These courses can:

• take place in your school, in the Education Centre or another suitable venue
• be customised to the particular needs of your group of staff
• cover a range of topics from using digital cameras to developing a website/blog to using the internet in learning and teaching
• be as short as a once-off 2.5 hour session to a 20 hour course run over a number of weeks or months.

The minimum numbers required to run a course is 10, but smaller schools may wish to consider clustering with another local school. Dublin West Education Centre in collaboration with the school principal, can be contacted to arrange such courses. Please contact the ICT Course Administrator, Mary Dunne at 01 4528000 or email mdunne@dwec.ie for details of how to apply.

The Schools Broadband Programme provides an integrated set of services to schools which includes broadband connectivity, and hosted services including content filtering, webhosting-blogging and security services including anti-virus control and a centralised firewall. These services are managed by the Schools Broadband Team which includes PDST Technology in Education working closely with the Department of Education and Skills and HEAnet.

The PDST Technology in Education Broadband Service Desk is the single point to contact for schools for all broadband related issues, providing information, advice and support to schools.

Scoilnet

Scoilnet is the Department of Education and Skills official portal for Irish education. It is responsible for the promotion and use of the Internet in education under the Government’s ICT in Schools Programme. Launched in 1998, the website is managed on behalf of the DES by PDST Technology in Education. Scoilnet offers a wide range of services and supports.

Webwise

Webwise is the current PDST Technology in Education internet safety initiative and is the Irish Internet Safety Awareness Node of Insafe, the European network of internet safety awareness nodes. It provides parents, teachers, and children with educational resources, advice and information about potential dangers on the Internet and empowers users to minimise or avoid these risks.

Scoilnet Maps

Featuring a comprehensive range of Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) maps, world maps and lots of GIS data that can be viewed as “layers” over the maps. It’s available now in all primary and post-primary schools on the Schools Broadband Network. Teachers can also access from home by using their Scoilnet account sign-in.

FÍS Film Project

FÍS (literally translated as ‘Vision’) is an initiative from the Department of Education and Skills in the Republic of Ireland and is a project designed to introduce the medium of film as a support to the Primary School Curriculum/Curaclam na Bunscoile. The FÍS project is managed by PDST Technology in Education, in collaboration with Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology.

CensusAtSchool

CensusAtSchool is an international project that started in the UK in 2000. Ireland became involved in this exciting initiative in 2009. The project involves collecting and disseminating real data for use by teachers and pupils in data-handling, ICT and across the curriculum for teaching and learning.  A collaboration between the NCCA, the CSO and PDST Technology in Education.

Digital Schools

This award is an initiative which aims to recognise excellence in a school’s approach to the integration of ICT in learning and teaching. PDST Technology in Education led this initiative until 2013 in partnership with CESI, the INTO and the IPPN. It is now managed by Dublin West Education Centre.