Mission :
Indian Creek School is dedicated to giving students the technological tools that will help them to become independent thinkers and productive learners. Technology skills are introduced in pre-kindergarten and are developed through the years. Students’ ability to use technology yields access to an unlimited amount of knowledge. Technology makes it possible for students to process large amounts of data that would be difficult to handle by traditional methods. At times students do simulations, projects and/or participate in problem solving that would be cumbersome or impossible without the tools of technology. Creativity is encouraged.

“Our Techies of Tomorrow”

Acceptable Use Policy:
The use of technology resources is an important part of education here at Indian Creek, and all users must act responsibly in accordance with the mission statement and rules of the school. Before students are allowed to use the Indian Creek School network, an Internet contract between Indian Creek School and each student must be read and signed by both parent and student. Indian Creek School has incorporated several data protection and Internet security technologies into the network infrastructure. The school has centralized virus and backup protections, a firewall and a dedicated server with monitoring and filtering software that continually monitors the network and controls Internet traffic and content.

Educational Technology Overview
Available technology is being constantly changed and refined as its role in our world becomes more central and more sophisticated. In a school setting, we explore new applications, new software and more advanced hardware while adapting curriculum as new academic possibilities evolve. New software is added frequently and applications are regularly updated. Software drives hardware; more robust applications require advanced hardware.

Students enter Indian Creek with different skill levels and their individual needs are accommodated. The computer curriculum introduces new skills and a continual review of skills to strengthen the student’s abilities to perform. Computer literacy classes are presented. However, computer classes are not an end in themselves; they are meant to build on and enhance studies in traditional disciplines. The computer labs invite cross-curriculum participation. Creative projects that encourage multitasking between applications and the Internet enrich the learning experience.

The campus network that provides a T1 connection to the Internet consists of a Lower School computer lab, a Middle School computer lab, a library/media center, and a computer with printer capability in every classroom or office. The new upper school will have similar capabilities. State of the art computers running Microsoft Office Professional 2000, Microsoft Office XP Professional, and additional educational software contribute to an academically challenging technological environment. Additional on-line resources are available to the students, as well as scanners and digital cameras. Teachers and staff communicate through the Indian Creek Intranet.

Sample Projects
Listed below are sample projects presented during the year.

Pre-Kindergarten – Students visit Discovery Channel’s Internet site on the “D for Dinosaurs Day.” http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/dinos/video/video.html

Kindergarten – Students create an A B C Chesapeake Bay Slide Show.

First Grade –   Students study the Solar System and with the use of the Internet, view pictures of actual planets. http://hubblesite.org/gallery/showcase/text.shtml and http://www.nineplanets.org/

Second Grade – Each student writes an original story and then creates a slide in KidPix by typing the words and illustration for each part of the story (beginning, middle, and end).

3rd-5th Grade – Using Microsoft Publisher, students create African country brochures. Each student researches an African Country and creates a brochure including natural resources, geographic features, capital, government, population, currency, and language spoken.  They include the country’s location (latitude and longitude), pictures of its flag, map, and others pertinent information. Using Microsoft Excel, students compare temperatures in different latitudes. Each student creates a data collection sheet in Excel and once a week retrieves the temperature for Annapolis and one other city in different latitude (Punta Arenas, Chile; Moscow, Russia; Belem, Brazil; or Buenos Aires, Argentina). At the end of the year, the students graph the data to compare trends over time. Using the Internet and Hyperstudio, students research an explorer (Columbus, Dias, daGama, or Magellan) and create a project including information about the explorer, maps of exploration, significance of exploration, and timeline. Students create a Microsoft PowerPoint project using Spanish and English sentences and pictures to help someone else learn Spanish.

In grades 6th – 8th , students are assigned projects with the Internet, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Excel, Inspiration, Microsoft PhotoDraw and/or Adobe Photoshop, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Frequently, students participate in web quests. Cross-curricula use is encouraged in the computer lab. Whether a student is researching a topic, writing a term paper, visiting a Spanish or science website, graphing data, creating a PowerPoint book report, writing a newspaper article, scanning photos for a memory book, creating a collage, or keyboarding, the Middle School computer lab is a hub of activity.