TESTIMONIALS

 The TechnoKids computer curriculum has been used at Whitsunday Anglican School (K – 12) since May 2006. Col Thompson, Head of Information Services at the school talks about the benefits of using TechnoKids:

 One of the main problems found with trying to encourage all teachers to integrate ICTs throughout a K-12 school is finding appropriate resources for their subject areas or providing time for them to source or develop their own.

 At Whitsunday Anglican School we have found the solution in the TechnoKids product range.

TechnoKids provides a series of projects categorised into the Junior, Primary, Intermediate and Senior school areas with both teacher (with answers) and tudent workbooks and all the necessary resource files to integrate the learning of basic and advanced computer skills across a range of subject areas.  The teacher support material clearly has indications of which projects are suitable for which subjects (listing particular syllabus areas as well) and a comprehensive list of ICT skills that are included in each project.  All the hard work is done! There is even a set of resources for teacher ICT professional development!

The student books are very comprehensive and cover all aspects of the software use in an interesting and subject relevant method where each unit is themed around a particular topic (e.g. TechnoMummies).  This removes the usual isolation of the skills from the subject matter where we can find that many students cannot apply the ICT skills they learn in a new setting.  Schools can print the student booklets as class sets or sell them to the students to keep. All material is on CD ROM as PDF documents along with the files required for each unit.

It is extremely easy to find the required material and the comprehensive support material allows a team to easy decide on the best projects to implement from the many available. Our teachers are very excited by the material and the students show much more interest in their ICT skill development as they are learning them in context.

I thoroughly recommend the TechnoKids product range.

As a first year teacher, Heather Grass shares her experience with using the TechnoKids Computer Curriculum:   

 I have been using TechnoKids since the beginning of second semester 2007. All I can say is – What a FANTASTIC resource! 

As a first year teacher with a very little resource bank I was finding it difficult to find or create work tasks that were meaningful, integrated and engaged the students. Then I discovered TechnoKids.

TechnoKids saved me so much time and covers such a wide variety of DBA’s (Domain Based Areas - VELS). TechnoKids provides all the resources required to complete the projects so the workload is a minimal for the teacher.

The way that TechnoKids is set up caters for all levels of learners and includes extension activities for the fast workers or they can be used as a tool for concreting the knowledge previously learnt. The layout is clear and easy to read for both students and teachers.

TechnoKids has been a useful tool within other DBA’s, such as English, in order to integrate ICT. The teacher manuals are so extensive that they ease the nerves of any teacher that does not feel confident integrating ICT into the classroom. There will be no more nerves with TechnoKids and a class full of ICT confident students achieving the desired outcomes.

I currently teach year 9 and 10 ICT. I have used both the Intermediate and Senior projects. Although the projects are extremely structured, they also have plenty room for flexibility in order to modify the projects to suit the needs of your particular class, across multiple year levels.

TechnoKids has been the best resource that I have utilised within my classroom. Its versatility, integration and ease, makes it an all round time saver and joy for the kids to learn.  Well worth spending a few dollars in order to achieve a resource that will be useful throughout the entire school.

Heather Grass

ICT Teacher
Oberon High School

Geelong, Victoria