Apple Distinguished School -koulu

Ylitornion yhteiskoulun lukio on valittu Apple Distinguished School -kouluksi vuosiksi 2021-2024 tunnustuksena innovatiivisesta teknologian käytöstä opetuksessa, ohjauksessa ja opiskelussa! 

Apple Distinguished School -koulut ovat tunnettuja innovatiivisuudesta, hyvästä johtajuudesta ja erinomaisesta opetuksesta. Niissä käytetään Applen teknologiaa ja ekosysteemiä monipuolisesti oppimisen ja osaamisen kehittämisessä. Teknologian käytön tavoitteena on kansallinen ja kansainvälinen verkostoituminen, luovuuden edistäminen, vuorovaikutus- ja yhteistyötaitojen kehittäminen sekä opiskelun henkilökohtaistaminen.

Alla oleva englanninkielinen teksti kertoo koulumme tarinan. Tarinan voi ladata luettavaksi myös Apple Books/Kirjat -sovelluksen Book Storesta (Linkki). 

Today

Ylitornio Upper Secondary School (YYKL) every student and teacher has had a personal iPad since 2013 - the practices and workflows used by students, teachers and administration are almost completely digital. The opportunities Apple technology and resources provide for innovative, collaborative, personal and engaging teaching and learning are implemented in the curriculum design, planning of the learning environment, pedagogy and the daily schedule according to the vision and strategies shared by the students, parents, teachers and the school board. YYKL is a small but very active school. The long experience of redefining teaching and learning with Apple technology has allowed the school to develop a role of a global collaborator, trusted advisor and an innovator of change.

Vision

Different Starting points - Equitable Opportunities for Success

Our vision is to support every student's personal learning path from secondary to higher education. Our goal is to provide students with a modern and innovative learning environment where the pedagogical and digital solutions enhance personalised learning, transferable skills, creativity and wellbeing. Our physical, social and digital learning environment allows personal choices (time, place, pace, material, team, technique); it is flexible, engaging, interactive and collaborative and helps all learners reach their full potential - both students with learning disabilities and students who want to dive deeper. The vision is supported by our active participation in digital collaborative projects. We aim at providing students with authentic, immersive and purposeful learning experiences to enhance the connection between education and real life.

Learning

At YYKL technology is an integral part of teaching and learning. The Apple ecosystem i.e. personal iPad, Apple's productivity, creativity and classroom management apps, Apple Pencil and Apple TV form the core of our learning environment. Assistive features such as Speak Selection, Safari Reader and Word Prediction support every learner, but are especially helpful to students with special educational needs. The whole workflow from information analysis, content creation and collaboration to sharing, evaluation and feedback is digital. In addition to traditional books teachers use a lot of material (e.g. instructional videos, presentations and interactive assignments) they have created in e.g. Keynote. 

Students use camera, microphone and Apple Pencil in note taking and content creation. They demonstrate learning through videos made in iMovie or Clips, podcasts created with GarageBand and multimodal portfolios created in Pages or Numbers. Sharing the work and the different stages of the working process in the classroom with AirPlay makes the learning experience interactive. If needed, Classroom-app allows teachers to monitor and lock the students' devices in a certain app during exams and tests. Everyone Can Create -courses are embedded in our local curriculum. Our own IT course combined with everyday hands-on learning with iPad guarantees that every student can use iPad and different apps to enhance learning. The resources in Apple Teacher Learning Center, the Apple Teacher recognition and the ongoing training and personal support provided by teachers with Apple Distinguished Educator recognition guarantee that every teacher has the skills and and knowledge needed to use technology to redefine teaching.

Success

The achievement of goals stated in our vision and IT strategy and the experiences and impact of working in a digital learning environment are evaluated and measured both quantitatively and qualitatively in many ways. In the qualitative inquire we evaluate how well the educational goals of using technology have been achieved, how well students can use digital tools and apps and what impact they have on learning. The quantitative evaluation is based on several different criteria: we measure e.g. the level of digitality of our learning environment (the number of digital courses/syllabus and the learning outcomes (graduation percentage/completed school-leaving certificate). In the national comparison of 2019 matriculation examination results we ranked 24th among about 400 upper secondary schools in Finland.

What's next

The next area of innovation at our school will be developing creativity through podcasting and through designing multimodal content to social media. We have started designing a media lab where both students and teachers will be able to create engaging content with Apple technology. Our goal is to start a public podcast and share our work and day-to-day life with the world. Another area of innovation will be exploring the use of virtual reality and AR. The new curriculum requires cross-curricular collaboration and using Apple technology and apps to integrate different subjects will help us bring a new dimension to teaching and learning

Links