St. Andrews leaps into the 21st century! Thanks to a $1.7 million grant, the Harrisburg Diocese is the first Catholic diocese in PA to establish a diocesan Wide Area Network (WAN) to connect 33 of our Catholic schools, including St. Andrew School, to a safe and private network. As a school, we opted for the fiber optic package which will offer our teachers and students a wealth of educational opportunities.
Valuable Resources
Internet2 is a state-of-the-art networking consortium attached to higher education facilities which allows for innovative approaches to education, such as international classroom collaboration. Applications within Internet2, for example, could allow for a school in China to contact St. Andrews! On a smaller scale, PAIUnet enables educators and students throughout the state of PA to create, collaborate, and communicate to enhance student learning. Students and teachers will be able to communicate with other schools using web-conferencing, video-conferencing, and blogs.
Learning Tools/Educational Support
Our students will now have access to programs such as Study Island, a web-based drill and reinforcement program geared to each grade level according to state standards. Study Island tracks student skill level and ability and students will have the opportunity to access it from home. Another valuable educational resource, Discovery Education, is a database with over 40,000 curriculum-based video clips that teachers in our school will be able to download, plus a library of lesson plans. Our teachers are already taking advantage of SmartBoards in the classrooms, but now we will be able to offer faster internet speeds to use this technology.
Fundraising for Technology
The grant will supply us with all of the equipment we need to get started, including web conferencing units, video conferencing units, a router, and extensive staff development to prepare our teachers to use the new WAN applications. However, the monthly cost of the service is still our responsibility, which is why your fundraising efforts are helping to make this all possible for our school. Thank you to all who participated in the Race for Education 2010. Your involvement greatly impacts the progression of our school and keeps us competitive.
