Jacqui Luscombe, head teacher at Emmaus Catholic Primary School in Mount Helen, near Ballarat, said the school’s accreditation has raised its profile in the area. Its staff, all of whom are Apple teachers, have been invited to speak at technology conferences about how they use Apple for education. “For us, it’s a way to promote our school in a positive way, and for Apple, it’s an incentive to promote its products as well.”
Luscombe said the school is conscious of using technology in the most creative way possible, “not just replacing pen and paper”.
“We’ve worked hard to make sure we’re using it to collaborate and show off student creativity in ways they might not be able to,” she said.
Grade 5 and 6 students are creating podcasts this year, which includes writing scripts, while preparations start learning coding.
Warringa Park School, a specialist school in Hoppers Crossing, has been an Apple Distinguished School since 2013.
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Vice-Principal Danielle Heckmann said the school wants its students to be comfortable with technology when they graduate. She said iPads are beneficial for students whose fine motor skills make writing difficult or who are non-verbal.
“It gave students a lot more opportunities to access the program,” she said.
Dr Anna Hogan, a researcher at the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at Queensland University of Technology, said that when individual schools advertise themselves as Apple schools, the cost of resources is often passed on to parents.
Albert Park College uses Apple devices exclusively for learning and mandates iPads for students in grades 7-9 and MacBooks for grades 10-12.
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Any student who cannot afford the mandatory Apple hardware is given a device.
All teachers use Apple Pencils and there is an Apple TV in every classroom.
In a promotional document, the college said its “strong IT backbone” had been a bonus during the pandemic.
“Our IT system has transformed the classroom, removing teachers’ desks and blackboards, and all teachers, students and support staff use either an iPad with Apple Pencil or a MacBook or both to do their jobs. “, did he declare.
A Department for Education and Training spokesperson said individual schools make decisions on how best to bring technology into the classroom, but public schools must comply with the policy of ministry sponsorship.
“The use of technology in the classroom is guided by the Victorian Curriculum, which requires teachers to develop students’ digital literacy and use technology to enable students to learn in safe, balanced and appropriate ways” , said the spokesperson.
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