Curriculum - Information Technology

At The Hall School we aim to integrate the use of technology and communication technologies (ICT) into everyday classroom teaching, as well as provide boys with exciting, stimulating and challenging ICT activities, through dedicated ICT classes.

 We seek to best prepare our boys for the world they will face beyond The Hall School, through using ICT at The Hall, we aim to inspire confidence and creativity with the use of technology.

What kinds of ICT activities do the boys do at The Hall

• All technology at The Hall is viewed as a tool to support and enhance learning in the classroom. Boys undertake a variety of ICT activities in the classroom, but also have dedicated ICT classes with a specialist ICT teacher. In these classes boys are encouraged to be creative with the use of technology. In ICT classes boys undertake challenging and engaging programming type activities with software applications such as Scratch, Game Maker, XNG Game studio and Robotics. Boys also have the opportunity undertake video production, green screen technology and video editing.  Boys' ICT skills are developed through enjoyable, hands on, project based activities, which aim to involve higher order thinking skills at all levels.

How do Boys use technology at The Hall?

• Access to new technologies is used to increases collaboration amongst students and teachers.

• Using new productivity tools and Web 2.0 technologies such as calendars, wikis, graphic organizers, presentation software, and note-taking tools, enable boys  to create shared documents and collaborate more easily on projects and on content creation

• Using our Virtual Learning Environment ,the VLE (See pupils’ area on the Website), boys can easily communicate with teachers, access online resources whic have been made available  by teachers, access course content, review mulitmedia resources from classes, review outside readings, other students  personal reflections, interactive discussions and forums.

• Used in conjunction with the our Virtual Learning Environment  (VLE) boys have access to anytime, anywhere learning – education isn’t limited by the walls of the classroom. At all times students have access to class resources and course content.  

ICT at The Hall provides differentiated learning opportunities

• In a typical classroom, which is frequently teacher-centered, boys are often competing with other voices. The use of technology in the classroom levels the playing field and allows all students to contribute in a wide variety of ways – speaking, writing, creating content, contributing to discussion forums, wikis, blogging, podcasting, etc.

• Observations from classrooms using technology demonstrate that when given opportunities to communicate online, even the most reserved students in a traditional environment tend to contribute profusely and often ‘shine’ in that context.

• Using ICT in the classroom promotes higher-level thinking skills.

• Technology can often remove mundane time-consuming tasks and calculations, allowing boys and teachers to get at higher-level thinking more quickly and easily. Less time is spent on menial tasks, and more time is spent analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating, communicating and collaborating.

• Emphasis is placed on promoting communication and presentation skills.

• We have high expectations with communication and presentation skills. It is not sufficient for a boy simply to be a good speaker, effective communicators must also leverage powerful media aids in their presentations. Technology in the classroom provide students with more opportunities to sharpen and practice all of their communication and presentation skills.

At the Hall we aim to prepare boys for life in the 21^st century. Our Boys must be able to use technology to learn content and skills, so that they know how to learn, think critically, solve problems, use information, communicate, innovate and collaborate. Boys need to acquire the ability to adapt to a more globally-interconnected, flatter and rapidly changing world, where technology is embedded everywhere. As much as students need to learn academic content, they also need to know how to keep learning and make effective and innovative use of what they know throughout their lives. With technology in their hands, boys will learn to leverage the power of new tools for organizing and managing their time, thoughts, workflows, to-do lists, and creative endeavours. Confidence in using these tools will lead to greater success in their future studies and workplaces.