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"Computers will never replace good teachers, but good teachers will increasingly come to realise the potential of computers in the classroom."
This project is about our IT 2000 Programme and the implementation of ICT’s throughout the school. In recent years we have made great advances. Although the selection and the procurement of hardware and software was not easy, the real challenge was the implementation of an integrated plan across the curriculum.
If we have made significant progress in the introduction of information and communication technologies into the classroom, our success is due mainly to the enthusiasm and support of our students and staff.
We have for many years recognised that ICT is a very effective means of providing educational support to students and especially those with special educational needs.
The potential for collaborative learning and distance learning, using ITC is enormous. Taking part in, IAS projects, netd@ys, ThinkQuest or SpinaWeb greatly assist team learning. Research and writing skill, design and visual literacy are also served.
The main aim of our IT plan is the integration of ICT’s across the curriculum. We think the wide range of subjects and disciplines represented in this project indicates our success.
Legal studies is one of the more popular modules in Transition year. In this
module we study the source of Irish law and the law applied. We buy and sell a house (conveyancing). We provide for the future of our loved ones (make a will). We protect our good name (defamation cases) We research Irish law, International common law and the European court of
jurisdiction. We find the Internet invaluable for accessing information. The potential for individual legal research on the net is only being realised. The great law libraries of common-law in USA – Library of Congress:
www.libcon.com, Harvard University: www.harlaw.com, Blackhall Place and Kings
Inn Dublin: www.irishlaw.com, can be accessed by the touch of a mouse. We can download legal material relevant to a project on litigation,
conveyancy, making a will and on defamation. Sometimes such material serves as a
basis for classroom discussion. Kieron Wood, RTE journalist and barrister has a
brilliant and often visited law site. Legal textbooks will become redundant with
so much fresh and varied material on the Internet. Check out these useful sites for legal research: www.algoogbody.ie
In our French class we use computers to do projects. We use the internet to explore different aspects of French culture and we use Word 97 to type up our projects.
The Internet helped immensely with esearch, the information being up to date {unlike some Encyclopedias}. One web–site visited was
www. Parisdigest.com.
We found this site to be very colourful and informative and liked the way in which the information was illustrated. We think the Internet is one of the most reliable mediums for sourcing information and is the best thing since "sliced bread"!
One student who participated in our French project was Eithne Mac Carthy and she concentrated on French Fashion. She said the Internet was the greatest help to her. She admitted that she did not know what sites would have helped her best, but she had a good advantage. She has a French pen pal, whom she got to know through the Internet, and she asked her for advice on web – sites and the latest fashion in France. Eithne also found the Web – Sites she visited highly useful and helped her tremendously with her project. She visited sites such as www.loreal.com and www.chanel.com
In general we found the main advantage to the Internet is that we get instant access to information and it saves a lot of time we may have wasted in a library searching for books.
As part of our Geography course this year,we compiled a project entitled "Ballinahown 1911". The aim of the project was to use census data to display in an easy to read yet informative way what life was like at the the time the census was taken, the turn of the 20th century.
Our first task was to divide up the workload into different topics - marital status, family size, occupations and migration into the area among others. Then we began the sifting through copies of the census, making notes of the facts and figures. This was often tedius as the hand-writing was difficult to decipher and the quality of the ink was poor.
However when this was finally completed we were then faced with the job of presenting the information in a way that was neat, eye-catching and interesting for the reader.
We decided to print everything out on computer, thus highlighting the technological advances made in the last ninety years.
Using Microsoft Word we typed up and printed out our findings with coloured titles and headings from Word-Art. We also wanted to display particular trends for the time, for example marriage age, occupations and size of farm holdings. We decided the easiest and most effective way way to present this information would be to use the bar chart, trend graph and pie chart facilities in Microsoft Excel.
Our project worked out extremly well and the end presentation was something for the whole class to be proud of.
Everybody took part and for those students who have no access to computers at home, the work they did on computer in school for the project was particularly useful
Music at Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate is divided into three categories: Performance, Composition and Listening. All three areas are well-served by
Music Technology programmes.Performance
In1997 Music Technology, along with Conducting and Improvisation was introduced into the new Leaving Certificate Music curriculum. 50% of a students Leaving Certificate programme could now be presented in Music Technology.
