Technology
Technology at Greenwich Country Day School
Technology use at Country Day exists to support and encourage children to reach their academic and personal potential. As a learning tool, technology can allow children to manage, understand, manipulate and present information in ways unimagined in previous generations. By using it, children can problem solve, research, connect, analyze, and absorb information. Students can hold elusive concepts "in their hands" and receive feedback, which would otherwise be impossible or impractical from teachers as they discuss and investigate concepts, encouraging each child to learn to the limit of his or her ability.
Used as an instructional tool, technology can allow teachers to bring subject matter and concepts into children's lives in new, more accessible ways, improving the ways in which teachers approach instruction and children approach learning. Used as a classroom partner, technology allows teachers to amplify their message and to display concepts and ideas in dynamic and concrete ways. In the same way that computers encourage students to show what they know, they also encourage teachers to vary the mode of representation of their message to students, potentially allowing teachers to better meet the varied learning needs of students.
In an increasingly interconnected and information-rich world, our children will need to be skilled users of information who are able to manage the increasingly complex demands of a technological future. The degree to which we give our students the tools to participate fully and successfully in the Information Age will determine to a large degree the success of our children and, consequently, our success as a learning institution.
Technology and the GCDS Curriculum
GCDS has achieved meaningful success at integrating technology into its curriculum, effectively imparting computer know-how to students both in their routine classes and through dedicated computer training. The GCDS technology program recognizes computer fluency is best achieved through regular use. Students are exposed to computers in kindergarten and continue regular and increasingly complex use through the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools. In 1998, the School was one of the first schools in the United States to initiate a laptop program in the Upper School. This program requires all Upper School students to purchase a laptop computer, which students use daily in many aspects of their Upper School academic experience. Country Day has integrated a wide variety of powerful computer programs into the curriculum, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Inspiration, Publisher, AppleWorks, Kidspiration, and others. These programs are not educational ends, but are tools used to enhance and support teacher instruction, student learning, and the school's curriculum.
Greenwich Country Day's curricular goal is to sequence concepts and skills at the right developmental time and with the best age-appropriate technology available (i.e. software program, computer hardware accessory, etc.) to encourage student learning. We teach a progression of concepts and skills over a student's tenure at our school, typically using software tools progressing in complexity and sophistication.
