Western Dubuque Schools has made a sizeable commitment to technology throughout all eight schools in the district. Currently, the district has roughly 1900 computers for both student and teacher use with our student to computer ratio being 2 to 1.
TEST
At Western Dubuque Schools, technology is regarded as a learning tool which is evident in our classrooms and essential to student success. As we continue to integrate technology in the curriculum, we continuously aim to build upon that commitment with the idea of the "connected classroom". We believe that each classroom should eventually be equipped with modern computers, a mounted LCD/DLP projector, an interactive whiteboard, an ELMO document camera, accessibility to learning response devices, and other technical peripherals to enhance instruction.
All campuses in the district have wireless technology for seamless roaming to provide an anytime, anywhere learning environment for our students. Most schools have mobile computer labs that can travel classroom to classroom; there is also the availability of dedicated computer lab(s) for students to use as well. Students and staff can also bring their own equipment into the school to connect to web-enabled learning portals using the district's Internet connection.
Each of the eight buildings has high-speed Internet access ranging from DSL to ICN ATM ethernet. There is one "receive-only" ICN classroom located at Western Dubuque High School, whereas, Cascade Jr./Sr. High School houses a full ICN classroom.
The Western Dubuque School District maintains two computer platforms, Macintosh and Windows. The following operating systems are currently supported:
- Windows 7 and higher
- Macintosh OS X
The technology department supports and maintains the following software applications on each desktop workstation:
- Current version of Microsoft Office for both the Macintosh and Windows
- Current version of Google Chrome and other web browsers
- Accelerated Reader
- STAR
- Fluent Reader
- Other various software packages available for student use in the curriculum