A decade ago, access to technology was limited. Along with expanded access has come a growing pervasiveness of technology in society, and for a generation of young people, technology has assumed a substantial stake in their social and educational lives. Some argue that today's students, surrounded by digital technology since infancy, are fundamentally different from previous generations and are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.
Bishops (Diocesan College) in the Western Cape understands that ICT literacy is vital to the professionals of the future, and is using its technology-rich classrooms as a springboard to ensure the promise that technology holds for student achievement is realised.
“Various technologies deliver different kinds of content and serve different purposes in the classroom,” explains Sally Bowes, IT Director at Bishops. “Careful planning for technology use is essential because technology is expensive, but everything from video content and digital moviemaking to laptop computing and handheld technologies can be used in classrooms, and new uses of technology are constantly emerging.”
She explains that students can learn 'from' computers - where technology is used to provide tutorial type assistance serving to increase students' basic skills and knowledge; and students can learn 'with' computers - where technology is used as a tool that can be applied to a variety of goals in the learning process, serving as a resource to help develop higher order thinking, creativity and research skills.
This is one of the reasons that Bishops implemented, and upgraded, video and audio editing software from Sony Creative Software. In partnership with Phoenix Software, Bishops recently upgraded its existing Sony Acid Music Studio and Vegas Pro packages in order to benefit from the enhancements and additional features offered by the newer versions. Vegas Pro 9 integrates two powerful applications that work seamlessly together to provide an efficient and intuitive environment for video and broadcast content creation and production. With broad format support, superior effects processing, unparalleled audio support, and a full complement of editorial tools, the Vegas Pro 9 interface provides a fully customisable workspace for accomplishing a wide range of production requirements.
Acid Music Studio software is the perfect tool for original song creation, multitrack audio and MIDI recording, studio-quality mixing, and effects processing. The software makes live recording easy, and provides numerous tools such as 3 000 Acidised music loops, 1 000 MIDI files, and built-in effects.
“Students must have a range of skills to express themselves not only through paper and pencil, but also audio, video, animation, design software as well as a host of new environments such as e-mail, Web sites, message boards, blogs, streaming media, etc,” says Simon Campbell-Young, CEO of Phoenix Software. “Using software such as this will positively impact on student achievement, easily justifying the investment.”
Share