Sacred Heart SNS Killinarden

Sacred Heart SNS, Killinarden (www.sacredheartsns.net) is a co-educational senior school in West Tallaght, Dublin. The school was one of the first to attain Digital School status. A wide variety of technological applications are utilised in the school. Every pupil in the school visits the computer room at least once a week, in addition to access to a number of classroom computers on a daily basis. Most classes are now taught using an interactive whiteboard on a regular basis. An increasing number of digital resources, created by teachers, are stored on the school’s central server, allowing access through the network for all other teachers. Similarly, all of the interactive whiteboards, the computer room, and at least one classroom computer has broadband internet access. The school technology plan emphasises the value of giving pupils access to as wide a variety as possible of applications, such as reinforcement, publishing, adventure / simulation games and reference in an integrated, cross curricular manner. The following software applications are among the most popular:

Literacy Activity Builder  

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Literacy Activity Builder is a wonderful piece of software that enables teachers to produce their own digital activities. There are nine types of games possible, such as matching, ordering, fill the blank, sorting and wordsearch. The games are designed to be completed on-screen, but attractive print-outs are also possible. The games can include graphics if required, and everything is template-driven, so very little expertise is required. Indeed, the program is so user-friendly that pupils often ask can they make some activities themselves. Link

Children’s Encarta

Encarta for Children can engage learners as young as seven with pictures, games and multimedia information in a colourful and easy-to-navigate environment. With a superb selection of high quality multimedia elements, and full text-to-speech capability, pupils of a broad range of age and ability can easily find information they are interested in. As such, this program is used extensively for cross curricular project work Link

Maths Made Easy

Maths Made Easy is a series of CD ROMs, distributed in Ireland by Prim-Ed, that covers every aspect of the maths curriculum in a well structured, colourful and attractive series of activities. It is equally strong on problem-solving, computation and concepts and contains an excellent record-keeping facility to allow pupils keep track of their progress. This series originated in Australia, and this is obvious from time to time, but the money activities have been fully altered for the Euro. Link

Reading for Literacy

Like Maths Made Easy, this series of CDs comprehensively covers English language development in a well structured and stimulating way, with a similar interface and record-keeping facility. A variety of text genres is presented, with a strong emphasis on comprehension, spelling and punctuation. Pupils can learn individually or in small groups at their own pace, assisted by the fact that every single word used in the program can be spoken by the computer. Link

Maths Circus

This is a classic program, and has been attractive and beneficial to our pupils for many years. The program presents a series of puzzles of increasing difficulty, which stimulate pupils’ problem-solving and logical thinking abilities. We encourage pupils to work in pairs using Maths Circus, to foster collaboration and perseverance. At the highest level, some of the activities will challenge adults, and so there is a great sense of achievement on their completion. Link

Who Nabbed Sam  

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Who Nabbed Sam is an adventure game that engages pupils in a quest to rescue the Sam Maguire Cup from the hands of a thief. In order to do so, pupils take on the role of virtual detectives and must visit each of Ireland’s 32 counties to solve problems and unravel clues which will lead them to the identity of the villain. We suggest 5th class as an ideal age group to use this activity. All of the content is based on Gaelic Games, and encompasses Irish geography, English, Maths, Gaeilge and History. We find that boys and girls are equally interested in using this program. Link

Authentic Writing

All classes in the school will have plentiful opportunities to use a word processor (of which we use a variety). We find that the pupils’ writing is more meaningful and authentic when there is a personal involvement. There is a number of digital camera always available to class teachers, who are encouraged to take lots of photographs related to the work of the class, and also to allow the children take them. This type of work when printed out helps to build a colourful and stimulating environment throughout the school, and also facilitates children of all abilities being able to produce a high quality output.

Activprimary 

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The use of interactive whiteboards is quickly becoming a central part of the learning and teaching experience throughout the school. They provide a large, colourful and interactive focal point in the classroom, and help teachers make their lessons stimulating and different. We use Promethean boards, and have been very impressed with the software that is bundled with them. It is called ActivPrimary, and offers a multitude of interactivities in every curricular area, and for all age groups. Teachers also regularly download and adopt lessons created by other teachers from the Internet (called flipcharts). Link

By Robbie O Leary  (Sacred Heart SNS Principal)