St. James Major on the cutting edge

Jeff Green | Nov 12, 2009

Delaney and Ainsley MacDonald, hard at work, using the new netbbook computers.

In terms of technology, St. James Major is proving to be the Little School That Could, and part of its advantage comes from its small size.

With only 22 students in the school, it has been easier for Vice-Principal Dan Finn to bring St. James to the point where each student has their own dedicated computer.

And this year, 10 of those computers are really the latest thing in convenience - netbooks. Netbooks are small, lightweight laptop computers that can do most of what a laptop computer can do.

The St. James netbooks were loaded with a library of educational resources that have been developed by the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board, including exercises and games that are catalogued according to grade level. These resources are also linked to thousands of web-based activities that have been vetted by the board.

“The Parent Council decided to fund this initiative, and it brings the students a tool to personalize the curriculum and instruction in our multi-grade environment,” Finn said.

By adding the netbooks to St. James’ stock of desktop computers, there is now a dedicated computer for each student in the school. The netbooks are being used by the junior level students (grades 3-5) and the idea is to increase the number of netbooks in the school and allow students to take them home as well at some point.

“Good teaching and instruction still need to be at the heart of everything we do, but we believe that these types of technology initiatives allow us to develop learning outside of the regular classroom,” said Dan Finn.

The students are receiving keyboarding instruction every morning, and have been using computer programs in support of the basic curriculum, as well as to create cartoons of their own, and work on other multi-media projects. The possibilities for communication with students across the province and around the world are also being considered.

Research has shown that students’ standardized test scores improve with the use of laptops and St. James is hoping to expand the netbook program to the entire school.

For her part, student Ainsley Macdonald is a big fan of her netbook. “We use Ultra-Key [a typing program] every morning, which I like. Making comic strips for the school is really good,” she said. “We use the computer for about 45 minutes after French.”

The netbook program supplements the Smart Board technology that St. James purchased last year, bringing web resources right into the classroom for St. James students.

“All of this is focused on benefiting the students and the teachers by providing them with training on how to use the technology of the 21st Century,” said Vice-Principal Finn.