Loreto Community School in Milford, Co. Donegal has been awarded the first SmartClass competition prize, valued at €150,000. The prize was presented to the school today by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
SmartClass is a collaborative national competition run by Intel, Steljes and The Educational Company of Ireland to give second level schools the opportunity to win a package of computers, e-books and ongoing technical support for an entire first year class. A wireless local area network will also be provided for the school and CASTeL at Dublin City University will provide on-going professional development to the teachers in their implementation of technology across all junior cycle science subjects.
The SmartClass initiative is an approach to delivering the Junior Certificate students digitally, all on one PC, with associated IT infrastructure.
Greg Tierney from Steljes, said: "This solution provides an economic way for teachers and parents to provide a one-to-one eLearning environment for students. What we are offering here is a complete solution - a laptop designed specifically for the education market coupled with classroom control for the teacher and on-line access to the Junior Certificate curriculum".
Dr. Odilla Finlayson from CASTeL at Dublin City University, said: "It's important to provide ongoing support and professional development to the teachers in Loreto Community College for the three years of this award so that the full potential of one-to one learning can be realized for the benefits of both the teachers and their students."
TechCentral Reporters