The Digital Education has Arrived @ CHS
I have asked Matt Smith from TAS and the Year 8 Student Adviser to lead the introduction of the laptops program. I really appreciate Matt's enthusiasm in this and thank him for accepting my offer. I had a meeting with Matt, Karen Smith and Melinda Bright on Friday to discuss some issues around introducing the laptops.
- Issuing: We have resolved to issue the laptops to staff who make application. What we are asking for a commitment from staff that will involve ongoing professional learning. The laptops will be issued before the end of term.
- Staff Meetings: The last two staff meetings this term will be about the laptops. At the staff meeting this week (Thursday June 25th) we will have two people from Cherrybrook here to talk about the laptops and to answer any questions. The student Laptop Team will also be present to hear the presentation and conversation. I believe they will play a large part in the early stages of this program - their knowledge will often be far greater than ours in the software. Whilst this is the case we need to remember that the staff are the ones with the pedagogy. The staff meeting in the last week of the term will be about a program that will be running on the laptops - Microsoft One Note. It's part of Office 2007. This is the preferred piece of software for the students so Matt will run through some of its features. At some staff meetings next term Matt and his team will be running through some of the Adobe software that is loaded onto the laptops. This software will be available to all staff in the near future.
- Student Roll Out: This will happen during the term. We will know well in advance when the S1 rollout is to begin. We will have a TSO in place and wireless access points will have been installed.