Sacred Heart Cathedral School is launching a 1:1 Google Chromebook program in the Middle School and a greatly enhanced technology ratio in Grades K-5. In fact, 230 new Chromebooks just arrived on campus!
Google Chromebooks are cloud-based laptop computers that run the Google Chrome operating system and Google Apps for Education (GAFE). Sacred Heart became an official GAFE school earlier this year as teachers learned to implement tools allowing students to communicate, collaborate and research using products such as Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, My Maps, Sheets and Google Classroom, a learning management system that allows for virtual teacher and student interaction.
“Sacred Heart has made remarkable progress in educational technology this year,” said Principal Daniel Breen. “We had over two million dollars in renovations and improvements to the school last summer that included an upgrade to 10GB switches, installation of wireless access points and a redundant bandwidth system. Mr. Breen adds that the entire faculty has attended technology workshops this year for a total of 112 training hours and three SHCS staff members are Google-certified educators!
What are the benefits of using educational technology and how can it be better than the traditional approach? When students are more engaged, when they can collaborate easily with peers, when they can get immediate feedback on their work, and when their individual academic needs are better met, then we can say that we are getting the most out of the technology experience. Google-certified teacher, Mrs. Nicole Erwin, summarized: “Students are able to express their learning in new ways through educational technology.”
Sacred Heart’s growth in educational technology is a wonderful development directly connected to the professionalism and dedication of the school’s teachers and to the strong support of the Sacred Heart Cathedral School community.
Inquire, plan a visit or apply at SHCSchool.org. Learn more at this link or this video!
