A level playing field
Profiles in Success: Theodore Primary School
A definite and marked benefit of using the Macs at Theodore is establishing a more level playing field for many students. Ms Taylor explains: "For many students, regardless of how well researched and written a project is, they often feel disappointed simply because their presentation may not be as impressive as those of their classmates.
With the Macs, using the Apple iWork software, all students can easily create a wonderful presentation for their projects, which gives them a big boost in self-confidence - something which is very important in education, especially primary education.
— Ms Lyn Woodbury, Principal, Theodore Primary School
As students and teachers use the Macs increasingly throughout the curriculum, the Mac's ease of use and reliability have emerged as major contributing factors in the ongoing success. While Theodore does have a technical support engineer, available funds limit his availability to only 1.5 days a week. The other 3.5 days? Well, in many cases, it's students from the Computer Assistance Team (CAT) that deal with the numerous questions that come from their peers and teachers.
According to teacher, Ms Jo Daly, the CAT initiative commenced in 2006 with the specific goal of training a group of students from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 to provide front-line support within their classes. "Every week I run a CAT session where the same 20 students are trained in the basics of Mac and OS X support," she says. "Once in the classroom, if someone needs help with something such as a problem with a computer booting or just how to move folders, those students are the first point of call. Definitely, it's the overall user friendliness of the Mac that makes this possible."
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