AET Conference

Whilst the rest of the school were working through the last lesson of the day before the weekend on Friday afternoon, Miss Cox, accompanied by 6 Sixth Form students were making their way to a prestigious hotel located near Stansted. It was at this hotel that 180 members of the AET, were enduring a two day conference about the use of iPads and the ways in which they enhance learning.

After arriving at the hotel slightly early, and inspecting the menu in the foyer, we decided not to purchase a £12 salad, and instead sat nervously around a small table, catching glimpses of the tennis.

When the time finally arrived to present, we learnt how to project our iPad to the screen, through the use of apple tv and then started our presentation with a short trailer created in iMovie. This was followed by Miss Cox introducing both the Academy and the challenges involved with the use of iPads.

Then it was time for the Sixth Form students to present to the audience the ways in which they had used the iPad to enhance their learning. Firstly, Gemma illustrated the use of Photoshop, which intrigued and interested the audience. This was followed by Sophie, who described the use of iBooks. Next an app called Simple Minds+, in which you can create mind maps was presented by myself, before James illustrated many ways in which the iPad can be used for organisation, which generated laughter amongst the listeners. It was then Freyer's turn to present an app called pages, which is essentially the iPad version of Word, after in which she handed back to Miss Cox who went through the complications of having iPads within the academy. Finally before a video created by the AET was shown, both Miss Cox and the students answered a number of questions posed by the audience. Many questions were asked during this period of time, and this meant that the audience learnt a lot about both the positives and negatives of using an iPad.

We then left the conference at around 6pm and after getting drenched by torrential downpour, decided to stop off at Braintree Freeport to enjoy a meal at Prezzo's after a long and rewarding day.

On behalf of myself, the other sixth form students and Miss Cox, we would like to thank everyone involved with the conference for giving us to opportunity to both trial and share our experiences of the iPad. We have learnt numerous ways that the iPad can enhance our learning and we are extremely privileged to have been given the opportunity.

–Tammy