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THE
GAB’ER
Newsletter of the Greater Albany AppleByters: March,
2019
GAAB is celebrating its 35th year (2018-2019) with our informal meeting
format. The next meeting will be:

Tuesday, March 12, 2019


7:00 PM

At Panera Bread

161 Washington Ave Ext, Albany, NY

A map can be found at the GAAB website at

http://applebyters.com/index.php/meeting-information/meeting_map/

GAAB Meeting Agenda


Greetings and Dinner
Discussion: Topics presented by members and
News from Apple including Mac OS X and iOS Updates

GAAB Help Desk: Bring your questions

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Apple's March 25 'It's show time' event will be live streamed

By Malcolm Owen
Monday, March 11, 2019, 01:18 pm PT (04:18 pm ET)

Apple has updated its live event streaming page in preparation for the March 25 Apple News
and video event, with the page inviting people to watch the live stream broadcast from the
Steve Jobs Theater.

Apple's live stream page, updated for the March 2019 Special Event

The livestream page offers few clues for what to expect, with the page simply titled "Apple
Special Event" and providing basic details for when and where the event will take place, and
what time to start watching the stream. The other main element of the page is a large graphic
showing the Apple logo below a spotlight, most likely referencing the "It's show time" element
of the media invitations.

The site advises users can watch the stream on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 10
or later using Safari, a Mac using Safari on macOS Sierra 10.12 or later, or a PC using
Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge. Streaming to the Apple TV requires AirPlay and a second-
generation or later model running the latest tvOS update.

It is noted other platforms may be able to access the stream, using "recent versions of
Chrome or Firefox," with support for MSE, H.264, and AAC required.

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As usual, Apple has not offered up any announcement of what it plans to launch at the event,
but it is currently believed it will center around services instead of hardware. In particular,
attention will be focused on its updated news offering, with the addition of a subscription
service.

It is also expected that Apple will reveal information about its long-rumored streaming video
service, though its launch may not be until later in the year.

While unlikely, it is possible for hardware to make an appearance at the event. Last year's
education-focused event did also include hardware releases, including an updated iPad.

Supply chain reports and analyst speculation points to Apple releasing numerous new
products across the entirety of 2019. Even so, the only items being proposed for a March
unveiling are more updated iPads, the long-awaited AirPower charging pad, and potentially a
new iPod touch.

AppleInsider will be at the March event where we expect Apple's news and video services to
dominate. Keep up with our coverage by downloading the AppleInsider app for iOS, and
follow us on YouTube, Twitter @appleinsider and Facebook for live, late-breaking coverage.
You can also check out our official Instagram account for exclusive photos.

Lowest price ever: Apple's 512GB 12.9-inch iPad Pro with LTE discounted
to $799 ($480 off)

By Christine McKee
Monday, March 11, 2019, 11:42 am PT (02:42 pm ET)

Apple authorized retailer B&H Photo is knocking $480 off loaded Mid 2017 12.9-inch iPad
Pros exclusively for AppleInsider readers. These feature-packed iPad Pros are equipped with
512GB of storage, as well as Wi-Fi + Cellular capability, providing users with robust, portable
devices for under $800.

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These deals, which are available only at AppleInsider, are valid on Apple's top-of-the-line Mid
2017 12.9-inch iPad Pro in your choice of Silver, Space Gray or Gold. In addition to the
exclusive $480 discount, B&H is also throwing in free expedited shipping within the
contiguous U.S. for quick and easy delivery to your doorstep, along with a free screen
protector valued at $19.95. According to our 12.9-inch iPad Pro Price Guide, the $799 sale
price is the lowest available for these factory sealed iPad Pros. To redeem the discount,
please see the instructions below.

