The IT Provision guide is available as a downloadable PDF. Please click on the link below to download.
IT Provision
At the heart of the school there is a dedicated information technology centre, sponsored by HPCompaq, complete with an industry standard PC network which reaches every office and classroom on the campus.
Parts of the school and some boarding houses are also covered by a wireless area network which allows members of the school community to use their laptops for Anytime Anywhere Learning.
All students are encouraged to master the use of information technology in the research, editing and publication of their work in all subjects. Special classes are available for beginners and improvers to enhance their personal productivity skills and to demonstrate their competence by taking the European Computer Driving Licence. The school is an accredited test centre of the British Computer Society.
We are also a Microsoft© Education Resource Centre and provide training facilities and a showcase for the latest operating systems and applications from the Microsoft© stable of products. Student Licences for Microsoft© Adobe© Macromedia© and others can also be purchased at substantial discounts from the school bookroom.
Advanced AVAYA Alchemy© and Index© digital telephone exchange with two hundred incoming numbers integrates our computer and messaging systems and provides all with e-mail and voice mail accounts.
The school has dedicated broadband access to the Internet by fibre optic and satellite links, providing every student at Hurtwood House with Web access for research.
Film makers shoot on location with professional equipment and use the media suite, which contains four Media100 video stations for full digital editing and the direct creation of DVD ROMS. This set up is the envy of any London based professional media company!
In our Music Technology Suite we have a huge choice of sampled instruments for our compositions: over a thousand orchestral sounds including more than thirty grand pianos. The industry standard Cubase© program from Steinberg allows us to mix and remix our work before recording to a sixteen track tape recorder or onto compact disc.
French, German and Spanish language scholars have a dedicated Tandberg Divace© digital language laboratory to practice listening and speaking skills. We also have Radio Hurtwood - a web based radio station allowing us to broadcast to the world, and a wide collection of on-line resources and encyclopaedias in a variety of languages. Our Office software includes Western and non Western alphabets and offers translation and spell checking in a wide range of languages.
We have a huge collection of computer-based reference material ranging from museum tours and art works to twenty years of New Scientist magazine, all available on-line to help in our researches.
Students work with the latest tools for both Web design and image processing. Our Web designers use Flash©, Shockwave© and Dreamweaver© to make stunningly impressive web sites.
Our media students and artists use scanners and digital cameras to capture and develop ideas.
With Photoshop© to explore digital effects we feed our creative imaginations before publishing our work with Quark©.
The school subscribes to the principles of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST). Only when confirmation is produced of software licences and current anti-virus protection, may students use their own laptops and attach to the wireless networks. The school can advise on the recommended computer specifications and wireless network cards and academic software can be purchased through the school bookroom.
Our IT provision is under constant review and it grows as emerging technologies become reality. |
