Learning Technologies

Digital technology has made irreversible changes to the way live and learn, use and create. A day rarely goes by without the mention of technology in the media whether it’s about social connections, broadband bottlenecks, Google mania, e-business or e-learning. Our students are used to technology pervading every aspect of their lives and many of them spend hours using the internet, instant messaging, emailing (although this is deemed ‘old’), playing online games, texting, blogging and uploading and downloading images and video. They are shaping and creating their online worlds and there is little distinction between education and play.

We, at Loreto College, use this technology in a variety of ways to support and enhance teaching and learning. The digital journey is different for each of us; some embrace the tool readily while others slowly build their skills, understanding and sense of empowerment. There are a number of policies and procedures in place that are designed to reflect our mission to challenge, empower, motivate, engender a sense of responsibility, being just and sincere and acting with personal integrity. This provides the foundation for our students to be ethical contributors in an online world.

Our Early Years students are developing an understanding of how the computer can assist them in communicating ideas: flyers that advertise special days, documents that list skills, presentations that detail learning journeys and digital stories that communicate a message.

Our Primary Years students expand their use of ICTs and use the tools of technology to create and communicate. They graphically represent mathematical data, scan hand drawn works of art and use the images to create a digital story and create short claymation movies based on a topic of interest.

The students of the Middle Years study Information and Communication Technology as one branch of the Technology learning area. There are a range of skills and applications studied under the criteria of Investigate, Design, Plan, Create and Evaluate. Students have produced detailed plans, manipulated sound and images to create presentations, scripted and filmed short movies, researched film types, created animations using plasticine and Adobe Flash, authored websites and considered the ethical use of an online environment.

Our Senior Years students can choose to study Information Processing and Publishing which encompasses desktop, electronic, digital and business publishing. They use the design cycle in order to meet the criteria of the set tasks and utilise a number of different applications as they create their various products. The analysis of issues associated with the use of technology, rather than the technology itself, forms a part of the course.

Teaching and learning with technology touches all of us; we must be creative and ethical users of these tools.