Moriah computes a new classroom tool
MORIAH College is diving into 21st century education with the introduction of personal laptops for student.
MORIAH College is diving into 21st century education with the introduction of personal laptops for student.
At the beginning of the term, Year 9 students received laptops, which will be their own until they finish school.
The initiative, supported by the government, was intended to increase the ratio of computers to students and has already resulted in Moriah’s teachers finding ways of integrating the technology into their existing curriculum.
Coordinator of computing studies and ICT integration Sylvia Singh is pleased with the range of opportunities the program affords.
“It opens the door for fully integrating technology into all areas of the curriculum,” Singh told The AJN. “The students are very excited and the staff have already begun using them in class.”
In keeping with the school’s Jewish ethics, measures have been taken to ensure certain restrictions on laptop use. With the help of a security program and web filtering system, download activity is restricted, students only have internet access between
certain hours and not on Shabbat, inappropriate websites are blocked and access to social networking sites is only permitted during specific hours.
“Certain measures, such as monitoring of all internet-based activity and blocking access to inappropriate websites, were implemented under the recommendation of our rabbis,” Singh explained.
Although the computers have so far only been issued to Year 9, the school will gradually continue the trend through the middle and high school.
“We’re currently trialling it with the Year 9s because we don’t yet know the issues that may arise,” Singh explained.
Although the students already use their computer skills in art classes, with design programs such as Adobe Photoshop, the school is focusing on using technology in maths, English and social science subjects too.
“We would like the laptops to be used for students to create things and to gain a deeper understanding of topics, rather than just typing notes and the like,” the computer coordinator said.
CASSILEE KAHN
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