COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 11, 2010

QUESTION NO. 2

QUESTION: Councillor S. Crowe

In view of the clear success of the Connect project can the Manager outline in financial terms the projected investment that this Council will have injected into the project?

REPLY:

Connect School

The Connect School Project at St Aidan's Community School, Brookfield, Tallaght is a five year multi-agency project funded by South Dublin County Council. 2010 is the fifth and final year of the project.

Project Partners

 The Project aims to improve school attendance, participation in class, and the educational outcomes of students through the use of ICT in Education.

 Since September 2006, Laptops have been provided to all Teachers and all incoming 1st Year Students. Data Projectors have been installed in every classroom and a wireless network has been installed throughout the school.  An eChampion is based in the school to support teacher and students.

 The Teachers of St Aidan's, led by School Management and a Core Group of ICT literate Teachers, have developed a Virtual Learning Environment using Moodle. This allows Teachers to deliver subject specific material in class using Moodle, the ubiquitous internet connection and Data Projectors.

 An Evaluation of the Project was launched in May 2010 by  the Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan T.D.  The Evaluation outlines positive findings and guidelines for the future development of the use of technology in schools. The Evaluation Framework developed as part of this work will guide the Connect School in future reviews.

 In addition to the use of Laptops daily throughout the School there are many interesting subprojects: the use of eBooks from Gill and Macmillan for History and Geography is being piloted and a Community of Practice is now being established to develop ICT skills and subject related material amongst teachers.

 St Aidan’s Community School is one of the schools benefiting from the increase in  broadband provision to 100 MB high speed connection as part of the Knowledge Society Strategy.

 It is estimated that the total cost of this five year project will be approximately €750,000 which covers the purchase of laptops for all pupils over the five year period and the salary costs of the E-Champion.  The cost is less than the original estimate because of the reduction in the purchasing cost of the ICT hardware and the use of free Open Source software. The project which is unique in educational terms will have long lasting benefits for the school and the surrounding community. Positive outcomes of the project include increased attendance, improved academic achievement and a reduction in disciplinary incidences.