Exclusive iPad Pro deals

• 512GB 2017 12.9" iPad Pro (Wi-Fi + Cellular) in Silver: $799* ($480 off)
• 512GB 2017 12.9" iPad Pro (Wi-Fi + Cellular) in Space Gray: $799* ($480 off)
• 512GB 2017 12.9" iPad Pro (Wi-Fi + Cellular) in Gold: $799* ($480 off)
*To activate the deals, you must shop through the special pricing links above via a
laptop, desktop or iPad.

Instructions: To redeem the discounts, simply click through the above pricing links
using AppleInsider's desktop site (from a laptop, desktop or iPad) and look for the
advertised price. Deals expire at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on March 17.

Please note: These deals cannot be activated through the B&H and AppleInsider
apps at this time. If you still cannot see the exclusive price using the desktop site, all is
not lost! Need help? Send us a note at [email protected] and we will do our best to
assist.

Add AppleCare & accessories


You can easily tack on an AppleCare extended protection plan to these iPad Pros for
$129 by selecting the AppleCare option immediately after you press the "Add to Cart"
button on B&H's website. And don't forget must-have accessories, such as the first-
gen Apple Pencil and Logitech Slim Keyboard Case.

Additional Apple Deals

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AppleInsider and Apple authorized resellers are also running a handful of additional exclusive
promotions this month on Apple hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many
of the items, but also throw in discounts on AppleCare, software and accessories. These
deals are as follows:

• Deal #1: $225 off Vega MacBook Pros


• Deal #2: Up to $400 off every upgraded 2018 15" MacBook Pro
• Deal #3: Up to $200 off 2018 13" MacBook Pros with Touch Bar
• Deal #4: Up to $500 off iMac Pros
• Deal #5: Apple Watches on sale from $259

What It Takes to Move From 'Passive' to 'Active' Tech Use in K-12 Schools

By Benjamin Herold June 6, 2016

A.J. Profeta, left, 17, Danny Marks, center, 16, and Eran Kornfeld, 17, all from the Maritime and Science
Technology Academy in Miami, work on their robot during a VEX Robotics Competition at the eMerge Americas
technology event, in Miami Beach this spring. Wilfredo Lee/AP-File

Just providing students with access to classroom technology is no longer enough.

Increasingly, schools are expected to make sure that teachers and students are using
devices, software, apps, and other digital tools in "active" ways.

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Take, for example, the U.S. Department of Education's new National Education Technology
Plan, which places a premium on closing the so-called "digital-use divide." In the modern era,
the plan says, schools must ensure "all students understand how to use technology as a tool
to engage in creative, productive, lifelong learning rather than simply consuming passive
content."

In other words, students should be making things and connecting with others and exploring
the world, rather than staring at screens.

The idea is that teaching and learning with technology in this way will help engage students
more, help them learn how to think critically and solve problems, and prepare them for 21st-
century life and work.

But "active" technology use can be hard to define. For schools, making the shift away from
"passive" uses of technology is often easier said than done. And some educators worry that
this new emphasis on how digital tools are used continues to miss an old point: that
pedagogy trumps technology, every time.

To make sense of it all, Education Week spoke with five people who have been thinking
deeply about these issues. The following is a summary of what they said.

What does active technology use look like? Why is it good?

Meet Chris Craft.

A national-board-certified teacher in the 16,000-student District Five of South Carolina's


Lexington and Richland Counties school system, he teaches an Introduction to STEM
(science, technology, engineering, and math) class for 6th graders at CrossRoads
Intermediate School.

Over the past two years, Craft's young students have 3-D-printed more than 150 prosthetic
human hands. They gave the first to a South Carolina girl who was born without a left hand.
More than 30 others have since been distributed to children around the globe. Craft's
students have also set up a website where they share designs and self-produced
instructional videos. And they've launched a pledge program where anyone with a 3-D printer
can commit to print and assemble a 3-D prosthetic hand for a needy child, too. So far, 115
schools in nine countries have signed on.

Talk to the 38-year old Florida native, though, and the last thing he wants to discuss is
technology.

