Apple Distinguished Educators: The most innovative educators in the world ?

As I find myself trawling through the numerous incentives to warrant my next professional development path, I find myself up against an old career long question, should I invest my time in developing myself as an Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE)?  It will allow me to push towards delivering  the incentive for a whole school approach at my next career stop, to the school becoming an Apple Distinguished School…

But is it really worth it?

Well, lets look at this a little closer…

Apple runs these PD’s once a year, all over the world.  To get any chance of being considered, I need to submit  a video and fill in some paperwork.  But, a teacher doesn’t apply to become an ADE as they think they will have the potential to do well, instead the teacher needs to demonstrate what they are already doing that could justify a place on the course.  This could be a ‘Which came first moment about chickens and eggs moment’.

It seems to me then, that applying to become a ADE with 5 macs in the whole school will certainly be hard to justify in a 2 min video, but will it be enough to justify to the Apple Gods that I have shown enough potential to gain more financial input from my boss to buy more Apple products.  This could be a tough horse to flog..

Then, another point demands that before I even consider applying for one of these highly coveted places, I need to appreciate that it is more a question of changing the culture of the learning environment.  The school needs to become not just a user of Mac products in the IT room, but an overhaul of how a curriculum is delivered needs to occur and be recognized as a major shift in how teachers teachers and students learn.

Once the hype of owning an Apple product (thanks Steve) has settled, then and only then can a school judge whether or not it is actually beneficial to jump on the Apple dream.

Otherwise, maybe go and buy a HTC and wish for the best.

Just a thought…