:: Saint John Bosco Catholic School

The history of Technology at St. John Bosco started in the 1980’s with an anonymous donation of an Apple Computer. The number of systems in use have grown from 1992 : 6 Apple IIes to IBM PS2s to a mix of donated IBM and IBM compatibles to a homogeneous lab in 2004 : of 18 Dell Pentium 4 computers. They all run Windows XP with the Microsoft Office XP Programs which were donated by Microsoft in 2004.

Many of the computers from the lab and some newly donated computers were moved into the library and into the classrooms. The library has 6 Dell Pentium 3 computers for student use. They were acquired through the former Pennsylvania Educational Grant, Link to Learn. The librarian has a computer on a cart with a projector and a mobile interactive Smartboard for group instruction. Each teacher has a computer for their own use as well as access to a cart with a computer and a projector. There are two computers in each classroom for students’ uses for projects and educational games.

In the Spring of 2004, the school was awarded a grant from the Sullivan Family of Philadelphia, through the Archdiocesan Technology Committee. This grant has provided a mobile cart of 16 laptops that can be used in the classrooms. Instruction in Technology Integration was also provided to the teachers at the same time to enable them to implement the systems through an associated grant from the Connelly Foundation in Philadelphia.

Children have been exposed to the implementation of projectors, Smartboards, digital cameras, scanners, and handheld Palm Pilots.

Technology Curriculum

The Technology Curriculum is based on the standards set by the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Technology Coordinators who reference the National Technology Standards. The standards for each grade are implemented through the use of a computer lab during set classroom times. Projects have been developed by the computer teacher and by the classroom teachers.

The majority of the curriculum for grades 3 through 8 is taught using the Microsoft Office Programs and electronic encyclopedias as well as the use of the Internet. The use of educational games in the lab is minimal but more in use in the classrooms. The younger children use Window Accessories, Paint, and WordPad and multimedia graphic and word processing packages. More educational games are in use throughout the year than in the older classes.

Grades 1 through 6 receive keyboarding instruction while 7th and 8th incorporate what they have learned in the past in their project work. We have purchased and installed software such as Inspiration and Kidspiration, as well as the Encyclopedia Encarta 2004, to be used with the residing Office XP products. Other curriculum based software may be used, also, such as the digital camera software.