Adopting a flexible attitude
Profiles in Success: Canberra Grammar School
ACT, Australia: With its history dating back to 1906, Canberra Grammar School is committed to providing its students with an education environment that balances academic achievement and development of the individual. Where Canberra Grammar differs from the norm, though, is in its pedagogical approach that encourages students and teachers to accept and adopt an attitude of flexibility.
According to the school's Director of Education Technology, Ms Anne-Louise Agnew, the effectiveness of a flexible and effective learning environment relies heavily on the integration of computing technology; and for this experienced teacher who up until 2005 had been an almost devoted user of PCs, it's the Apple Mac platform that delivers the goods.
Macs - taking the pain out of learning
Regardless of the fact that computer technology itself is an underpinning factor in Canberra Grammar's new era learning environment, its growing number of MacBooks and iMacs along with interactive whiteboards are becoming a core component of the foundation for change. So much so, that in late 2006 a 160-strong fleet of end-of-lease Windows-based laptops was was replaced entirely with Apple Macbooks and, in April 2007, several hundred PC desktops have been replaced with new iMacs.
According to Ms Agnew, the decision to move from a predominantly PC environment to one that is predominantly Mac was based on a number of key factors, not least of which is operating system freedom for teachers.
All teachers have their own MacBook; initially it was a case of around 30 per cent opting to use Mac OS X. Over time, though, as those teachers who had a previous preference for PCs are seeing what can be achieved on the Mac, especially with the iLife software, more and more are exploring the Mac option.
— Ms Anne-Louise Agnew, Director of Education Technology
According to Ms Agnew, that gradual move from PC-based Windows to Mac OS X is due primarily to the school's teachers recognising the greater flexibility and user-friendliness of the Apple iLife software. "Around 90 per cent of my time is devoted to teacher professional development," she says. "In many cases, when I demonstrate to our teachers how easy it is to create a DVD using iDVD, a podcast using GarageBand or a movie with iMovie, they immediately see just how ideal the Mac is in education. Many teachers had never used Macs before but have seen through staff professional development the potential that is offered on the Mac platform and associated software."
By way of demonstrating the iLife suite's best-fit in education where real learning outcomes are more important than learning how to use software, Ms Agnew recounts: "I recently asked a Year 12 student to run a workshop on GarageBand for a group of Year 10 students. When he told me that he hadn't used the programme much and therefore didn't have the necessary understanding, I was able to give him some iLife instructional material to read over that night, asking him to see what he could manage.
"The next day, he came in and conducted the workshop just as if he was a pro GarageBand user."
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