Connect Project

South Dublin County Council National Centre for Technology in Education Dept Education and Science St Aidan’s Community School Institute of Technology Tallaght Dublin West Education Centre

Partners

Founded in 1984, is a co-educational post-primary school under the trusteeship

of the Loreto Sisters and County Dublin VEC. St Aidan’s Community School principally serves Brookfield in Tallaght.

In 2008/09 there were 445 registered students in the school 60 teachers and seven Special Needs Assistants. a significant body of Traveller and international students,

according to the 2006 DES report (7 per cent in each case). St Aidan’s Community School provides the

◦ Junior Certificate◦ Junior Certificate Schools Programme◦ Leaving Certificate syllabus and the ◦ Leaving Cert Applied (LCA)◦ Post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) course

St Aidan’s Community School

Higher school attendance rates Improved participations levels in class Reduce numbers of early school leavers Better educational outcomes for students More progression to third level

Intended Impacts

access to shared ideas and lesson plans for teachers;

development of e-learning resources;

adaptation of the curriculum to learners needs and interests;

students receiving better feedback on their progress;

support being given to teachers in managing marking and assessment;

Intended Outcomes

lessons becoming more exciting;

better engagement with „hard to reach‟ students with more motivating ways of learning;

development of new teaching methodologies;

increased awareness and application of information and communication technologies;

integration between home, school and the community.

Intended Outcomes

Connect Project

ConnectWEB

ConnectCENTRES

Connect SCHOOL

Connect ME

Connect project

CONNECT Me: is a web-based facility that aims to store, retrieve and display extensive information about South Dublin ◦ aim of creating a location where people can easily

find accurate information available in the area; CONNECT Web: This project enables

local community and voluntary groups to have a web presence

Connect project

CONNECT Centres: CONNECT Centres is the creation of a network of Digital Learning Hubs across local community centres and libraries◦ aim of improving access and learning about

technologies within communities; CONNECT School: is concerned with

developing student centred technology through an innovative learning culture in order to improve school attendance, participation in class and educational outcomes for the students.

Connect project

eChampion employed by SDCC brought important ICT knowledge & playing a central role in the project management & roll-out of the project –Technical management role rather than teacher

Core Group of ICT literate teachers (8/9) to share knowledge and skills with peers

Roll-Out Logistics Team: 7 SENs who assist students with logistics related to laptops each day

Role of eChampion/ Core Group/ROLT

Classroom teacher

Core Group

eChampion

Outside Vendor

Student/Teacher Tech Support

The infrastructure acquired includes: over 300 standard laptops for use by students and teachers, 10 tablet laptops for Maths and Science teachers, two servers, 12 webcams, 12 microphone headsets, data projectors and digital cameras. The remaining spend has been accounted for by costs such as consultancy, training and travel and subsistence.

Cost to SDCC €418,000 (Capital costs only)

Costs

Windows Xp plan to migrate to Linux in 2010

MS Office and Google tools Used open source software

◦ Mozilla, ◦ Firefox, ◦ Audacity◦ Moodle ◦ Hot Potatoes ( SCROM compliant)◦ Open Education Disc

Costs

initiative has had a positive learning impact upon the student body although need to increase student involvement in the use of ICT in the classroom setting.

  In general, teachers noted improved student engagement and in-

class participation as a result of the VLE and ICT usage within the school.

The interactive and multi-sensory nature of the project was judged to be useful to students, especially among the weaker and middle band students.

improved the ICT skills of the students and has fostered independent learning

the level of independent learning is variable across classes and individuals with the ACE students proving most capable of independent learning.

Student Learning Impacts

First cohort of students to receive a laptop sat the Junior Certificate in 2009 the school has witnessed a significant improvement in results (particularly among weaker students).

Proportion of students opting for Higher and Further Education (i.e. University, Institute of Technology or a PLC) after their Leaving Certificate has increased significantly with a further 90 per cent choosing these routes (since 2007).

As a direct result of these improvements, there is a perception that the school is increasingly becoming a “school of choice”

Student Learning Impacts

teachers using ICT commented positive effect on their teaching and classroom practice

they have experienced a change in the learning environment which is now multi-sensory and technology-rich

added an enhanced level of motivation to the learning setting for the majority of the students concerned.

Teaching Impacts

potential afforded by the initiative for the development of enhanced teaching tools and materials is not being optimised.

number of teachers do not fully avail of the opportunity to develop interactive teaching materials or to use the student assessment tools available through the VLE

Teaching Impacts

the non-collection of laptops by students can undermine the efforts of teachers to teach through ICT

number of teachers view the in-class projectors, electronic blackboards and tablet laptops – rather than the universal provision of laptops to students – as being most beneficial

Teaching Impacts

focus of the CONNECT project on ◦ embedding technology within St Aidan’s CS &◦ improve awareness and to up-skill the teaching

staff.

• Consequently, the project has essentially been a technology-driven rather than a pedagogically-led intervention to date.

Pedagogical Developments

pedagogy is a highly principled, coherent, carefully structured approach to teaching and learning that is understood and consistently utilised throughout a school, and a realisation that technology alone is a mode of delivery and not a pedagogy.

pedagogical assumptions underpinning the project as currently structured are under-developed

CONNECT Project is not yet ready to be scaled-up

However…

Moodle indicate a broadly upward trend in the level

of usage over time 10% increase from 2007/08 to 2008/09 higher levels of VLE usage were recorded

during busy school times such as September to late December and late January to early March before falling off by June.

Development and Usage of the VLE

The teaching staff has developed a variety of interactive teaching materials for their classes using the VLE and the Core Group has led the way on this.

However, the quality and quantity of this material varies within and across subject areas on the VLE

several examples of good practice, notably in ESS, French and History and these provide a glimpse of the potential of the VLE

Development and Usage of the VLE

However many teachers will have started from a low knowledge base

teaching with and through ICT has not a central tenet of traditional teaching practice

Development and Usage of the VLE

Training and upskilling has been central to the roll-out of CONNECT

training led by a Core Group of highly ICT literate teachers who plan and deliver the training to the remainder of the teaching body on a voluntary basis

Starting with VLE and improving ICT skills

Staff Training and Development

Core Group found it difficult to plan and deliver “all-staff” training days

peer-to-peer approach of training individually and by Subject Dept.

good practice both for the development of technical ICT skills within the school and in achieving buy-in and motivation from all staff

Staff Training and Development

Although training is currently unaccredited, this Community of Practice via VLE has the potential to serve as the means of facilitating the accreditation of this important strand of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of the staff.

EPICT and Digital Creator

Staff Training and Development

One element of initiative relates to the usage of the laptops in the evening time in the student’s own home.

effort to develop a deeper connection between the school, home and community

reflects the objective of developing a culture of lifelong learning within the community by means of fostering such a connection

Bring IT Home Programme