In 1997 Kilkenny were runners up in the Information Age Towns Competition which was sponsored by Telecom Eireann (now Eircom). The prize fund of £1,000,000 was awarded to Kilkenny. As a result Kilkenny Information Age Ltd. was established in order to position Kilkenny at the forefront of ICT developments and to create an awareness and competency whereby people of all ages and from all social groupings can benefit from the goals of the information age society. In February of 1999, the Department of Education and Science through NCTE and Kilkenny Information Age Ltd. formed a partnership to encourage the use and evaluation of ICT in Education. There are eight projects in total. 10 primary, 6 secondary and 3 special schools in the Kilkenny city area are participating in at least one of these projects.

Project Scope
These projects are confined to those schools in the Kilkenny City area. It is intended that the various projects will run from July-99 to June 2001.

Objectives
To enable primary, post-primary and special education teachers to use ICT equipment.
To empower them to integrate ICT into the curriculum.
To facilitate them to share their experiences within the Kilkenny teaching community initially and ultimately with the national teaching community and wider public.

Expected Outcomes
Providing the educational community an increased opportunity to access and participate in the information society that we are living in.
Identifying the skills required and providing the necessary training to teachers.
Supporting a culture of openness and sharing among the teaching community.
Providing students with alternative ways of learning.
Increasing student motivation and self-esteem.

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The findings from the implementation of these projects will:
Determine whether programmes associated with the projects are deemed suitable for replication nationally.
Measure and evaluate the effectiveness of ICT as a curriculum tool.
Develop and evaluate a set of curriculum resources, pedagogic strategies and classroom management models for curriculum integration in post primary, primary and special needs schools.
Enhance the level of ICT awareness amongst teachers and students in the participating schools.
The SIP projects will provide a managed approach to the introduction of ICT into the schools curriculum.
It is also envisaged that the outcomes of some of these projects maybe of benefit in the wider community.

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