COMHAIRLE CHONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE 1

Monday, October 16, 2006

QUESTION 16

QUESTION: Cllr. Marie Corr

"To ask the Manager to provide details in relation to the operation of the Connect project in St. Aidan's Secondary School?"

REPLY

Connect School in St Aidan’s Community School, Brookfield , will develop student centred technology through an innovative learning culture in order to improve school attendance, participation in class and educational outcomes for the students. The three goals of the project are:

  

  1. To develop the innovative learning environment for the Students and Teachers

     

  2. To develop student centred technologies

     

  3. To develop awareness of the project within the Education Sector, creating leverage of and disseminating project achievements 

     

In August 2006 an ICT Co-ordinator was employed as a dedicated resource to the teachers and students throughout the school year to progress the project goals.

An Operational Group has been established and met on 19/09/06 (Principal, Vice Principal, IT Teacher, ICT Co-ordinator)

The ICT Co-ordinator identified eight Teachers as the Core Support Group, i.e. Teachers high in IT Skills & Confidence.

The Core Support Group & the ICT Co-Ordinator provide training for all the teachers with all IT skill levels in subjects such as PowerPoint presentations, searching the internet, using a digital camera etc…  Training has also taken place in the use of Moodle which is an open source e-learning platform that is being used by all the teachers in the school.  Further individual and group Moodle Workshops are set up on an ongoing basis.

The Dublin West Education Centre and the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, have been actively supportive and involved in both the running of the Teacher Training and the development of the Virtual Learning Environment in the school

Network infrastructure has been improved with the installation of further data points. All Teachers have been provided with laptops since May 2006. The procurement process for laptops for the participating students is near completion.

It is hoped to formally launch the project this year by the Mayor and Minister for Education and Science jointly in the school.