We have to compile a score of several tracks. We do this by using a Sequencing software package. Sequencing means recording short musical ideas. The ideas can then be joined-up, transposed, repeated etc. The software allows us to experiment with musical ideas.
One software package we use is called
Band in a Box. More advanced students progress to very powerful sequence packages such as Cubase and Cakewalk, which are capable of handling several audio and midi tracks all at once.Composition
Using software we can place note icons on staves and play these back. More sophisticated software packages such as
Finale and Sibelius allow several methods of entering notation into the computer, including direct play from the keyboard.Recent developments in interactive composition allows the student to input a set of rules or parameters into programmes such as
PD and Max which in turn create wonderful compositions following the students guidelines.Listening
By using
CD Roms; we can now use the computer room as a music appréciation studio, each student listening to their own CD. Software such as Time Sketch Editor allows the student to analyse a particular piece of music graphically.The
Internet is also a great help. Scores and recordings via MIDI can be downloaded into a sequence package, edited, transposed, analysed, printed etc.
We are currently taking an ECDL computer course. ECDL stands for ‘European Computer Driving Licence’. We have just had our first examination, it was on module 3. We are (nervously) awaiting our results. We are aiming to complete modules 2 & 4 by the end of this school year and obtain our complete ECDL by 2001. Our instructor is a young teacher, Ms. Walsh, in this school. We are lucky to have the facilities and trained teachers to be able to do the course.
There are seven modules in the course.
Module 1
is about how a computer works and you need ground level knowledge of IT. This is a theory exam.Module 2
is about managing files and using the computer. This is like all the following modules a hands on exam where you must demonstrate tasks on the computer and save onto a diskette.Module 3
(the module we have just completed) is Word Processing. This is about Microsoft Word, operating and using it to its full benefits.Module 4
is Spreadsheets. For this you must complete a spreadsheet task.Module 5
is about creating, using and retrieving data. It is up into two sections. The first is about creating a database and the second is about retrieving and using the data.splitModule 6
is one of the most fun modules. It is Presentation. For this you must let the creative juices flow to design a presentation which looks interesting and encourages people to read it.Module 7
is in two sections, one information and two communications. This module teaches us about the World Wide Web. The first section is about web browser and search. The second is about e-mail.The ECDL is a very useful certificate to have. It is open to people of all ages, both students and adults alike. This may not seem like much but to a student having the same qualification as an adult does a lot for ones self-esteem. As well as improving part –time and summer job opportunities.
The benefits of the ECDL to society are the improvements it gives in the levels of IT and the re-skill of the unemployed.
Many reputable companies have sent workers on the ECDL course to update their qualifications. These include:
ESB
IBM IPA Bank of Ireland Eircom etc. The ECDL is recognised in thirty-one countries all over Europe and its international equivalent ICDL is recognised in Canada, Australia, USA and South Africa.The ECDL was founded in Finland in 1988 but wasn’t launched until 1994. It came to Ireland in 1996.
It was set up with these objectives in mind:
To promote and encourage computer literacy for all.
To raise the level of knowledge about IT and the level of competence in using PC’s.
To insure all computers users understand best practices and the advantages of using a PC.
To increase the productivity of all employees who need to use computers in their work.
To enable better returns from investments in IT.
To provide a basic qualification which will allow all people regardless of their background to be part of the Information Society.
In senior classes the Internet is used by teachers and students as a source of texts and information in the target language. The most popular way to do this was to use the address: http://Fr.yahoo All sites accessed will then be in French.
For example a class can check out the headlines in French or read any article from a current French newspaper by typing in http://Fr.yahoo/actualites or www.lemonde.Fr
Recently Michelle Stapleton downloaded articles on the Irish/French rugby match (including photos).
The yahoo website is of even greater use for students preparing special topics for their oral exam. This topic can be on anything of special interest to the student and is often based on a favourite sport, TV programme, pop group or a visit to a region in France. All the information we get is already in the target language.
