Australian Primary School Drives Creativity With iPads

A primary school in Sydney’s southwestern suburbs has been using a one-to-one iPad program to engage the whole class during the global pandemic and beyond. With a community made up of 50 nations and 73 percent of students not coming from English-speaking backgrounds, St Therese Catholic Primary School worked to train its students using iPads.

“All of our students have the right and capacity for learning, and for this, we strive to reach out to as many as possible,” stresses Michelle McKinnon, principal of St Therese Catholic Primary School in Sadleir Miller. “iPad is a great tool that lets students design their own box on their terms.”

Innovation
As the COVID-19 epidemic broke out worldwide and prompted a national lockdown, McKinnon credited St Therese’s well established one-to-one iPad program with the smooth transition to remote learning. Children were given the choice to select their own research topics during a self-directed learning program while they studied at home.

Students shared their research on subjects as diverse as the Great Barrier Reef, Vincent van Gogh, and horse disease prevention using multimedia tools including Keynote, iMovie, Pages, Text to Speech, and stop-motion animation. Students created digital schoolwork portfolios for their teachers and shared them with faculty members during lockdown.

An inclusion
“In order to ensure a smooth transition to ‘big school,’ orientation for our smallest learners – and their families – is essential”, says McKinnon. “Getting to know the physical space and getting to know new teachers beforehand go a long way to reducing anxiety on the first day of school. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option in 2020.”

Parents were not permitted to attend orientation at St Therese’s, so the parish developed the “Welcome to Kindergarten” interactive book in Apple Books. The “3D Bubble Experience” took virtual tours of a kindergarten classroom, allowing students and their families to explore the classroom virtually, free of charge, by opening a USDZ file using an iPad or iPhone.

Equity
Several students who failed to thrive in the traditional school day, found high levels of success during the lockdown, thanks in part to remote learning. Teachers who are integrating virtual iPad activities into their lesson plans will continue to record lessons using iMovie, and provide a better learning experience for students with a later start.

“A blended learning initiative like this is a great example of how we are utilizing technology to challenge the standard factory classroom, where educators hold lectures every day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in a brick-and-mortar building,” says McKinnon. “Each child is an individual, so why should each classroom or lesson be the same?” she asks.

The pandemic has taught us one important lesson. The ability to adapt to changing situations, is extremely important, especially when it comes to shaping young minds. Forging ahead during these troubling times, will not be easy, but unlike what our ancestors endured during the 1917 outbreak, our efforts are bolstered by great technological innovations – like the iPad.