The Technology Department utilizes the latest digital tools and software to enrich their learning and to prepare them for their future which is a daunting task in a time of such rapid change. Beginning in the Preschool, Kindergartners receive training from their classroom teacher with logging into a networked computer, drawing, writing and printing in order to establish the basis for what they will learn during first through fourth grade when they attend technology classes. During the four years in the Lower School students are prepared to efficiently use word processing, multimedia, imaging, drawing along with keyboarding skills and information and digital literacy.
The Middle School offers a Digital Learning Class for 5th and 6th Grade.
The goal of the Digital Learning class is to build skills and enthusiasm for the use of technology in the educational setting and beyond. Concepts of Operating System, Word Processing, Presentations, Digital Images and Movies, Keyboarding, Internet Research, Digital Citizenship and troubleshooting will be covered. Students will learn how to access the varied DA networked resources and communicate with school e-mail accounts along with being exposed to Web 2.0 tools. Students will compile an online portfolio demonstrating and sharing their learning. This course will be project based with some projects being collaborative. This is a trimester course and will meet 5 days of a 7 day rotation. A driving force for this course will be the ISTE NETS in order to insure our students are learning the skills necessary to excel in the 21st. Century.
In addition to the Digital Learning Course, students will develop and strengthen their technology skills through integrated projects created by classroom teachers and the digital learning coordinator. Focus is put on utilizing the tools to do advanced work as well as being efficient users in order to be successful. The end result is a student who is able to create content for their classes using the most appropriate tool. On any given day you may observe students creating word processing documents, presentations, podcasts, VoiceThreads, movies, songs, along with using Internet tools for collaboration or research. Prior to leaving sixth grade students are expected to be able to keyboard 35 words per minute with a 95% accuracy rate. In addition, students in eighth grade compile a digital portfolio with artifacts from core classes along with taking an online Technology Skills Assessment. Students who successfully compile this portfolio are exempted from the .5 computer credit at the Upper School. Student portfolios are assessed by the MS Digital Learning Coordinator. Students that are unsuccessful will take a technology skills seminar in ninth grade.
The Upper School offers students a chance to explore coursework on two tracks. Courses in Desktop Publishing, Web Technologies, Digital Video Production and Internet Multimedia and Animation allow students to create projects using the latest technologies while also developing a firm foundation in being an ethical digital citizen. For students with an interest in Computer Science we offer, Introduction to Computer Science, Survey of Computer Programming and AP Computer Science. In addition to these courses the Technology Department is actively creating hybrid technology courses with other content areas which allow a student to earn either Computer credit or other credit, for instance; Music Technology and Sound Design can count towards either Fine Arts or Computer credit.
DAILE Moodle is our Interactive Learning Environment which allows students to connect with their classwork from any web-enabled device. Teachers are using The DAILE for discussion forums, assignment uploading, web links, multimedia content and other interactive and collaborative learning modules. The use of an interactive learning environment allow teachers and students to easily share information in pursuit of creating learners prepared for the 21st century. This sharing of information can then lead to deeper discussions in class and to the development of the intellect and relationship between teachers and students. Only students and teachers have access to the DAILE Moodle.
Our goal is to continue to embrace the rapid changing landscape technology offers by providing instruction and exposure to the relevant tools. Areas where we will continue to investigate will include portable computing devices for students, time-shifting of content delivery, along with how best to prepare our students to interact with technology to meet the new ISTE standards of: I. Creativity and Innovation, II. Communication and Collaboration, III. Research and Information Retrieval, IV. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving and Decision-Making, V. Digital Citizenship and VI. Technology Operations and Concepts.
FirstClass Communications is our e-mail, calendaring, document transfer in addition to other web-based or client software communication software for all 4th through 12th grade students. We decided to purchase this solution so all students would have a Durham Academy email account. The use of FirstClass accounts will allow for teachers and students to easily communicate. The FirstClass email account is the only email account that will be allowed during the school day, as it is necessary to archive and monitor the communication that takes place between students. FirstClass accounts will allow this monitoring. Students will be able to use FirstClass either as a web-based solution or by downloading the client software for use on a home computer. Download the setup and installation instructions in order to install the client software on any personal computers. We encourage you to download and install the client instead of relying on the web-based interface. If there are multiple users in the household, you only need to download and install it once. Do not install the client software on public computers, instead use the web-based interface. Google Apps for Education is used for online document creation and collaboration. The use of these tools allow teachers and students to utilize the powerful tools offered by the advancement in Web 2.0 tools. |