This year Karen Costello has already been examined on her special interest - the hit comedy "Friends". She found all she needed as regards characters, plots and episodes @ www.multimama.com/morpian/friends.html and www.France2fr/friends
In fifth year, through the internet, Kara Groarke has been able to virtually revisit the region in France she visited while in Transition Year. By consulting: www.besancon_org/intro/francais she was able to download information and photos. Eleanor Griffiths is happily exploring Disneyland Paris & Ailish Walshe checked out the dangers of smoking @ www.fr.yahoo/letabac.
What students most like to do is to check out our favourite groups and TV programmes at Yahoo. Here are some interesting sites we frequently consult.
Urgences (ER) @ www.kami.org/urgences
Dawson’s Creek @ www.dawsonscreek.com
Buffy @ www.multimama.com/buffyslayer
Meanwhile Elaine Fox is working away on a paper in her favourite group REM.
Check it out @ www.mygale org/rem. You’ll find photos, articles and the words of their songs.
Don’t forget – to get the text in French, go to "Fr.yahoo"
Finally Pamela Creavan found all she needed to discuss Athlone as part of her oral @ www.irelandnow.com/around/Leinster/Athlone.html but it was all in English! So she went to the altavista translationservice, typed in the above address and her chosen language and it was translated into French for her.
Students were unanimous in saying that the Internet makes French interesting, more accessible and more fun.
We can be instantly in touch with our twin school in Douai in northern France by E-mail (
college.ste.clotilde.59douai@wanadoo.fr )P.S. if you would like to correspond with a French e-pal get yourself one by checking this address. www.stolaf.edu/network/iecc
Our Class made extensive use of the I.T. facilities in our school during our year in Transition Year Business Studies.
The class prepared a group project on the Euro and in doing this found the Internet to be a great source of information. We used Web-Sites such as that of:
The Euro Changeover Board of Ireland http://www.irlgov.ie/ecbi-euro
The Department of Finance http://www.irlgov.ie/finance
The E.U. Commission http://europa.eu.int/eurobirth
The Central Bank of Ireland http://www.centralbank.ie
Later in the year we were required to prepare company profiles and for this we used Microsoft Word and its Mail Merge facility to type letters requesting information to various companies. We also used the Internet to access the companies’ respective Web-Sites. We found Search Engines such as Yahoo and Alta Vista very useful for locating this information.
Throughout the year we also learned how to use Microsoft Excel to present company accounts, how to use the many spreadsheet functions and formulae and how to format the data so that it was well presented.
Many students in the class participated in the Young Entrepreneurs Scheme, mini-company competition. Microsoft Word was used to write up Questionnaires and Business Plans, Microsoft Excel was used to record the mini-companies’ accounts and to present the market research results in graph form. Microsoft PowerPoint was also used to prepare business presentations.
One of the modules we studied in Transition Year was called Video Studies.
In this module we learned how to operate a video camera and by the end of the module we had produced a short file.
This involved shooting a short footage, editing it between the
camera and an editing VCR, adding music and voice over if necessary and finally adding titles and credits using a Commodore Amigo computer.Apart from our short film, some girls in Transition Year also used video presentations in other projects during the year e.g. SNAKS - Nutrient Project.
Also some transition girls were called on by teachers to film students for LCVP and NCVA exams where
a video tape must be submitted to the Department of Education.
Our Lady’s Bower student population comes, not only from all parts of Ireland, but also from various parts of the world. We have students from Canada, Malaysia, Spain, China, Moldova, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany and the UK. Information technology can help these students keep in easy and regular contact with their homes. Here is an account from one such student.
"Hello. My name is Katya Nickitina. I am a foreign student in Our Lady’s Bower. I come from Moldova in Eastern Europe to the north of the Black Sea. Because it takes 2-3 weeks for letters to reach Moldova from Ireland, and the other way around, I use computers and the Internet to communicate with my parents. This is very handy for me because it doesn’t take long to type the letters. I use the computer every Thursday and sometimes Tuesday. E-mail is very useful for me and even the dummest person in the world can use it. It is easy, quick, efficient, what else can u want?"
In 2nd Year, as part of our science course, our class used the computer room to compile projects on the Applied Science section of our Junior Certificate course.
I compiled my project on Earth Science and the atmosphere by obtaining much of the information from the Internet. I found the Alavista search engine particularly useful. I also researched from the multimedia encyclopaedia Encarta.
