An American Charitable Foundation is to invest heavily in Knockloughrim Primary School by providing almost £10,000 worth of computer tablets and laptops for our children's use as part of a collaborative project with partner schools in the USA.
The JDO Foundation, founded by Irish American Mrs Judy Coon, is an educational non-profit foundation committed to facilitating the use of technology in Nursery to P7 classrooms. The JDO Foundation initiated its Global Partnership Program to facilitate communication and collaboration particularly between U.S.A and international classrooms. JDO currently partners with 17 schools in the U.S.A, U.K., and Ireland offering support for both technology infrastructure and teaching staff development.
The mission of the JDO Foundation is to bring technology to students and schools that are not otherwise afforded that opportunity. Founder Judy Coon commented, "Students currently live in a globally connected world. The technology of today consists of; computers, mobile phones. iPads, iPods, tablets, Kindles, interactive whiteboards in classrooms, the Internet and social media. All of these are important tools for the education of our students in the 21st Century and we are delighted to be supporting Knockloughrim Primary School and their Shared Education Partner School St. Brigid's Primary School, Mayogall in meeting this challenge."
Following a fact finding trip to our school on Monday, CEO of Project Development with the JDO Foundation Heather Rooney commented, "As educators we want our students to be able to meet the challenge of using technology, and to soar with the advantages it offers. The JDO Foundation has chosen to begin this endeavour with the youngest students to capture their enthusiasm and willingness to accept new techniques for learning. In today's educational environment, technology is vital to a student's future success. Technology is going to touch nearly every person at some time in his or her lives. We want all students to be literate in the latest technologies, and therefore enthusiastic about the technologies they will encounter in their futures."
Judy Coon continued, "My personal mission is to bridge the gap for those students who would not otherwise have the opportunity to use the most up to date technologies. The foundation seeks to enrich the educational experience by using current technology. In addition to providing devices, we require and assist the staff of the recipient schools like Miss Gillian Millar and Mr. Keith Wysner to actively participate in professional development concerning the use of these technological tools."
Principal, Mr. Keith Wysner commented, "As a school awarded recently the title of a Digital School of Distinction we are taken by the generosity of the JDO foundation in providing almost £10,000 worth of computer devices for our children's use. We greatly appreciate the additional investment made by the foundation in providing our staff professional development opportunities and a collaborative framework for our children and staff to learn from one another and our partner school in the USA. We look forward with excitement to hear who we are being partnered with and to use the technology to help broaden our children's understanding of the world around them and to help them to feel valued as individuals for all they have to offer interested boys and girls all the way around the other side of the world."