"In my class, each child decides what it is they want to work on," Craft said. "The goal is for
each to figure out a problem they see in their lives, or their communities, or the world, and
then figure out a way to make a difference."

In other words, in Craft's classroom, tools such as 3-D printers come second. Giving students
the power to shape their own learning experiences comes first.
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Now, those children have taken that freedom and come up with the idea of retrofitting Barbie
Princess Power Wheel Jeeps and other motorized toy cars so that they can be safe
"independent mobility vehicles" for children with cerebral palsy and similar disabilities. The
6th graders have done Internet research to learn about the special accommodations such
children might need, then figured out how to build features such as a pulse-width modulator,
which slows the vehicle down.

Ultimately, the values and beliefs embedded in Craft's classroom projects—student agency,
real-world problem solving, hands-on building and experimentation and creation,
collaboration with peers and others, working for an audience outside their own classroom,
and using technology as a means rather than an end— are what the experts are looking for.

But is it realistic for most teachers? Honestly, probably not.

But that doesn't mean the principles and ideas and philosophies can't find expression in a
wide array of classrooms, experts say.

Start with the National Education Technology Plan, which outlines several examples of active
ed-tech use, including coding, design, immersive simulations, interaction with experts, and
media production.

The common thread, said Joseph South, the director of the office of educational technology,
is that students should be creating something, not consuming something.

One example of how educators can make that happen, South said, is by offering students
choices in how they get to show what they know. Some students might love writing a five-
page report. Others might prefer to create a website or podcast or video. If a teacher has
clear learning goals and a willingness to be open-minded about students' presentation
formats, it's easy to open the door for students to use technology in all kinds of unexpected—
and active —ways, South said.

Collaboration is also key. That might mean working with other students in the classroom.
South said it's also critical to get students interacting with students in other schools, states, or
even countries; with experts in the field they're studying; with members of their community
who are dealing with the issue in some way.

Isn't that still pretty unrealistic in schools?

With the right mindset, it's actually quite doable—and far more rewarding than teaching the
same material out of the same textbooks year after year, said Stephanie Villegas, a former
2nd grade math and science teacher who is now an instructional coach in Texas' 84,000-
student Austin school district.

In her old classroom, Villegas followed her students' lead, letting a unit on animal habitats
morph into a project to design a new zoo for the city of Austin, complete with scale-model zoo
landscapes, digital soundscapes for a variety of environments, a land-use analysis based on

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research using city planning maps, and a presentation to officials from Austin's existing
rescue zoo.

Now, Villegas said, she works to help other teachers find ways to let students build out their
own ideas in the open-ended digital game Minecraft, to use the child-friendly computer-
programming language Scratch to create games based on what they're learning in class, and
to transition from journaling to blogging—on a platform that allows students and their family
members to comment on each other's writing.

All those projects fit into existing classroom and curricular structures but also create
opportunities for students to use technology in creative, productive, engaging ways.

OK, so what does passive technology use look like? Why is it a problem?

Villegas pointed to the quiz-based digital games that are so popular in many schools.

Craft described students seated in rows, watching a teacher deliver a lecture with the aid of
visuals on a (supposedly) interactive whiteboard.

And South identified three types of technology use the federal education department sees as
problematic: digitized worksheets that might as well be on paper, apps and software that
amount to little more than "simple drill-and-kill practice" of basic skills, and student
assignments using personal devices to read and watch content that others have produced.

Such practices aren't inherently bad, South said, but the department believes they will have
limited impact on student learning and are not "the best and highest use" of the powerful new
digital tools that are available.

The department is also concerned that such practices are more likely to occur in schools and
classrooms that include high concentrations of minority and low-income students. A growing
body of research supports the notion that there is a new "digital divide" emerging, one that is
more about how education technology is used than about who has access to it.

How can schools avoid passive ed-tech use?

There are a number of models that are relevant to making the shift from passive to active
uses of classroom technology. One of the most popular is known as SAMR, which stands for
substitution, augmentation, modification, redefinition. Essentially, the idea is to progress from
using technology to perform the same tasks already done by hand (substitution) to using
technology for new tasks that would otherwise not be possible (redefinition).

