St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School integrates Chromebooks into curriculum

Students at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School gain a new step in technology as they receive their student Chromebooks ^TM this week. Amy Leslie, Instructional Technologist for the school, played a major role in rolling out a one-to-one pilot Chromebooks ^TM program this past year for the 8 ^th grade. “This program is such a success that we are expanding it to the 7 ^th grade this year and our future is to have all of middle school engaged in the program in 2016”, states Leslie.

The SAOPCS 1:1 Program Goals are: 1) to have a seamless integration between technology and the curriculum in order to promote a 21 ^st century classroom; 2) prepare students for the real world of high school, college, and the workplace; and 3) empower students to learn at their full potential to grow from collectors of data to visionary producers and proprietors of knowledge.

“Increasing access to technology is essential for the future. The individual use of Chromebooks ^TM is a way to empower students to learn at their full potential and to prepare them for the real world of college and the workplace,” sites Leslie in the Program Goals. “We are eager to provide them with the knowledge, tools, and skills they need to take responsibility for their learning.”

The Chromebooks ^TM allows student access to Google Apps for Education ^TM Google Classroom, educational web-based tools, as well as many other useful sites and is ideal for anytime, anywhere access to the web. They provide a faster, safer, more secure online experience for people who live on the web, without all the time-consuming, often confusing, high level of maintenance required by typical computers” (Google). St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School will be filtering Internet access both onsite and offsite using the school’s web filter.

St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School is a PreK3 through 8th grade campus. For more information on the school and its programs, visit www.staopcs.org.