Kia ora,

It’s a brand-new term and schools are on the final stretch to the break!

Our Apple Team is engaged up and down the country, from the far north to the deep south, running teacher ignite sessions, meeting leaders to develop their IT strategy for 2025 and so much more.

In this week’s newsletter, we share some of Mark’s advice for taking a new look at your device ratio planning, some great events to book in for in Term 4 and more great resources being shared by Apple to support you and your teams.

?? WHAT'S YOUR SCHOOL'S IDEAL DEVICE RATIO?

It’s that time of year again - time to refresh your school’s technology devices for the upcoming academic year! One of the core functions of my role as an Apple Education Specialist is to support leaders in developing strategic plans for what devices they will purchase or lease, how many and in what configurations across the year levels. As well as device choice, device ratio is always a hot topic and there are as many different solutions to this as there are schools in NZ.

For many schools, the decision to aim for a 1:1 makes perfect sense as their students require personal access the majority of the time. For other schools and especially across the lower year levels of Years 1 - 4 but even higher as the school’s teaching and learning continue to evolve and adapt, these ratio decisions are more nuanced. Here are some four things to consider when you’re faced with these decisions to make:

1. Device ratios of 1:2 can be a very effective and meaningful approach for many younger year levels. I often recommend that teachers of Years 1-4 adopt at least this ratio as it can best lead to whole-class instruction and project work, especially when tools such as new apps and skills need to be taught. Having 2 students on 1 iPad, for example, is usually the best way to have students working together and collaborating. One student can be considered the driver and the other the co-pilot: just like a Rally Car Team.? ??
2. Collaborative practice at all year levels can often best be achieved when students are working in pairs or groups with one device. As this ‘Collaboration’ element explains on page 1, of the ‘Apple’s Vision for Learning with iPad’ resource, collaborative practice goes beyond shared online documents. In my teaching experience and time working with teachers of all year levels, the best collaborative practice doesn’t have to happen with 1:1 devices but comes from cooperation, discussion and project learning frameworks. This doesn’t negate the need for 1:1 but lessens the dependence on it.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
3. ?Having classroom ratios below 1:2 with teachers sharing devices across classrooms is an option - but has its drawbacks. From my experience, the approach of having lower ratios that require teachers to share or timetable pods or COWs (Computers on Wheels) is a solution that can solve the 1:2 or 1:1 challenge for a time. The downside, however, is that most teachers find this simply too difficult to trust and rely on for timetabling into their regular teaching and learning practice. Timetabling devices work for segmented, specialist teaching times but rarely lead to effective integration and regular use: something, I would argue, that is the best approach to fully utilising the technology schools have for effective learning.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
4. Lower ratios with better devices can sometimes be better options than higher ratios with cheaper devices. Most schools have budgetary restraints on how much they can spend on technology. There are often situations, because of this, where the motivation for 1:1 ratios leads to decisions for the lowest cost devices. This can sometimes be at the expense of the right technology that can help support the learning vision of their school, however I’m a believer in at least considering your learning vision first and perhaps lowering your ratio to ensure you can source the best technology for that vision. This is an option that is at least worth exploring.

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Those are just some of my suggestions and things to consider - what do you think? If you’re putting together your technology budgets for 2025 and would like some support, let us know. Our Apple team has some great resources to help guide you and your school to the right solutions, the right device ratio and the right financing options. It’s all part of our support for schools and we’d love to hear from you.

? ???IPAD 9TH GEN DEAL

Have you seen the deal we currently have on the iPad 9? The stock numbers are becoming super low but don’t miss out on this amazing pricing - check out the specs here and let us know as soon as soon as possible about a quote for your school!

??NEW IPAD MINI

Do you like taking notes in meetings and prefer to handwrite them? I’ve always preferred to write notes when I’m with people and find this so much better than tap-taping on a keyboard. Apple has just released a brand-new iPad Mini with an improved A17 Pro Chip, compatible with the iPad Pencil Pro and now capable of utilising Apple Intelligence when released.

This is the perfect complementary device for leaders using a MacBook as a note-taking, social media-sharing device (as opposed to having school photos on those personal phones!).

Have a closer look at the details here and contact us if you’d like to talk about ordering one.

?? APPLE'S VISION FOR LEARNING WITH IPAD

Apple has updated these resources for Mac and iPad with the latest information, links and resources from their sites, Education Community and YouTube Channel. These PDFs are like a one-stop shop for teachers and leaders to have access to so many ideas of how they can optimise the Apple Learning tools they have and these are organised into the categories of Apple’s Vision for Learning areas of Connected, Collaborative, Creative and Personal.

Here are the links for both the Mac and iPad versions online below. If you’re looking for a great resource to share with your eLearning leads, anyone new to Mac or iPad or even a Student IT Team, this is a great place to start!

LEARNING WITH MAC

LEARNING WITH IPAD

?? CYCLONE'S APPLE EDUCATOR NZ COMMUNITY CALL - NEW TIME!

Are you keen to keep up with the latest Apple Learning trends and resources, while connecting with other Apple Learning enthusiasts?

Our Cyclone Apple NZ Educators Online Community Call is on Thursday, 31st October, at a new time of 4 p.m. You can either race home or stay at school for this call - set up some drinks and snacks in the staff or classroom for your colleagues. If you’re keen to connect with other Apple Learning enthusiasts, sign up here!!

We hope you can make it - AND you might even win an Apple Airtag!

REGISTER HERE

?? APPLE EDUCATION COMMUNITY EVENT

Apple are hosting some great events next week, 24th October in CHCH and 25th October in Auckland.

The invitations are for Apple Distinguished Educators, Apple Learning Coaches, Apple Professional Learning Specialists and educators and leaders from Apple Distinguished Schools. They’re a great opportunity to meet like-minded educators.

If you’d like to attend, see the Christchurch registration link here?and the Auckland registration link here.

?? APP SHOWCASE GUIDE

This week’s tip comes from the ‘Apple’s Vision for Learning with Mac and iPad’ resources and is a great resource to engage your students with an app design challenge. If your class is looking for a way to display their learning for an upcoming unit of work, this resource gives you the ideas, resources and even a downloadable criteria matrix! Check out the PDF here and share this whole Term unit of work with your teaching team today!

That’s all for this fortnight’s newsletter - we hope you have a fantastic start to the final term of the year and let us know, as so many of you do, if there’s anything we can do to support your school with the following:

• Strategic Planning
• Technology and solution development
• School deployment and device management advice
• Teacher professional learning design and support
• TOD iPad and Mac inspire sessions
• New teacher Apple Learning orientation for 2025!

ONE LAST THING!

As always, let us know if there’s anything we can do to support you and your school with everything to do with Apple Learning. Whether you have Apple tech, are thinking about switching or would like to talk about what’s possible, let us know by contacting Mark at [email protected].

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