The CD "Planetarium" – by scientific American Library & Co. contained pictures captured by NASA space probes, interstellar observation and solar system history.
Internet programmes gave the latest "space news" and its discoveries. It gave full pictures from NASA and detailed information on the cosmology and astrophysics.
I used Microsoft Word for compiling text & photographs and for editing the project.
I also used in editing the project "clipart" in the Microsoft Word. An example of the clip art is the planet image.
We all found that doing our own research through the Internet and through using various multimedia CD ROMS brought the subject to life.
In 1994 the school invested in AutoCad Release 12 for Windows and its Advanced Modeling Extension (AME). Students in first, second, and third year received tuition in the use of C.A.D for approximately fifteen single classes in each of their three years up to Junior Cert.
In Transition year at O.L.B students are introduced to architectural drawing and design and a special effort is made to integrate CAD into this as much as possible. Students are taught the procedures involved in designing a building i.e. production drawings in orthographic projection. They learn how to set-up AutoCad with suitable drawing environments ( limits , suitable grid , snap intervals and suitable setvariables depending on the task set for them. They learn the use of the various commands for drawing , editing , dimensioning , zooming , axonometric projection , and an introduction to 3D surfaces . Students are taught to print copies of their drawings with suitable page layouts.
In Leaving Cert Technical Drawing some use is made of the AutoCad Modler with the Fifth years to analyse" discriptive geometry"problems. Students can set up suitable problems already encountered in the drawing class and analyse their construction with suitable user cordinate systems.
The use of Powerpoint can have many advantages also in that the teacher can set up animated solutions to problems to help the students in visualising many difficult 3D concepts.
With the proposed new changes in the Leaving Cert Technical Drawing course C.AD is becoming much more important as students will now have to produce coursework to go towards their final examination result bringing it more in line with Third Level practices.
In February 2000 the school also invested in AutoCad LT 2000. This has all the standard AutoCad commands but unlike AutoCad R12 we are making greater use of the graphic tool bars to access the standard commands, whereas before, we would have concentrated principally on the text menus in AutoCad R12 with some use of the drop down menus. We will still continue to use AutoCad 12 for our 3D modeling as AutoCad LT has only very limited 3D capeabilitie
Axonometric Projection Orthographic Projection
Use of Computers in the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme {LCVP}
Computers are used in many circumstances in the LCVP class.
Microsoft Word is the main programme we use on the computer. It is extremely useful to us in the preparation of our portfolio, which we must present on our course work in 6th year.
We use Word to type up letters, CV’s and reports, all of which are a fundamental part of the programme. It enables us to present our work in a tidy, neat and professional manner. We use many graphics from clip art to make the contents of our portfolio more visually pleasing.
We also often use Microsoft Works as it is helpful with designing a CV.
The Wizard in Microsoft Works helped me greatly when I was typing up my C.V. It gave me ideas on layout that I would not otherwise have thought of.
In addition we use the Internet quite a lot to look up information for our case studies. We use e-mail to contact various companies and industries for information and we find this a very quick and efficient means of communication.
Part of our course also involves video technology where we plan an interview and record it on video.
In general I find using the computers not only improves the presentation of my work but it is also much more fun. It is great to experiment with different fonts, layouts and clipart. I don’t know how people used to manage without them.
& Computers. We completed our project on R.E.P.S. {Rural Environment Protection Scheme}.
It is a scheme whereby the EU and the Irish Government pay out a grant to
farmers who farm by the rules and conditions laid out. The is not only a
financial benefit {to the farmer} it also benefits the environment greatly –
making it a safer and healthier place to live in. The use of a computer was extremely beneficial to us, as we had to present a
report of our project to the judges of our competition. We made several drafts
of our report, with each one reaching a higher standard to the previous one. It
was much easier to this using Microsoft Word rather than by hand, because
if {for example} we had wanted to change the layout of the report, all we had to
do was cut/copy and paste the text. Microsoft Excel, was also very useful to us as we had to display our
results in an "eye–catching" manner. We did this by using
various types of graphs and charts. We also found that the Internet provided a very fast and interesting way of
obtaining information. The information we received was detailed {but easy to
understand} and illustrated excellently – in our opinion. We used many of the
painting/photographs we found on the "net" in the report of our
project and also in the visual display; that we presented on the day of the
final. We also used the computer to design a web-page, containing the
information we found out about our topic {REPS}. We wanted to spread a greater
awareness of the scheme to farmers and the general public and we thought this
would be one of the best ways.
