At St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School, students in Prep - Year 6 are provided the opportunity to work with 1:1 devices in their classrooms and participate in weekly technology lessons with a specialist teacher. Prep-Year 2 access a school owned class set of iPads per year level, with Years 3-6 students participating in a 1:1 iPad program.
During the weekly technology specialist lessons, students access the latest ‘Technologies’ Australian Curriculum, which offers children the opportunity to become innovative creators of digital solutions, effective users of digital systems and critical consumers of information conveyed by digital systems. This curriculum area provides students with authentic learning challenges that foster curiosity, confidence, persistence, innovation, creativity, respect and cooperation, providing them with the skills to respond creatively to current and future needs. (Source: Australian Curriculum).
St. Joseph’s students will also be explicitly taught online safety strategies and the skills required to be good digital citizens, those who have the knowledge and skills to effectively use digital technologies to communicate with others, participate in society and create and consume digital content.
Our technology lessons are held in our school ‘Makerspace’ room, located in the school library. This room is equipped with all the latest technology to successfully teach the ‘Technologies’ Australian Curriculum. Some resources include; 1:1 iPads, Spheros, Ozobots, Beebots, Osmo, littleBit kits, Makey Makey, green screen, Lego We-Do and lots more!
Technology lessons are held in our dedicated 'Makerspace' room in the library
Our iPad Program
St Joseph’s trialled the use of iPads in 2016 to support and enhance learning. Our vision is to inspire innovative and effective models of teaching and learning that integrate ICTs to create digitally-rich, personalised contemporary learning environments for students.
1:1 iPads
2017 was an exciting year, full of challenges and new opportunities as we introduced a 1:1 iPad Program at St. Joseph’s. 1:1 Devices means that each child in Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 will have a personal iPad that is used at school and home. After consultation with parents and professionals in 1:1 environments, St Joseph’s has adopted a school-managed student-owned model. This means that the school will offer a purchase plan for the device while maintaining control over app deployment, filtering, Wi-Fi access and storage. Our School obtains very competitive pricing from a supplier for each student package to include:
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Apple iPad – 128GB Wi-Fi model (Space Grey)
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Apple 10 watt USB Power Adapter
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AppleCare+ included
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STM Dux Case (Black)
The cost of the items on our School’s booklists for students in Years 3 to 6 has been reduced considerably to offset the cost of these devices.
A wide variety of apps are used at school and will be managed by a wireless Mobile Device Management (MDM) system. This system will be used to distribute and manage the apps used on the iPads. Some features and built-in apps on the iPad may be disabled, ie. iMessage, Facetime.
iPads will be configured to recognise the school Wi-Fi service and will be able to connect automatically. Internet security filters will screen content. As many apps and set tasks require Wi-Fi, students will need access at home.
No VPN Apps
Students are not allowed to have VPN Apps installed on their iPad. If they do, they won't be able to access the internet from our School’s WiFi network. What is a VPN? A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a legitimate technology for accessing computer networks remotely, often used to work from home. But if you don't know who owns the VPN, they may be untrustworthy and could capture user data, such as websites visited, usernames, passwords and credit card details. VPN Apps are becoming a lot more common and are currently unregulated, meaning anyone can set up a VPN and capture the data of those that use it.
Classroom iPads
iPads are available in the classroom with a ratio of 1:2 students in Prep, Year 1 and 2.
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