ICT

Facilities

McKinnon Secondary College
Mark Kelly, Information Systems Manager

Internet facilities:

• 4 Mbps ADSL
• Web and email services provided by Connexus across VicONE (Victorian State Government WAN) 
• 500 Megabyte website: http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
• Email accounts for all staff and all students.
• All students & their parents must sign and obey our Acceptable Use Policy.
• Student internet access is charged to students at the same rate the college pays for downloads. Downloads from the Mckinnon site, the DE&T Education Cache, a browser's cache or local proxy server are not charged when on a college computer.  Students get an annual initial injection into their internet balances, but heavy users will need to top up their Internet account balance on a user-pays basis.

Computer facilities:

• About 500 computers all told, including PCs (desktop and notebook), and Macs (iMacs and Powerbooks)
• We have two full time IT technicians, paid for by the college, one part-time tech and one part-time DEET technician provided under DEET’s Technical Service Initiative.
• Computers are leased over 3 years. 
• All workstations use Windows XP, and Office 2007. See more software info.
• All classrooms have at least one network point.  New portable classrooms have many network points.
• Secure broadband wireless is available across the campus. Students who bring notebooks to college can not connect to the WLAN because of security restrictions.

• All staffrooms have a computer and printer, and individual network points for each teacher.
• Nearly all staff have notebook computers leased from the Education Department.
• Every curriculum computer is networked and each room has a laser printer.
• All student PCs in rooms are software which restore the original disk image if any students make changes.  The software also protects against any known or future virus.
• The college has several portable data projectors, and many rooms have interactive whiteboards and projectors.
• The Library cataloguing system is AIMS/Masterfile and is on its own server in the library and is available across the network.
• The library houses several laptop computers for use by staff and students.
• One computer room is open for supervised student use every lunchtime.

Software:

Under the Microsoft licensing scheme, government schools get MS Office and other MS software for free.  We still have to pay for operating systems, however.  DEET also operates Software 4 Schools that supplies schools with non-Microsoft software at advantageous prices.

• Word Processing:        Word
• Spreadsheets:              Excel
• Database:                    Access, Filemaker Pro
• Presentations:              Powerpoint
• Graphics:                     Photoshop, Image Composer
• Internet browser:          Firefox, IE
• Student webpages:       Dreamweaver
• Mind maps:                  Inspiration
• Multimedia:                  Flash, Microworlds
• Virus scanners: Norton Antivirus

Curriculum

IT is taught at year 7 (one semester), year 9 (IT and Control Technology electives), year 10 (Information Systems and Information Management electives), year 11 (VCE IT) and year 12 (VCE IT Applications , and IT Software Development (depending on annual demand).

All learning areas are encouraged and expected to use learning technologies regularly in their curricula.  Staff have regular learning technology workshops to develop their skills.

Computerised reporting system:

• ‘Rupert’ by Mark Kelly written with Filemaker Pro.

Mark Kelly

31 July 2001: