School gains laptops

Students returning to classes at St. Mary's/St. Alphonsus Regional School in Glens Falls are in for a treat: wireless access to the internet.

A cart will carry 16 wireless laptops for use in all classrooms, which will also feature scanners, LCD projectors, digital cameras and videoconferencing technology.

The windfall to the school is the result of being piggy-backed with the Corinth School District, which has received a grant from the Glens Falls School District and qualification for a larger grant from New York State.

Without wires

"This grant has really fired us up," said Kathryn Fowler, principal, who added that she is very excited about the wireless capabilities her students and teachers will be able to access.

For the past five years, the school has had access to the internet, but the grant and equipment will widen that access exponentially.

"This is going to open up the newest technology that is out there, allowing up to 16 students to be on wireless internet in a classroom at the same time," she noted. "This is going to allow a larger number of students to be online simultaneously while also broadening the scope of what they and their teachers can do together in the classroom."

Gains

The grant includes:

* replacement of the school's present computer lab, where students once went class by class;

* smartboard technology and multimedia projectors that will allow simultaneous interaction among teachers and students while they are learning; for example, teachers will be able to view students' work as they complete it and immediately assist them with problems; and

* videoconferencing hook-ups with other schools and outside facilities that will allow students to take virtual tours and participate in interactive communication.

Teacher training

Mrs. Fowler said that teachers will also receive ongoing technology training on white boards and LCD projectors over the three years of the grant.

With the staff development and wireless capability," she said, "we really are set for the future at St. Mary's/St. Alphonsus School."

(Other diocesan schools also received grant monies through the state: Bishop Maginn High, Albany; Notre Dame/Bishop Gibbons School, Schenectady; Our Lady of Victory, Troy; Sacred Heart, Albany; and St. Clement's and Saratoga Central Catholic, both in Saratoga Springs.)