In practice, the shift from passive to active uses of classroom technology often means that
both teachers and administrators must step outside their comfort zones, said Kecia Ray, the
executive director of the Center for Digital Education and the board chairwoman for the
International Society for Technology in Education.

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In her previous role as the executive director of the learning- technology department in the
Metro Nashville schools in Tennessee, Ray said, her first task was often getting teachers to
recognize that their own personal technology use tended to be mostly toward the passive end
of the spectrum—sharing information with others, rather than collaborating to create new
information; finding small efficiencies within existing routines, rather than finding brand new
ways to become exponentially more productive; and consuming news and information, rather
than creating and sharing it.

From there, Ray said, she was often able to help teachers make the transition. One example:
She often encouraged educators to redesign lessons to include opportunities for small groups
of students to rotate among stations, allowing them to receive direct instruction focused on
content, but also to engage with some kind of simulation or experiment, to videoconference
or connect via social media with an outside expert to discuss what they had seen, and to craft
a digital presentation to demonstrate what they had learned.

Isn't this a lot of gray area here?

Jessica Heppen has spent the better part of two years studying how teachers in the Los
Angeles school district utilize classroom technology—specifically, new iPads and associated
software and apps that were distributed to dozens of schools.

The findings probably weren't too surprising, said Heppen, a managing researcher at the
American Institutes of Research.

Many teachers were using technology in ways that fall somewhere between digitized
worksheets and 3-D printing of prosthetic hands. Among the uses she most frequently
observed: encouraging students to conduct Internet research; using software and apps that
respond to individual student's strengths and weaknesses; and delivering whole-class
instruction with tech- enabled opportunities for quick, embedded assessments that give a
real-time snapshot of what students understand.

"It's not a black-or-white issue," Heppen said, and "I wouldn't say that passive use of
technology is always bad."

In other words, students using a software system that requires them to respond to questions
and prompts might be a step up from just watching YouTube videos. And there are likely
situations when students watching YouTube videos by themselves might make sound
instructional sense. The Education Department's South agrees.

"I wouldn't call it passive, but I would say [such] approaches aren't going to develop students
in the same ways as [making them] digital creators," he said.

If active technology use is so great, why isn't everyone doing it already?

For one thing, there aren't yet very clear definitions of what we're talking about, said Heppen.

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A continued focus on test-based accountability is also a lingering barrier, said Villegas, the
Austin instructional coach.

"Schools that are on the chopping block because of [poor test scores] are pigeonholed into
using tech just for test prep, with rows of students wearing headsets in computer labs working
on remediation," she said. "At a school I used to work at, the technology department tried to
shut down the labs to create maker spaces [for hands-on building and tech experimentation],
but the principal flipped out."

As for Craft, the STEM teacher in South Carolina, the biggest challenge might be the field's
deep-seated insistence on talking about technology, rather than pedagogy.

"I would almost opine that the question of active vs. passive technology use is the wrong
one," he said. "If we focus on making life better for other people, and kids have lots of
opportunities to contribute their voices and passions and dreams, that dichotomy disappears
naturally."

Coverage of trends in K-12 innovation and efforts to put these new ideas and approaches
into practice in schools, districts, and classrooms is supported in part by a grant from the
Carnegie Corporation of New York at www.carnegie.org. Education Week retains sole
editorial control over the content of this coverage.

To Improve Teachers' Use of Technology,

Schools Try Hiring Coaches

By Benjamin Herold, Benjamin Herold Teacher

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Edweek.org

Irving, Texas

A week before school started, Danielle Johnson was already in midyear form, revving up the
staff here at Barbara Bush Middle School by praising their "risk-taking swag" and assuring
them they're on the front lines of closing the new digital divide in America's classrooms.

