Technology in Education

School starts Monday, and we have exciting news and plans for the coming year!  First off, over the summer, we were able to purchase 30 iPads, along with an iPad station that will sync and charge all 30 iPads.  About 12 members of our faculty participated in a research project over the summer, learning to use the iPad, and exploring various educational apps across all grade levels and curricular areas.  The iPads will be able to travel from classroom to classroom, and I expect the students will be quite excited about using  this new technology!

Other good news . . . Mrs. Maxwell has decided to return to St. John Fisher.  In addition to handling the technology curriculum for grades PreK-6, she also handles all  technical issues that occur here at school, provides assistance to our office staff, and handles tuition billing.  She is invaluable to us, and our staff is celebrating her return!

More good news … our school website will have a whole new look, organized into three specific areas:  Students, Parents, Organizations.  We value your input on our site.

In the coming year, our plans for technology include the following:

• Internet safety — this is particularly important for students in grades 3-8.  We will be coming on strong with the dangers that students face in surfing the Internet and belonging to social networks such as Facebook.
• Teaching all students in PreK – 8 basic operations of the iPad, and assisting the teachers in using apps that support our curricular goals.
• Utilizing various Web 2.0 tools that provide opportunities for student/teacher collaboration and publishing of student work.  These include Storybird, Glogster, Wallwisher, Animoto, and various others.  These tools will also be used to support learning across the curriculum.
• The technology department will be working closely with the teachers to enrich and enhance existing content with technology.

Please sign and return the permission form  emailed to you.  We hope you will grant permission for the publishing of student photos and classwork on our website.  Rest assured the safety of our students is our number one priority.

What is a blog?
A blog (short for weblog) is a Web publishing tool that allows authors to quickly and easily self-publish text, artwork, links to other blogs or Web sites, and a whole array of other content.

Blogs are set-up like conventional Web sites, with navigation links, and other standard Web site features. Blogs have one standard characteristic, however: the posting. Blog postings are text entries, similar to a diary or journal, which include a posting date and may include comments by people other than the author, photos, links, or other digital media.

Postings are often short and frequently updated. They appear in reverse chronological order and can include archived entries.

Although blogs have been around for years, they have recently gained in popularity and consequently have received more media coverage.  The totality of all blogs on the web is called the “blogosphere.”  (Glencoe).

I’ve put together a project for my 7th and 8th grade students on Internet safety.  The students are enjoying it, as it’s quite interactive.  Within the project students learn about safe use of chat rooms, the hazards of cyberbullying, cell phone issues, spyware, viruses, and much more.  If you would like to look at it, click here.