of this article.

Consequently, participants of the course are introduced to 21st century web tools which they may or may not have previously experienced during this course. These are Google docs, Edmodo and Animoto as well as Adobe Connect.

21st century education is more and more about the gathering and sharing of ideas and allowing educators to go beyond the barrier of their schools to immerse them-selves in new learning. Whether it is face-to-face with colleagues in meetings, courses etc or through the internet via social media, groups, it is indeed an exciting time to be a life-long learner.

If you would like to enrol in this course please check out the details here.