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Bay Primary
Bay Primary started their journey into technology back in the days of XT with DOS floppies and 20mb drives. The first primary school to be linked to the internet, Bay Primary was very excited at establishing their first link ‘kidcafe’ and the first contact with schools in America. Since those days, however, progress in technology at Bay Primary has been in a series of sporadic bursts.Bay Primary is in the rather unique position of being split in two campuses, approximately four kilometres apart. While some may think ‘small and intimate’ this also translates to ‘expensive and duplicated’. Grade 0 – 4’s are housed in the Fish Hoek campus and the Grade 5 – 7’s occupy buildings in Kalk Bay. Aside from the cost of duplicating computer rooms, they also have the additional expense of transporting learners. Communication is a big issue in a school where the headmaster moves between the two campuses and this is where the benefits of technology have been of great assistance. Thanks to a donation of a monthly 6GB cap from Datapro Bay Primary has been able to link the campuses via Skype, thus reducing their Telkom costs. Skype is also used extensively for messaging as the senior campus has no intercom. Too small to warrant a fulltime computer educator, Bay Primary has juggled manpower and resources in an effort to offer as wide an experience as possible to the learners. Kalk Bay educators have all completed the Intel Teach to the Future course and are all reasonably IT literate and make regular use of the resources available. Virtually all the hardware purchases at Bay Primary have been second hand and they were therefore delighted at their inclusion in the Khanya Project in 2009 and they have welcomed the arrival of two laptops, mimios and projectors as well as training in the use of these educational tools. The new technology and its software has inspired some of the educators to explore the possibilities that interactive multimedia offers and their enthusiasm is bound to pill over onto the remainder of the staff as they are trained. Already classrooms are being restructured – as is the hall – and plans are being hatched as to how additional finance can be acquired for the purchase of more of this type of technology. Bay Primary is also having its first server installed. With the intranet that they will develop, learners will have the opportunity to acquire skills in webpage design so as to promote their school, instant messaging and much more. The staff will also benefit from the secure storage and the accessibility of the server while parents will benefit from the broader range of information that will be available to them. The computer room and the link to the classroom have become an essential part of education at Bay Primary. Not only are the learners benefiting from the technology, the senior citizens are too. They make use of the laboratory on a Friday under the auspices of the University of the Third Age and they represent a great lesson to the learners of the principle of life-long learning.
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