A Hive of Learning in the Heart of the City
Digital Learning
One of our 4 Key Pillars
Digital Literacy
We know that to survive in a 21st Century learning environment we must be digital literate. To realise this aim we work with our community to provide digital literacy opportunities for our children. These include the following initiatives.
Scratch Coding
Scratch is a block-based visual programming language and online community targeted primarily at children. Users of the site can create online projects such as games, quizzes and animations using a block-style coding. We use Scratch in our school to introduce and develop our children's coding skills. As the site is free to use, children can continue to develop these skills in their own time.
Hour of Code
The Hour of Code is a global movement by Computer Science Education Week and Code.org which sees tens of millions of students in 180+ countries complete a one-hour introduction to computer science and computer programming. In 2016 & 2017 our entire school completed this Hour of Code!
Robotics
In 2016 our school received our first VEX IQ Robotics kit.
The VEX IQ Robotics kit has helped us to instill a lifelong interest in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) in a fun, engaging, and hands-on way. VEX IQ is a snap-together robotics system designed to provide learning opportunities to future engineers of all skill levels as well as encouraging teamwork, problem solving, and leadership for students.
Our Robotics teams have built robots which have competed at two national robotics events in Cork and Dundalk and we are looking forward to next year's competition already.
Digital Art Week
Interests and opportunities in Digital Learning go far beyond coding and programming. Each year as part of Tech Week, pupils create digital art pieces using programs such as MS Paint, MS Paint 3D, & weavesilk.com. These are uploaded to www.digitalartweek.com where children can look at and respond to all of the others entries to the project.
