St. Dorothy School dramatically improves student engagement, learning and enrollment by making every classroom a Dell Connected Classroom •  Connected Classroom

•  Services

“ Students pay more attention when their teachers use the interactive projector and whiteboard screen. One seventh-grader even told her mom and dad that science is much easier to learn when her teacher uses the interactive technologies.”Carol Burke, Principal, St. Dorothy School

Customer Profile

Company: St. Dorothy School

Industry: Education

Country: United States

Students: 250

Faculty and Staff: 38

Web: www.stdorothyschool.com

Institutional Need St. Dorothy School relied on limited school funds and donations to provide computers for students’ use. As a result, its technology environment was outdated, and it was falling behind in imparting 21st century skills to its students. The school wanted to deploy technology that would enable teachers at all grade levels to integrate multimedia content into their lessons, but its budget was limited.

Solution The school entered—and won—the Dell™ Connect Your Classroom contest. Enthusiastic supporters raised additional money, and St. Dorothy School was able to overhaul its technology environment. It engaged Dell Deployment Services to deploy a Dell wireless interactive projector, Elite Screens whiteboard screen and Dell OptiPlex™ desktop computer with Intel® processors in each of its nine classrooms and its computer lab.

  Benefits•  Lessons can cover more material  

in the same amount of time

•  Increased student engagement  among all types of learners

•  Improved student retention of content  in some subject areas

•  Faster insight into student comprehension (immediate vs.  weeks previously)

•  Reduced time teachers must spend  on lesson plan preparation

•  Improved teacher efficiency through messaging and productivity software

•  Faster rollout of Connected Classrooms with Dell Deployment Services

•  Effective, efficient instruction on use of technologies with Dell Professional Learning Services

SDSaint Dorothy School

“ Students of every learning style are more engaged with our new Connected Classrooms. When I’m using the Dell projector and the whiteboard screen, their eyes are glued to the lesson. I can cover more material in the same period of time, and they’re really learning it.” Kirsten Mori, Teacher, St. Dorothy School

The committee wanted teachers to integrate technology into the curriculum at every grade level. “Outside school, children are constantly engaged with technology,” Burke says. “As I moved through our classrooms, I realized that teachers sometimes had trouble holding students’ attention with traditional teaching methods. We made it a priority to bring technology into every classroom throughout the school.”

Cracking the case of  missing technology

There was one obstacle to this goal: Like most small private schools, St. Dorothy School had very little funding to allocate to technology. Implementing cutting-edge equipment in all of the school’s classrooms seemed impossible. Even with the assistance of tech-savvy parents, school administrators weren’t sure where to start.

Everything changed when the school’s secretary, Kathy Jasso, entered St. Dorothy School in the Dell Connect Your Classroom contest, which invited schools to submit a video demonstrating why they needed a technology upgrade. “We obviously needed an upgrade,” Jasso says. “We made a spoof on Sherlock Holmes stories that we called ‘The Case of Missing Technology.’” Dell opened the contest to online voting, and Jasso’s video won, with more than 20,000 votes.

The contest’s grand prize was $20,000 worth of Dell technology and services. “Winning this contest rallied our parents

and parish families around the idea of improving the school’s technology,” Burke says. “Our technology committee made the most of their enthusiasm by coming up with lots of creative ideas to raise additional money. It was

Saint Dorothy, martyred in the fourth century A.D., is the

Catholic patroness of gardeners and florists. Following her

lead, St. Dorothy School in Glendora, California, strives each

year to cultivate a crop of kindergarten through eighth grade

students who excel in both academics and Christian values.

But until recently, the school struggled to impart 21st century

skills to its charges. “For many years, all of our computer

equipment was either purchased with limited funds or

donated,” says Carol Burke, principal. “We appreciated the

donations, but the equipment quickly became outdated.

Last year, we assembled a technology committee to begin

planning an overhaul of our technology environment.”

Technology at Work

Services

Dell™ Consulting Services

Dell Deployment Services

Dell Professional Learning Services

Dell Support Services

Hardware

Dell OptiPlex™ 380 desktop computers with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processors

Dell S300wi Short Throw Wireless Interactive Projectors

Promethean ActiVote™ Learner Response System

Roemtech PMA-245 amplifiers with in-ceiling speakers

Elite Screens 87” WhiteBoardScreen™

Software

INTERWRITE® Workspace from eInstruction®

Microsoft® Office 2010

Promethean ActivInspire™

Windows® 7

incredible; through designated funds, donations and fundraising, we were able to accumulate over $40,000.”

Planting technology in fertile soil 

Dell Consulting Services helped St. Dorothy School determine how to get the most bang for its buck. “We wanted to be sure teachers would use the new technologies,” Burke says. “Dell consultants showed us what our options were and described best practices that other schools are using. Dell was tremendously helpful in setting us on the right track; we couldn’t have chosen a better technology partner.”

The school decided to implement a Dell S300wi Short Throw Wireless Interactive Projector in each of its nine classrooms and the computer lab. Each projector is controlled by INTERWRITE Workspace software from eInstruction and Promethean ActivInspire. The software runs on Windows 7-based Dell OptiPlex 380 desktop computers with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. An Elite Screens 87-inch WhiteBoardScreen, a Roemtech amplifier and two ceiling-mounted speakers also accompany each projector. Finally, the school purchased a mobile Promethean ActiVote Learner Response System that moves among the classrooms. Teachers can use ActivInspire to display poll or quiz questions via the classroom’s projector, have students answer using the ActiVote devices, and immediately display the results.

