May 1996
Since the introduction of the internet into the school last year it has proven very popular with the children and exceedingly instructive.
We started off our net activities during Science and Technology Week in 1995 and everybody enjoyed the challenge and excitment of putting the 5th class projects up on the net. The feedback over the following months was very positive and since the beginning of the 1995 - 1996 school year the offers of projects from around the World have been greater than the school could cope with.
We are delighted to see that, with the main internet service providers in Ireland, offering free access to all Primary and Secondary schools, that other schools will have the chance to add this enriching resource to their educational programmes.
The NDNSP was the first National School in the Republic of Ireland with a 'net presence' and for their help and support in this we gratefully acknowledge Barry Flanagan and Colm Grealy of Ireland On Line who were enthusiatic, helpful and encouraging about the project from its inception. Ireland On Line now host EdNet which is a co-operative project between Ireland On Line and the EdNet teachers aimed at "connecting Irish Schools and Colleges together".
The growth of the Internet in the school
Following the 1995 Science and Technology week, the next net activity the school engaged in was 'key pals'. i.e. penpals that 6th class developed around the world. It was a pleasure to work with our fellow teachers around the globe so easily and really brings the phrase "Global Village" into sharp focus.
6th class also took part in an International project on Rivers which was hosted in the Elanora Heights School in Australia. This was in addition to competing in the World Middle School Olympics last month.
As you can imagine, the internet has become an important resource within the school and this year the Science and Technology Festival contribution to the website is a literary one. The 5th class children have written and prepared 59 different items on a wide variety of topics with the unique viewpoints of 11 year olds. We hope you enjoy it.
It is interesting how the expectations of a resource change with time, and for that reason, the version of this page we wrote last year, as we started our experience with the internet is available here.
Derek O'Neill, a parent in the school, set up our page in 1995 and maintained it until October 1998. We are very grateful to him for this initiative and all the subsequent work. Alan O'Neill, a past-pupil , designed our background logo. In October 1997, Derek taught Jennifer O'Connell, at teacher in the school, how to write web pages. Since then a number of teachers in the school and many of the children are writing their own web pages. 6th Class have taken responsibility for the work on their web pages for the school year 1999/2000 as indeed they did when they were in 5th class. We are grateful to Eircom who have supplied us with an ISDN line which now means that internet sites can be accessed over our computer network. Also as part of IT2000 we have been given a Gateway 2000 computer in 1998 by Telecom and we use this for writing our web pages and for videoconferencing.
Thank you for taking the time to visit our school's site.
The 1996 Science and Technology Festival Pages