Apple Leadership Summit
School of the Arts (SOTA)
Singapore
3 – 7 March 2011

Executive Summary

The Apple Leadership Summit was a fantastic learning opportunity where over 500 delegates from over 29 countries came together to discuss innovation, school leadership, effective learning and and teaching in fostering of a learning ecosystem that fosters the development and growth of the student in a holistic environment.

Major learning points included:

1. Successful organisations focus on the essential question of why they exist and communicate this purpose continuously and purposefully to all. Posters / installations on wall or posts in walkway, explicit and communicated with pride
2. Future of textbooks is such that books will be on mobile devices and will be a remix of content from a variety of sources based on concepts, topics or ideas and media. The revolution of the textbook is flagged for 2011 – 2013.
3. The future of books will be a mobile experience where they can be customised to the learning of the individual, which is not only collaborative by augmented through the GPS capabilities of devices such as smart phones and iPads the books will be able to link in with real world connections, activities and ideas.
4. Purpose of teaching moves to an area where information applied, the synthesis of information where the challenges presented to student are authentic in the true sense of the word. Real problems with real differing solutions. Not orchestrated “real” activities.
5. Learning Spaces: learning communities are not new. Looking at the primordial learning
environment one can find a model of learning and learning spaces that faciliates active
and deep learning
0. The Campfire – Celebrating the Art of Story telling – expert, teacher, the wisdom of elders to pass on learning from one generation to the next,
1. The Watering Hole – a place for sharing, collaboration and jointly developing ideas and learning, peer learning, teaching, informal space. Each person at the watering hole is a teacher and learner at the same time
2. The Cave – A space for reflection, thought, self learning (can be ICT induced through head phones). In learning any subject when we need to internalise that knowledge.
3. Mountain Top – A place to celebrate learning – demonstration, presentation, peer teaching
6. In ICT enabled classrooms the computer becomes a key element of the learning ecosystem
7. A Challenged Based Learning experience is real and authentic rather than simulated authentic (pretend you are designing a new city/ think more of a mythbusters approach). It also differs from the other models in that explicitly involves the students in developing the project. The solutions must be doable and should be instigated. Stages: The Challenge: From each essential question a challenge is articulated that asks students to create a specific answer or solution that can result in concrete, meaningful action.
Guiding Questions: Generated by the students, these questions represent the knowledge students need to discover to successfully meet the challenge.
Guiding Activities: These lessons, simulations, games, and other types of activities help students answer the guiding questions and set the foundation for them to develop innovative, insightful, and realistic solutions.
Guiding Resources: This focused set of resources can include podcasts, websites, videos, databases, experts, and so on that support the activities and assist students with developing a solution.
Solutions: Each challenge is stated broadly enough to allow for a variety of solutions. Each solution should be thoughtful, concrete, actionable, clearly articulated, and presented in a publishable multimedia format such as an enhanced podcast or short video etc.
8. Recommended that web based material be developed in HTML5 so that it is enabled fir mobile devices and also reflecting current trends in web development. Webpages have an Apps feel about them
9. Motivation (Daniel Pink): need to look beyond the carrot and stick approach so that students are central and active to their own learning. Studies show student motivation based on
Autonomy
• Autonomy over their time
• Autonomy of their tasks
• Autonomy over team
• Autonomy over technique – choice of how they will produce evidence of their learning
Mastery: improving oneself rather than against others
Purpose: How and Why
10. Mobile devices ( iPad ) are changing the way teachers and learners are interacting with data and learning experiences. IPads are seen as leveraging on what is already happening in the classroom – Researching, Note taking, GPS interaction, instantaneous web searching, apps to support learning and iTunes provides a rich repository for learning experiences from expert educational content providers. Need to investigate and reflect on what you want to do with the technology rather than choosing a technology because it is the expected progression or latest shiny tool.