"Technology isn't going to save education," Johnson told her colleagues during their first in-
service day of the new year. "It isn't about what you have in your hands but what you do with
it that makes an impact on our students."

That could be the mantra of the Dynamic Learning Project, a $6.5 million, Google-funded
initiative to improve technology coaching in K-12 schools in a handful of states around the
country. The project aims to get classrooms using technology for "powerful" learning
activities, such as collaboration and critical thinking.

Johnson is one of the 50 teachers-turned-coaches who kicked the project off last school year.
Now, the work she helped lead at Bush Middle is being touted as a model.

ADVERTISEMENT

The keys to the school's early success: a focus on relationships; supportive leadership; a
common vision, in which adults relinquish some control over their classrooms and give
students more room to explore and create with digital tools; and a recognition that every
educator will need to take his or her own path to reach that end goal.

"Barbara Bush Middle School has used [technology] coaching to build a positive,
collaborative, and growth-oriented culture amongst teachers," said Karen Cator, the CEO of
Digital Promise, the pro-school technology nonprofit organization that is administering the
Dynamic Learning Project. "Other school leaders and coaches can certainly learn from their
example."

In general, instructional coaching as a strategy for helping teachers is backed by a wealth of


academic research.

And it's an approach the 26,000-student Carrollton-Farmers district has long embraced to
improve teaching and learning across the board.

So when the district decided last school year to give Chromebooks to the students at Bush
and its other middle schools, and then the invitation came to join the Dynamic Learning
Project, signing up was a no-brainer, said Matt Warnock, Bush's principal.

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"A lot of schools have devices, but many of them end up sitting there because teachers don't
know how to use them or they're scared of them," Warnock said. "We had the hunger to
make sure we were hitting the higher-order [learning] activities."

To help spur that along, Google paid the first-year salaries of the new coaches at all 50
schools in the project. All the coaches were former classroom teachers, and most had
previously taught at the same schools.

Warnock said he tapped Johnson for two reasons: She's tech savvy. And, more importantly,
she had already built strong relationships with other staff members at Bush during her years
as a 6th grade social studies teacher there.

Both factors led 7th grade social studies teacher Abbey Petersen to jump at the chance to
work with Johnson last year.

"I was definitely excited about doing more innovative things," Petersen said. "And I trusted
Danielle to help because I knew how often she tries that herself."

The pair started slow, focusing on using technology to streamline Petersen's process for
editing and grading student papers.

But by the second half of the year, they started thinking bigger. With Johnson as her
sounding board and logistical aide, Petersen came up with a classroom project in which
students chose a social- justice issue, formed teams, and worked to hone and broadcast

their message.

With that experience under her belt, Petersen hit the ground running this August.

During the first week of school, for example, she kicked off a new project focused on the
importance of identifying when people's voices are—and are not—represented in the stories
told about them.

The 7th graders in her Individuals and Societies class used their Chromebooks to respond to
a common writing prompt—and to read and comment on each other's entries. That segued
into a lively class discussion, then an online poll activity in which students could see each
other's responses projected on to the whiteboard at the front of the room. That, in turn, led to
more enthusiastic discussion.

With 15 minutes left in the period, Petersen gave her first big assignment of the year: Tell one
of your own stories, using whatever medium you feel most comfortable in—from text to video
to song.

The students dove in, popping in earbuds and starting to type in ideas about everything from
annoying siblings to basketball tryouts.

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After class, Petersen said she developed the project on her own, but Johnson's voice was in
the back of her head.

"I definitely think the coaching has helped me to realize that I don't have to have all the
answers," she said. "I have no idea what these kids are going to come up with, and that's
actually a very freeing thing."

More Typical Coaching?

That's exactly the mindset and classroom practice that Cator of Digital Promise hopes
coaching can encourage.

"We're going after the powerful use of technology," she said.

"Things like collaboration, creativity, communication, and developing a sense of agency


among teachers."

