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ICT Section"ICT Advisory Service for Schools in West Cork" |
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Latest News |
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1. Newsletter Spring '072. Congratulations3. Post Primary P.E. DVD4. eTwinning5. Fresh Start for Donated Computers |
6. Web Wise7. Digital Schools Award Initiative8. Star Office 8 For Schools9. School Broadband Programme |
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FÍS in West Cork Education Centre 2007 FÍS (translated as Vision) and also initials stand for Film in School, is an initiative of Department of Education and Science designed to introduce the medium of film as a support to the Primary School Curriculum. This is the second year of the FIS film project in West
Cork and it has turned out to be even bigger and better
than in 2006. This is difficult to envisage as the school
which won the overall national award for film making in
the Primary School last October was from West Cork. A number
of the films also went on to win awards at the Cork Film
Festival and the Fresh Film Festival in Limerick. It began as a Pilot project which ran from 2000 to 2003
in 28 schools. The Project was minstreamed into 50 new schools
in September 2004 and due to its success the project has
been mainstreamed into a further 25 schools in 2006. Five
of these schools are located in West Cork. The project is not exclusive to five schools selected for project. Lesson plans and technical manual can be downloaded from website: www.fis.ie and used in every school.
Digital Schools Award Congratulations to St Finbarrs’ Boys National School
in Bantry and Scoil na mBuachaillí, Clonakilty on
being awarded the status of Digital School.
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Post Primary P.E. DVD
This DVD is available in your school and will be a very useful resource to P.E. teachers nationwide. A copy of this DVD was sent to all post primary schools during the first week of February 2006.
If your school requires an additional copy of this resource
please contact aos@ncte.ie
or visit: www.ncte.ie/newsandevents/newsletter
West Cork Education Centre will organise a workshop on this resource after Easter.
eTwinning is a new scheme enabling you to work with other schools in Europe through Information and Communications Technology (ICT). It can be a simple and straightforward way of finding partner schools and working on a range of activities. eTwinning is not about creating extra work but providing a framework for exciting curriculum work with partners in another country.
An information meeting will take place at West Cork Education Centre on Tuesday 9th May at 7pm to find out how to register, how to find a partner and the kind of projects you can do.
Please contact the Centre at 023 56756 to reserve a place or email Harriet ictassist@eircom.net
The Fresh Start programme has been created specifically for primary and post-primary schools to help eliminate confusion about whether donated personal computers have a legitimate operating system licence. The programme provides licence documentation and Windows installation CDs—at no cost—for an original Windows operating system on qualifying donated personal computers. Both Windows 98 and Windows 2000 are offered through this programme so that a school can choose the version that best matches the functionality of the donated personal computer as well as the technology environment and standards of the school.
Schools can access the following link http://www.microsoft.com/education/freshstart/freshstart.asp and complete a short online application form. Once Microsoft has reviewed and approved the application, it will provide the school with a letter that serves as proof of valid Windows 98 or Windows 2000 licenses for its donated personal computers. Microsoft will also provide one copythe software on CD for customers who have received donated personal computers. Microsoft is making a five year commitment to supporting this programme, globally.
On European Safety Internet Day (07/02/2006), Minister for Education & Science, Mary Hanafin, T.D. launched the Webwise initiative www.webwise.ie which provides information and resources to teachers, parents and students to help ensure that children’s on-line experiences are positive and safe. The website presents a technology-neutral message in four specific content areas: surfing, chatting, sharing, and gaming.
Minister Hanafin said “it is no longer enough for parents to supervise their children using the internet on the family computer. New research tell us that 95% of children are now accessing the internet and growing numbers are doing so using other means such as mobile phones and game consoles . We need to keep abreast of changes so that we can protect our children and ensure their safety when they are using the internet”
Highlighting the need for ongoing education and vigilance Minister Hanafin said “We must maintain a three pronged approach to internet safety based on having information on the latest technologies, educating our teachers and parents and using technologies such as content filtering".
Digital Schools Award Initiative
The Digital School Awards scheme was launched by Minister Mary Hanafin in February. The scheme is a new initiative that will reward excellence in a school’s approach to ICT in teaching and learning.
Approximately 50 primary schools will participate in the first phase of the initiative. Schools that can satisfy an identified set of criteria will be eligible for the award. Those that are successful will be awarded a digital schools plaque and will receive a logo that can be used on the school website & literature. They will retain digital school status for a period of 2 years.
It is envisaged that this project will be extended to all primary schools in the next school year and to post-primary schools at a future date. NCTE, CESI, INTO & IPPN are partners in this initiative.
For more details visit: www.digitalschools.ie
Star Office 8 for Schools
Many schools in the West Cork area have already received a free copy of Sun Microsystems’s Star Office_7. Version 8 can now be downloaded through the Internet from http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/index.jsp
This updated version of the software now has
an excellent database section. Please note that the schools
can now use StarOffice for their ECDL Training Courses. Books
and manuals for ECDL have been tailored for StarOffice and are
available from Blackrock Education Centre (From March 27th 2006)
or
http://www.ecdlmanual.org/
Schools Broadband Programme
Network Grant Returns – Schools who have not returned their network grant returns form should do so as soon as possible. The form should be completed and returned whether you have completed your school network development or not.
Schools can indicate on the form that “networking is currently in progress” or “networking tenders currently being assessed” and that full returns will follow at a later date. Broadband installations are still in progress and NCTE now estimates that work should be completed by June 2006.
If you are now connected, you may wish to test your bandwidth at this website http://home.eircom.net/speedtest
| NCTE Broadband Service Desk | |
| Telephone (Freephone) | 1800 33 44 66 |
| servicedesk@ncte.ie | |
| Fax | 01-847 3370 |
| Postal Address | P.O. Box 10101, Dublin 17 |
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Summer Course Programme
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Congratulations to the many teachers who attended the ICT courses at WCEC throughout the year. In addition many schools have organised whole staff training and this is proving very beneficial to staff. The arrival of the Broadband in schools had injected much interest in integrating ICT into teaching & learning.
A special word of thanks to the expert tutors who delivered training on behalf of the West Cork Education Centre.
The Summer course programme is currently in progress.
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