We are Digital School of Distinction. As a part of the award the school must continue to meet a variety of criteria to show that we are using technology effectively. This is not only for admin needs but that the priority is student access and use of technology. To that end the school community continues to invest in the resources and IT in the school and the entire staff has engaged in professional development in using ICT to provide quality learning experiences for our students.
Click here to see our report. 18010c Davidstown DSoD
Currently we have an interactive whiteboard and projector in each classroom, access to two PCs in each room, 26 iPads and 10 PCs in a dedicated computer suite. We also have a Chromecast and visualiser in each classroom.
The recommended ratio of devices to pupils in Ireland is 5:1.
In Scoil Mhuire the ratio of devices to pupils is now 1.4:1.
Some of the ICT projects that we have already done this month include learning to code using Scratch and digital storytelling. We have purchased our own set of tripods and iPad mounts and are learning how to write stories using stop-motion animation, green screen technology and iMovie for creating film. We hope to enter the FIS fim making contest which is due in June.
We also endeavor to use ICT to communicate to the entire community. This includes school events, school successes, communicating with our families as well as showcasing the work of our pupils on this website, Facebook and Twitter.
This year we have trialled the use of Seesaw as an eportfolio of our work. When the work is uploaded to the account our parents can see their child’s work on their app within minutes, wherever in the world they may be! We plan to extend the use of the eportfolio to the junior classroom next year. The senior room will be continuing to learn to use the Google Suite for Education for creating and collaborating, using our lovely new Chromebooks!
Learning to code has been a great success this year. Our Junior room learned how to use Scratch Jr and the Senior room is learning to use Scratch 3.0. We intend to extend this programming from online to the real world by continuing to invest in Makey Makey, Lego WeDo and Raspberry Pi.
As you can see, we never stop searching for ways to enhance the teaching and learning for our children.