Educational Programs at Orchard House
Technology
At Orchard House, technology is embraced as an integral part of the daily learning across all curriculum areas with extensive use in research, writing, quantitative analysis, and presentations.
During the technology classes the students will be exposed to an array of applications, which include but are not limited to:
- The Microsoft Office Suite
- Paint Shop Pro
- Front Page
- Encarta
- Mavis Beacon
Goals
- To teach students the technological tools to address both quantitative and qualitative questions and issues.
- To give students the freedom to try different approaches with technologies that enhance and facilitate learning across all curriculum areas.
- To provide students with a small group collaborative learning environment that prizes experimentation and the trial and error process as a way to learn and to problem solve with technology.
- To enhance communication with the community, create an awareness of the vast range of information available through technology.
Skills taught
- Basic computer theory and vocabulary
- Operating system usage
- Keyboarding skills
- Word processing to create documents
- Publishing and graphics software used in conjunction with scanners and digital cameras to produce page layouts
- Spreadsheet software for data analysis and graphing
- Database software used to organize data and create reports
- Modeling and robotics software to introduce computer aided design, simulation, and programming
- Website/homepage design to communicate on worldwide networks and to use programming skills
- Encyclopedia software and Internet usage for research and data collection
- Use of internal network for effective communication between computers
