Today's children are growing up in a world increasingly
dominated by Technology and the media. Ambrit's IT philosophy aims
to empower students and enable them to become competent and
responsible users of Technology in all its applications.
To this end, Technology at Ambrit is treated as a means of
achieving a desired result rather than as a subject whose skills
are taught in isolation. Therefore, Technology lessons are based
upon a curriculum subject area, the lessons being the result of
close collaboration between the Technology teacher, and the class
or subject teacher.
The Technology Department is extremely active in the school,
providing support to staff, students and the school's
administration offices. In addition, Jeanne-Marie Byron maintains
the school website.
Ambrit chose to commit to Apple computers due to the intuitive
nature of the operating system and the low maintenance
requirements of Apple computers.
The school has a 10-megabit/second Internet connection in each
classroom. Every classroom has at least one computer.
The school has two Technology Labs dedicated to IT lessons.
For Early childhood, the lab contains 7 eMac computers, a
photocopier and a colour printer, in addition to a computer in
each EC classroom.
For both the Primary and Middle Schools, Ambrit has a lab of
22 eMacs. Teachers at the school have a staffroom with 8 eMacs. In
total, the school has around 80 computers in operation, all of
which are connected to network printers/photocopiers providing
high-capacity monochrome and colour printing services.
All computers at Ambrit are networked, allowing for fast and
efficient communication between parents, the school
administration, and teaching staff. The school's atrium also has a
wireless network, providing wireless connections for staff with
portable computers, and guest access for parents - if you need
access, just ask us for a password or network key, as Ambrit runs
a secure network.
A central server, running a highly efficient software
firewall, manages all Ambrit computers.
Internet Safety:
Internet access at Ambrit is closely monitored. The Technology
Department has implemented an extremely effective, multi-lingual
content-filtering system. However, no filtering system is perfect,
and therefore students are not allowed unsupervised Internet
access. To view Ambrit's Internet Acceptable Use policy, click
here.
SMART teaching:
The school has recently invested in 13 SMART interactive
whiteboards. These boards add a dynamic, interactive dimension to
teaching, allowing students to present work to their peers, and
the teacher to give interactive, whole-class internet-based
research lessons. Each board also doubles up as an audio-visual
station, enabling teachers to show films, documentaries and music.
Each board is managed by an iMac computer, capable of running
both Windows and Apple software, thus allowing teachers to make
the most of all available software, regardless of the operating
system.
Mobile Classrooms.
To complement the existing equipment in the school, as of
October 2006, a mobile classroom of 20 MacBooks will be introduced
to the middle school, enabling teachers to utilise technology to
the full in their lessons. Again, these computers will be capable
of running both Windows and Macintosh operating systems.
Should this prove successful, further mobile classrooms will
follow.
