So, our school provided a team of teachers an opportunity to attend a great training/PD delivered by Apple-recommended trainers. We attended intensive trainings in iBooks Author, iLife apps, as well as iTunesU.

The one that stood out the most to me was the ‘iTunesU bootcamp’, as the school dubbed it. Having been an iPad coordinator at my previous school, most of the iBooks Author and iLife stuff I knew from before, but iTunesU was completely new and unexplored territory for me. 

As trainees, we were expected to have come out from the bootcamp with a fully designed iTunesU course that we can start delivering in the near future. As a drama teacher, at first I sort of struggled: how do I create an iTunesU course for my drama/performing arts classroom?

However, eventually I got inspired and created my first ever iTunesU course covering improvisational theatre and Commedia Dell’Arte, over a period of ten weeks. The process of creating the iTunesU course and delivering it through that platform really forced me to evaluate how I already use iPads in my drama classroom. While I’ve always made use of students’ iPads to allow them to document evidence of their rehearsals and performances, and to self-assess and peer-assess each others’ work, the iTunesU platform allowed me to streamline the process into one that facilitates the process of building a portfolio of all their work throughout the course. I created a template for that portfolio on ‘Book Creator’, which the students will download and ‘open in’ Book Creator, and then add all their work throughout the course on that portfolio template.

I must say I really enjoyed the bootcamp and the whole process of designing the iTunesU course, to the extent that I’m already designing my second one!