The Computer Technology Program at Chapin School aims to achieve three primary goals: 

1) To prepare students for the future beyond Chapin consisting of two main areas

• The first area is computer literacy consisting of such skills as file management, printer and resource management, and keyboarding.  
• The second area is introducing and developing skills for commonly used computer applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, multimedia presentations, web page editors and graphics editors. 

2) To provide additional resources for facilitating individual learning 

• This goal of facilitating learning looks to help students by providing additional resources allowing them to address academic weaknesses that they have, or by providing opportunities for exploring particular areas of special interest that cannot be accomplished in the normal course of the curriculum. 
• The educational technology program is not designed, however, to identify these students or their particular needs, but rather to help address those needs. 

3) To integrate the use of computers and computer-related technology into the curriculum

• By integrating technology into the curriculum, both preparation for the future and facilitation of learning should also occur. 
• It is desirable to have technology integrated into the curriculum because it will help engage students in the traditional curriculum, and demonstrate the meaningful use of technology. 
• Integration with the curriculum should encourage critical thinking, problem solving and creativity. 
• Students use the computer, and related technologies, to create and modify graphics in art, to compose songs in music, and to write papers in language arts, science and social studies. 
• Students use spreadsheets to organize and analyze data in math and science. 
• At many grade levels, the Internet is an important source for information for research and for learning to evaluate information for research. 
• Through means such as these, Chapin School takes the skills developed in the technology program and weaves them into the whole curricular program. 

In working toward these three goals the educational technology program should address the developmental progression of students and try to provide an appropriate amount of exposure to computers.  In the youngest grades of Pre-K and kindergarten, first exposure and developing familiarity are priorities.  In grades two, three, and four the program will introduce the most important computer skills and aim towards achieving a high degree of comfort for students.  In the upper grades of five, six, seven and eighth, the students will build on previously introduced skills and achieve an intermediate level of mastery.  The students will also learn less commonly used skills and programs.  This should encourage a more sophisticated use of technology, and a greater level of creativity.  Overall, it is the firm belief of Chapin School that while many students may become computer literate on a basic level without a technology program, the school has an obligation to take them beyond that basic level and to teach them to use computers thoughtfully in substantive ways, and not to use computers just because they are available.

Some of the more commonly used applications include Microsoft Office, Adobe’s Creative Suite for graphics editing, animations and web design.  TuxPix for graphics creation in the Lower School, Inspiration and Kidspiration for visual diagrams, Tom Snyder Productions Timeliner for creating timelines, TypingMaster for keyboarding, Adobe’s InDesign for desktop publishing, various reading and math programs for the elementary level, and a library of other subject specific software are also used. 

Chapin currently maintains a cable connection to the Internet with a rate of up to 16 Mbps.  There is a firewall and an Internet site filter in place.  All computers have the capability to access the Internet through the filter which accesses a realtime updated filter list.  Additionally, Chapin maintains daily updated antivirus software on all of its computers.  It has a fiber backbone connecting all of its main buildings with 100 Mb to 1Gb connections to individual computers.

Over the last several years, the school has implemented interactive whiteboards and projectors in most of the academic classrooms.  These have provided great tools for enhancing not only instruction, but also the integration of technology and technology related opportunities into the curriculum.

Finally, the school has worked on providing students and parents with additional communication and educational resources for classes through change to our website and other Internet based services.  In some cases, this has facilitated the classroom moving beyond the confines of the school building and becoming more accessible at other times and in other places.

Chapin seeks to balance cost with accessibility and hopes to encourage students and teachers to use computers thoughtfully and creatively.  We try to accomplish this through strategic placement of computers throughout the school and integration of technology into the curriculum.  We hope this summary gives you a feel for the arrangement of the Chapin network.    

For further information please contact the Technology Coordinator Mark Lederer.