Big picture, though, it remains uncertain how much that actually happened during the first
year of the Dynamic Learning Project. According to a report released last month by Digital
Promise, 86 percent of the teachers who received coaching via the initiative said they used
technology more frequently than in years past. But whether such use counted as "powerful,"
rather than rote or administrative, isn't clear.

Technology coach Danielle Johnson, left, consults with Principal Matt Warnock and teacher Abb Brandon
Thibodeaux for Education Week

At Bush Middle, for example, eighth-year science teacher Mandie Cooper had what seemed
to be a more typical coaching experience.

Her focus: keeping her classroom organized.

With Chromebooks suddenly in the mix, that meant working with Johnson to incorporate new
apps. One allowed Cooper

to monitor what students were looking at on their screens. Another allowed her to better
control how students interacted with the digital slide decks she taught from. A third was a
popular quiz app used for standardized-test review.

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And this school year started similarly. During the first week of school, Cooper walked her 8th
graders through the process of setting up their own Google sites for saving notes and
assignments.

Unlike the collaborative, student-directed activity Petersen facilitated, the action in Cooper's
room centered around students following her step-by-step instructions for copying headings,
which were handwritten on a paper flip chart at the front of the room, into Google's learning-
management system, called Classroom.

"Literally type in the words 'About Me,' and then click 'done,' " Cooper instructed.
"Congratulations, you added a page."

Like many schools, Bush Middle uses the SAMR (short for Substitution, Augmentation,
Modification, Redefinition) framework to guide its integration of technology into the
classroom. The idea is to push teachers to move beyond digital versions of paper worksheets
to think about how technology can reshape what teaching and learning look like.

The kinds of powerful technology uses the Dynamic Learning Project is looking for are
typically found at the M and R end of the SAMR scale.

Cooper said that's where she hopes to get—eventually.

"I do a lot of substitution right now," she said. "It's definitely a work in progress."

'Everyone Is Moving Forward'

To make a real impact, experts say, coaching has to be grounded in teachers' everyday lived
experiences, it has to be supported by leadership and become part of the school's mode of
operations, and it has to be sustained over time.

Bush Middle appears to have a solid foundation on the first two items.

Just look at Principal Warnock's enthusiastic reaction to Cooper's efforts. The coaching she
receives is focused on helping her keep striving toward a common vision, he said, not on
evaluating her against a set standard or expectation.

"What you're doing may look different than the person next to you," Warnock said. "But
everyone is moving forward."

And as for sustainability?

The Carrollton-Farmers district gave the Dynamic Learning Project a strong vote of
confidence at the end of last school year,

deciding to not only keep the model for a second year but also to expand it to the high
schools—even though Google is no longer footing the bill. The net cost will be about
$130,000 this year, to be covered by repurposing some federal Title I and Title II funds.
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Why make the investment?

District officials couldn't pinpoint hard data showing that coaching had improved student-test
scores. But they said they saw plenty of evidence of something they consider just as
important.

Take, for example, the classroom of special education teacher DeShannon Richburg, a
longtime aide at Bush who is in her first year with her own classroom and has just started
receiving technology coaching.

Asked if she's a tech person, Richburg lets out a loud laugh. "I'm old school," she said.

But on just her fourth day, Richburg had her students—who have learning and developmental
disabilities and will spend the year learning to compose complete sentences and
paragraphs—testing out their Chromebook's special accommodations, such as a speech-to-
text tool, while writing out recipes for how to make a cake.

When one of her 7th graders asked how long a cake takes to bake, Richburg started to
answer.

Then a light bulb went off. Richburg stopped herself midsentence, then encouraged the boy
to see if he could use a search engine to find the answer himself.

"The old me would say, 'Oh, this is how you do it,' " Richburg said later.

"But my babies shouldn't need me all the time when they have the tools and resources they
need to explore."

This special report was produced with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Coverage in Education Week of learning through innovative designs for school innovation is
supported in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York at
www.carnegie.org. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this
coverage.

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