Ylitornio co-educational high school/upper secondary school is an Apple Distinguished School with a 1:1 iPad program, where technology is integrated into the teaching plan in a goal-oriented way as a tool for teaching and learning.
Since 2013, every student and staff member has been assigned their own personal iPad. Ylitornion Yhteiskoulun Lukio School, the devices are actively used for teaching, guiding, studying, evaluating and interacting. The pedagogical use of the iPad promotes collaboration and supports creativity and individual study while it also helping students achieve their goals.
As one of the few private high schools operating in Finland, it prioritizes the following for both students and teachers to reach their goals:
- Privacy first
- Flexible learning solutions
- Modern, warm and safe learning environment
"The Apple ecosystem is so easy to operate and we don’t really need any kind of IT support. Then thinking more about the hardware, there are no limits to what we can do with these devices. We didn’t want an ocean of license costs, so we found the iPad is as an affordable solution for the school. After all necessary apps are added to the device, we are sure that it will last for a few years to come.", said Sari Lantto, Headteacher, Apple Distinguished Educator and Apple Professional Learning Specialist
BECOMING AN APPLE DISTINGUISHED SCHOOL
The path to becoming an Apple Distinguished School has been both a necessity and a vision for purposeful learning. The school aims to provide students with authentic and immersive experiences to enhance the connection between education and real life. Teachers believe in the idea of having different starting points, with equal opportunities for all students and continue to invest in digital teaching methods to ensure current and future learners succeed.
To achieve this, teachers learned and practiced on their own time how iPads could best be used in their own subjects. Currently, six skilled digital tutors hold the title of Apple Certified Teacher. Among their various teaching responsibilities, additional tasks help and guide students in using their devices. The aim is to create a lasting learning environment so that when students return home, their study approach remains consistent, resulting in a better learning connection between study and real life.
Now that the school operates as an Apple Distinguished School, all students have their personal iPad. As a general rule, third-party apps such as teaching and assessment tools are deployed for use alongside access to the native applications included with the iPad. This makes using it as a learning tool effortless when all the necessary applications for success are already installed.
1:1 iPad program + Jamf School = A flexible learning environment
The school’s vision for a purposeful learning experience is supported by active participation in various digital collaborative projects for which they use Jamf School for iPad management.
Manage devices
With Jamf School, classes can be easily managed by dragging and dropping the required apps and content while configuring restrictions with ease. Teachers can request apps from Jamf School and immediately get notified of their availability, facilitating teaching and learning.
Flexible learning
The students come from different backgrounds and are at different levels, so the school focuses on providing all students with personal guidance and teaching. Digital teaching methods enable a flexible learning environment, effectively supporting every student's personal learning path from secondary to higher education. The use of technology is integrated into all their courses, making it a natural part of both teaching and learning.
DIGITAL CLASSROOM
Jamf School makes it easier for teachers not only to install applications directly on student devices but also to work with classroom-related tasks, such as managing the class or taking exams.
For example, during examination certain applications can be locked by the administrator so that students won’t be able to access them, this type of restriction promotes testing integrity while eliminating the need to directly monitor student devices.
“It's a great thing that everyone has the same type of device and uses the same type of functionality brought by the digital learning environment.”, says Hanna Viippola, Teacher and Apple Distinguished Educator.
A digital learning environment that fosters creativity
The digital environment enables students to make movies, videos, podcasts, books and sit for digital exams — all on the iPad. Students also find that they can use the same application for any number of different purposes.
Driving the digital classroom, the school relies on Showbie — the hybrid learning platform for classroom workflow and personalized feedback app — to empower both students and teachers, by providing a flexible and engaging way of learning. This translates to students that can easily access learning materials during lessons, as well as on their own time.
Creativity has become quite a big part of the learning experience. We have really good equipment and applications with which we can do versatile work, so we took a conscious decision to make it an integral part of the study program when planning courses.
TEACHING SUPERCHARGED
When planning lessons, teachers are able to download materials beforehand to prepare study packs, assignments and add in deadlines. Students are then reminded with automated messages to complete their assignments before the lesson starts with the help of the iPad. Teachers can also make use of lesson notes. If a student is absent, they can find the lesson information in the device, making studies possible from anywhere.
And of course, the iPad’s mobility provides students the freedom to study and work on their assignments in their own time. Teaching materials are distributed to students via the iPad while similarly, students submit assignments during the course for teachers to provide feedback or grades.
The Apple ecosystem is so easy to operate...there are no limits to what we can do with these devices.