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Chaminade Information Technologies

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General Information

At Chaminade we employ a variety of information technologies in order to achieve our educational goals.  Technology is an integral part of our daily operations and  a certain level of expertise is required.

Chaminade information technologies can be divided into discrete groups according to the service they provide to the organization.  For example, we use software common to all businesses, such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, inventories, employee records, etc.  At the same time we utilize software specific to non-profit organizations for fund-raising, prospect cultivation and special events such as our annual Fashion Show.

Additionally, we use software that is unique to educational institutions, such us student records, grades, attendance, discipline, demographics, alumni, scheduling, admissions, etc., which are used extensively by our Front Offices and faculty at both campuses.  Our school libraries are fully automated and their content can be searched and accessed on-campus or remotely over the web.

Further, all Chaminade employees have access to a sophisticated array of productivity tools in order to do word processing, spreadsheets, databases, desktop publishing, web page creation, as well as multimedia content creation and presentations.

Last but not least, every academic department maintains a variety of curriculum software and web-based resources in its subject area for classroom use.

In order to support and provide accessibility to all resources mentioned above, a complex infrastructure has been established at Chaminade.  Both campuses are completely networked with file and print services as well as Internet access at every location.  State of the art computing hardware is available to students, faculty and staff in a variety of configurations.

The entire design of the networks at Chaminade was conceived and implemented with our educational goals in mind in a user friendly, economical and practical way.  Both campuses are connected into a Wide Area Network via our private T1 connection and have 24/7 access to the Internet via Frame Relay services at T1 speeds.  We maintain our own Internet web services (www.chaminade.org), intranet web service, email and more.

Computing power has been distributed at both campuses in a variety of methods in order to facilitate the various teaching modalities of our faculty.  We try to cover the entire spectrum of possibilities.  For example, we have five state-of-the-art computer labs that can accommodate an entire class of students.  We also have seven mini labs with clusters of four to sixteen computers per classroom for smaller group instruction and independent project work.  We have a multipurpose classroom that can function as a regular lecture classroom or a complete computer lab with the computers tacked under glass-top desks.

At the middle school we also employ a wireless mobile laptop lab-on-demand.  This lab consists of 32 wireless laptop computers on a cart that can be wheeled from classroom to classroom.  In five minutes time, students and teachers can setup a computer lab in any regular classroom, access their work on the school’s network or browse Internet resources without wires!

This is the second year of implementation of our faculty laptop program.  The entire middle school faculty has been provided with a laptop computer as well as 60% of the high school faculty.  The goal of the project is to provide a laptop computer with all necessary software to all of our teachers so they can have the necessary tools to develop curricular goals and objectives that better integrate technology in their classrooms.

In the area of Computer Science we have made significant advances and have kept up with the rapid developments of the last ten years.  The courses currently taught at Chaminade start with keyboarding and Computer Literacy, and gradually develop to Computer Applications, Web Design, Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS) certification, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification, and computer programming.

Chaminade maintains its statue as a Microsoft IT Academy  This partnership with Microsoft enables the school to acquire licensing and educational materials as well as faculty training to teach advanced technical courses that can lead to industry standard certifications.

At the middle school campus we have established our own iQcenter (authorized testing center) to provide certification/testing facilities to our middle and high school students.  The student participation, enthusiasm and success rate in these MOUS certification courses has been astonishing and Microsoft last year featured a special article on Chaminade on their web site.

New this year is the inauguration of a new web service for all teachers. Every Chaminade teacher has his/her own web site to post information related to his/her classroom activities. Several of our teachers have already started creating web content.

We have numerous exciting and ambitious plans at Chaminade that involve information technologies and we are working diligently towards their accomplishment.  The Capital Campaign effort for the new Science and Technology building with the proposed Media Center at our high school is one of them that we hope to start implementing soon.

Keeping with the Marianist educational philosophy “to educate for adaptation and change,” Chaminade’s information technologies enable students and faculty to express, explore and exchange ideas with the rest of the world.  Technology, in the hands of our skilled and creative teachers, is transforming our school into “classrooms without walls” and enables us to transcend the usual grade, subject, and age and time segregation, into a forum of student-centered learning.  It promotes higher-order thinking skills, and a life long love for learning, which proves that education can be less about finite knowledge, and more about infinite possibilities and imagination.

 

How students and parents can gain maximum benefit from Chaminade’s technologies from home

At Chaminade we use the Microsoft Windows operating system as the platform of choice. We are currently using Windows 2000 Professional with plans to move to the XP version by next school year.

We also use the Microsoft Office 2000 suit of productivity applications that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, FrontPage and Outlook.

Email is the communication method of choice for the majority of our employees. All Chaminade employees have email adhering to the following naming convention: First character of first name, followed by the complete last name @chaminade.org. For example mhart@chaminade.org is Michael Hart’s Chaminade email.

Several of our teachers assign homework that requires a home computer as well as Internet web research. In addition, a variety of school related information is posted daily on our web site for student/parent reference.  A home PC with Internet access will greatly facilitate your student’s successful seven year educational experience at Chaminade.

 

Chaminade’s public web site highlights

Chaminade’s public web site at www.chaminade.org can be best viewed with Java enabled browsers at 1024x768 resolution and 16bit color palette. The recommended browser is Internet Explorer version 6 and above.

Chaminade publishes a plethora of information on this web site that addresses all or segments of our constituency and the general community.

Some highlights that might be of interest to you are listed below:

Last modified: March 03, 2008
Yannis Grammatis