The N.C.V.A. use the computers a great deal. We design cards for different occasions like birthday, Christmas, etc.
The class has designed a height chart and banner for a graphic communication exam. Part of this exam we also designed name tags and bookmarks. Every Christmas the class designs a Christmas magazine for the junior N.C.V.A and for some members of staff. Last year we passed our computer literacy exam. For this we learn't all about the different components of the computer and their uses. We did word-processing and spreadsheets. Overall we love to use the computers in our school.
Computers with Environmental Studies
In our environmental studies class we go on field trips around the local area to identify trees using a key system. This is then followed by the class going into the computer room to identify leaves, barks, twigs or flowers of a tree using a CD ROM (Trees of Britain) supplied by the Tree Council of Ireland.
We then used the CD-ROM to
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Find out the value the tree has for insects, birds and wild life. |
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Find the distribution of the tree in Ireland. |
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The degree to which the tree tolerates pollution. |
In another class we used the CD-ROM to draw up a world map showing the origins of the trees in Ireland, which are not native.
There were also many exercises and tasks set out on the CD-ROM for students. In one case we used information from the CD to carry out a tree survey in the local area.
Our computer room is vital in the construction of our class, as we rely a lot on the use of computers while carrying out our "hands on" work.
Every Friday during lunchtime there is an opportunity for students to go into the computer room and look up the careernet. www.iol.ie/careernet and the careers programme, Qualifax
The Careernet consists of a number of sites on the screen, which we can look up.
These include:
| Degree Courses |
| Diploma/Cert. courses |
| Courses by colleges |
| Study Skills |
| Career Occupations |
| U.C.A.S Courses |
The most popular sites are the degree/diploma ones. Here we can type in the course area, and then a list of all those courses, and entry points come up on screen. We can click on any of these courses and we are straight into the university’s faculty home page, where we can get additional information on the course – entrance requirements, 1st 2nd 3rd year subject contents, career opportunities etc, as well as the clubs and societies!!!
There is plenty of information on study tips and details of all the occupation, for those thinking of applying abroad – the UCAS icon is useful. It gives information and entry requirements for the Irish Leaving Cert., as well as links to all of those colleges web pages.
Senior cycle students study communications in our school. Students involved in communications partake in a Senior Proficiency Exam in communication during the school year. As part of their exam they must complete a project on a social issue that they studies. It must be presented in an extremely good manner and contain detailed information. This is where computer knowledge is nearly essential while dealing with communications. This is Kira Toal’s {a transition year student} point of view on the subject :
Under communications, my project section was dealing with Anorexia Nervosa, which is a very serious condition. The importance of information technology was without a doubt very valuable, because I have spent a lot of time writing to various organisations requesting information with little or no result with such time wasting when I had so much to compile. Through the computer & the Internet it was a matter of choosing a search engine, clicking in my request & immediately I had case studies and medical research. I had concrete reasons and excellent visual aids to down load & print out. This is where I feel the link between my communication studies & computers was so valuable.
For Transition Year Home Economics, a number of us decided to take part in a Nutrition competition called SNAKS. In order to take part in this competition we had to try to improve the level of nutrition in the school and thus write up a project on the matter. The use of computers throughout this project was essential. We used many areas of computers, which are as follows:
We drew up charts with the help of Microsoft Excel. Without the computer in this area we would be lost as it would be very time consuming to draw up the bar charts by hand. The following is an example of the data imputed into the chart and the chart itself.
In designing posters to put up around the school. We used Clip Art and Word Art to help us in this area. Examples of clip art and word art we used are:
The actual typing of the project was performed in Microsoft Word.
From the above you can see that computers played a vital role in our project
This is just one example of the many projects we use the computers for in Home Economics. In Third year in particular we use the Internet and Multimedia CD ROMS such as Encarta and World Book to get information on the project part of our course.