St. Dorothy School purchased all of the Connected Classroom hardware and software through Dell, and Dell Deployment Services helped bring the school’s technology vision to fruition. “First, our Dell consultants identified some issues we needed to resolve before they could deploy the new hardware,” says Lee Parayno, a parent who is on the school’s technology committee. “For example, our Internet connection was unreliable. On Dell’s recommendation, we switched from a dynamic IP address to a static IP address, which solved the problem. Dell also helped us decide which parts of our infrastructure we needed to upgrade immediately and which we could upgrade later.”

After helping the school make these decisions, Dell oversaw a smooth deployment of the 10 Connected Classrooms. “I definitely recommend using professional deployment services,” Burke says. “Before we won the Dell contest, we considered buying some interactive whiteboards and having volunteers install them. Looking back, I’m glad Dell came into the picture. We’re blessed to have parents and others who are willing to help us, but having Dell Deployment Services handle our installation ensured that everything was installed correctly. It also saved us money in the long run by reducing the complexity of the project, ensuring that we purchased all the right equipment and resolved issues in the correct order.”

Dell also provided Professional Learning Services to instruct teachers and staff on how to use the new hardware and how to incorporate it into lessons on an ongoing basis. “Our engagement of Dell Professional Learning Services was very beneficial to the teachers and staff,” Burke says. “I highly recommend using professional learning services to be sure that teachers and staff are trained effectively and efficiently.”

Faster insight into student comprehension

Within a few months of implementation, the technology is already changing learning at St. Dorothy School. “My staff is doing a fantastic job using this equipment,” Burke says. “The interactive projectors are so user-friendly that if you can use a computer, you can work them. Our teachers started making their lesson plans interactive even before attending the professional learning sessions.”

Teacher Kirsten Mori is integrating the technology throughout her second grade curriculum. “I’ve used the projector in math lessons, in science lessons and in social studies,” she reports. “When I was teaching state symbols, I pulled up pictures of the state birds and state trees. Last year, I would have been showing the class pictures in a book, but instead I displayed the images on a large screen. It helped engage students in the content.”

“ My job as a parent is to make sure my kids have the best possible preparation to be productive in the world. Through the Dell-based Connected Classrooms, St. Dorothy School is doing a great job of providing that preparation.” Diane Tucker, Parent and Technology Committee Member, St. Dorothy School

Mori can now teach interactive, in-depth lessons without extending the time she puts into preparation. “I can plan in advance what multimedia content I want to pull in, but I can also make decisions on the fly,” she says. “On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, as part of a discussion about Dr. King, I pulled up a video of his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and we watched part of it. Students aren’t going to wait, and I have a limited amount of time to prepare for each day’s lessons. The ability to immediately access information on the Internet lets me enhance the curriculum with external resources, as I teach.”

The initiative further improved teacher productivity by providing Microsoft Office 2010 on the Dell OptiPlex computer in each classroom. “Now teachers are using Microsoft Outlook, so reading and responding to emails takes them much less time than it used to,” Parayno says.

Even more critical, the Connected Classrooms give teachers an instantaneous gauge of student comprehension. “The ActiVote system shows me how well students are grasping the concepts I’m teaching,” Mori says. “When students don’t understand something, I know to

go back and touch on the key points again, before moving on. This immediacy is invaluable.”

Enthusiasm blossoms in  learners of all types

Mori sees a noticeable difference in how students react to lessons that involve the new technologies. “The interactive projectors and whiteboard screens enhance learning, across the board,” she says. “Kinesthetic learners can physically interact with images on the board. Visual learners relate better to the large pictures and video, and auditory learners benefit from the audio we can incorporate. Students of every learning style are more engaged with our new Connected Classrooms. When I’m using the Dell projector and the whiteboard screen, their eyes are glued to the lesson. I can cover more material in the same period of time, and I can tell they’re really learning it.”

Burke has seen similar reactions in students at all grade levels. “Visiting the different classrooms, I have noticed an improvement in focus among the students,” she says. “Students pay more attention when their teachers use the interactive projector and whiteboard screen to display pictures, videos or other information that supports what

they’re teaching. And parents are continually telling me that their kids are more excited about learning than ever before. One seventh-grader even told her mom and dad that science is much easier to learn when her teacher uses the interactive technologies.”

Now the St. Dorothy School technology committee is looking toward its next phase of implementation: Putting two desktop computers in each lower-grade classroom for individual activities, and possibly providing a one-to-one netbook program for the higher grades. Meanwhile, the committee continues reaching out to parents to foster their enthusiasm. “As a private school, we have to be special in a lot of ways to attract and retain students,” Burke says. “Over the 16 years I’ve been here, technology has become increasingly critical in keeping our school competitive.”

Explains Diane Tucker, a St. Dorothy School parent who is on the technology committee: “Technology is how this generation learns. My job as a parent is to make sure my kids have the best possible preparation to be productive in the world. Through the Dell-based Connected Classrooms, St. Dorothy School is doing a great job of providing that preparation.”

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© June 2011. Intel and Intel Core 2 Duo are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States or other countries. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. This case study is for informational purposes only. DELL MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS CASE STUDY. Reference number: 10009478

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SDSaint Dorothy School