On a sunny day in March, Graeme and I had a wonderful TrilbyTV day out with our friends from Apple and technology reseller XMA. As an Education EcoSystem Partner for Apple, we attended alongside friends such as Jamf, Kaligo and Text Help to support the XMA ‘Transforming Education Together with iPad’ event. The venue was the very cool Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh which is a world-class Science Centre and Planetarium. The weather was all blue skies and sunshine so everything was set for a busy and interactive day.
These events are always a great opportunity for us to catch up with those we have been working with for many years. Many moons ago Trilby was one of Apple’s busiest associated training companies delivering Apple Professional Development to schools all across the UK and into Europe. A certain someone we have known for a very long time is Joe Moretti who was delivering a creative music session using Garageband. Joe is a wonderful musician, and at one point was Apple’s lead presenter when it came to shows such as Bett. As normal, Joe’s sessions did not disappoint and unsurprisingly now living in Scotland, he has mastered the bagpipes.
The day was focused on Apple’s iPad as a teaching and learning tool and it was great to see so many attendees eager to learn from those presenting. The day started with a keynote welcome from Michael Conlon who is an Education Transformation Consultant at XMA. Michael has 30 years of education experience covering school leadership, quality improvement and digital learning. Michael hosts an education focused podcast called ‘Best in Class’ which is well worth a watch. I would highly recommend his chat with Dr Steve Bunce.
As well as having the TrilbyTV stand set up in the area attendees were using for lunch and coffee, we also had a showcasing screen set up in the mainroom. This meant we were able to take photos from the sessions and showcase them live to the attendees. You could literally see their faces saying ‘that’s me now’ ? ‘How is that happening’? Creating digital content is an important component of the iPad but so is showcasing that content. Otherwise it gets stuck on the device or at best shown briefly in an assembly. Digital Signage is the perfect way to share and showcase students digital work and that was the message we were getting across to those teachers and senior leaders attending the event.
How important is sharing digital content?
To gain an audience view of the importance of sharing and showcasing digital content I posted a Poll on the main room screen. Our TrilbyTV Polls feature is a great way to gain staff and student feedback and promote voice. The results were pretty unanimous with 88% of the votes agreeing – A. Very Important with the remaining 12% B. Quite Important. I truly hope attendees will take this back to their schools and start planning for how they can further showcase digital content.
Myself and Graeme had a fantastic time supporting the event and further cementing important partnerships and friendships. We look forward to supporting Apple and XMA in the future and showcasing TrilbyTV, the only digital signage platform made for education.
