Technology at OLOL

​In a world of fast knowledge development, none of us will have the capability to know much of anything at all. The most important skill we will have will be the ability to go out to get the right knowledge for the right purpose at the right time."  

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School is a school community striving to serve the needs of students in an authentic way. One of the School's key learning and teaching principles is to utilise innovative pedagogical practices that effectively integrate technology.

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School aims to be a technology rich school integrating technology into all curriculum areas to enhance learning. A 1:1 Program exists for students from Years 2 to 6 with a large bank of iPads available for Prep and Year 1.   In Year 3 to 6 each student has access to an iPad to use at school and at home, enabling communication and collaboration among peers and teachers and connecting parents to their child's learning. The 1:1 program enables students to experience growth in many areas - self confidence, organisation, motivation to learn and learning in a range of modalities.

A 1:1 environment should be the goal of every learning institution, however the iPad has not taken over the classroom, nor has it replaced quality teaching. Teachers have welcomed the device like their predecessors welcomed the chalkboard, the calculator and the CD-ROM. The device gives our students a better opportunity to share, connect and seek out information. The iPad is not a distraction, but another arm of the classroom. It is not always on display. There are times when the best lessons are done with the absence of the iPad.

Students are being taught that the iPad is an avenue for learning and discovery, but it cannot replace their ability to think critically or creatively, or to question and choose strategies to solve real life problems. These are the skills that our students will need to be effective citizens. With the iPad, they will have access to an overabundance of information and potential answers, but it will not give them the strategies to filter the information, solve problems and communicated their findings. The General Capabilities of the Australian Curriculum: Critical and Creative Thinking Capability and Information and Communication Technology Capability demand that we give our students the skills to be critical and creative thinkers and to be ICT competent.

Our teachers are incorporating technology into the classroom, and are reflecting on its use to plan for the future. Students have become competent in the use of different Apps and are becoming more efficient in the use of the iPad.