S. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia takes quantum leap into information age

S. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia yesterday took a quantum leap into the future as it became one of the largest wi-fi installations in the country with over 40 wireless access points across the college campus.

The entire college now enjoys quality wi-fi coverage, thus enhancing the lives of the 2,650 strong student population and bringing the administration on a par with today’s modern IT requirements.

Installed and commissioned by Dialog Axiata PLC, this project follows the vision of the Warden of S. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia Revd. J.C. Puddefoot, to accelerate the establishment of an ICT-enabled college campus. Wi-fi was thus chosen as the preferred technology in order to accelerate campus-wide connectivity.

Students will henceforth be allowed to access appropriate content with access enabled to the internet via PCs, laptops and other smart devices.  

Said a delighted Warden: “We’re proud to establish this comprehensive, cost-effective and campus-wide ICT infrastructure as a foundation to e-enable S. Thomas’ College. It will not only create an enabling environment for Thomians to emerge as competent citizens of the information age, but also empower current and future generations of Thomians via the multiple facets of an ICT enriched education.”

“Added to this will be greater opportunities for e-learning, research and advanced knowledge, international collaboration and e-enabled interaction with teachers, parents and global knowledge bases. Among the wide ranging benefits will also be a suitable platform to enable intra-college as well as external communication through multi-device access such as desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile phones. By enabling individual access to the resources on the internet from any part of the school, we take an important step towards a new model for education,” the Warden added.

This project will deliver multi-stakeholder benefits in terms of effective engagement with the college as well as the education process with teachers, the management and administration, parents, old boys and the community.

Teacher empowerment is yet another great feature of this project with the focus on distance teaching and learning, parent engagement, online research for lessons and online exams.

At the same time, the college management and administration will be injected with new life, enhancing student records, fees management, finance, parent interaction and the all important ‘paperless administration’. This project will eventually bring into being a biometric-based time and attendance package. There will also be an email address for each student.

Of great benefit to parents will be on-line access to student progress, regular interaction with teachers at school and up-to-date information on college activities and student opportunities.

S. Thomas’ College old boys and well wishers around the globe will also be able to create on-line interest groups and stakeholder management and have streaming of sports activities and updates on college activities.