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Over the years, Lara Primary School has had several finalists and winners in the ATOM Awards. Following the winning of both P-8 awards early in 2003, we were asked by ATOM to speak at the State Conference and discuss how we approach Multimedia and Information Technologies (IT) at our school.

In recent years Lara has changed dramatically, with developers creating new housing estates and an ensuing boom in the population. Consequently, a school that had 200+ students just ten years ago now has a 600+ enrolment.

Our school does not have money to spare, yet with prudent financial responsibility we have ably coped with the increased student population, improved our amenities and work tirelessly to keep up with the latest in IT.

For the past eleven years we have been fortunate to have received high level support from our principal and an administration team who have encouraged and supported our budgetary needs in IT, within financial constraints of course.

IT at Lara P.S. started ten years ago with a few Apple computers that were shared between many grades. These days we purchase machines, keep them for approximately two years, then sell them to school families or the wider community at reasonable rates. We view our IT/computer budget as a continuous process in its design and application, that needs to be far-reaching and future focused.

We now have approximately three computers per classroom, a computer lab in the Library containing twenty machines, and a senior school computer lab that is called Grade 5/6F with sixteen PCs and an Apple eMac that is used exclusively for movie-making.

In 1994 Lara Primary School joined I*EARN (International Education Resource Network) and became involved in the Global Art Project and the Teddy Bear Project. So successful were these programs that in 1996 Lara Primary School launched its own Global Project called 'Children of the World Longest Hand Knitted Woollen Scarf'. This offered world-wide contact with international classes via the Internet and email. Correspondence with schools in Russia, Japan, and the USA followed and this still continues today. A grant for a related book was received and this led on to radio interviews and television appearances. Our students participated in the opening of Wool Week three years in succession and their work was displayed at the National Wool Museum in Geelong.

On 1 March 1996 Lara Primary School officially opened its new Technology Centre, offering access to students, staff and the wider community.

For children to succeed with their learning they must enjoy what they are doing and, often, setting them a challenge helps in this regard. In the Geelong Region we have a media competition called 'Sprockets & Flares' that encourages schools to enter digital art, animations, living books, newspapers, etc. Our students enjoy the challenge of the 'Sprockets & Flares' competition, as it gives them something to strive for. The children work diligently during terms 1 and 2 and then, in term 3, refine their work, as only entries of the highest standard are entered. Every entry is awarded a certificate--gold, silver or bronze--according to their standard. Our first gold award was received in 1997 and made from ideas that had come from the 'Children of the World Longest Hand Knitted Woollen Scarf'. It was a collection of data in PowerPoint depicting early use of sound.

Lara Primary School first submitted entries into the ATOM Awards in 2000. We ran a multimedia competition among the grades and The Naughty Little Mouse was the winner. That first PowerPoint presentation was created by three grade five girls. It was a timed animation, with a specific storyline to create a living book using duplicate slides. Recording the story was a challenge to the girls, as they recorded each slide taking the characters' parts and using a narrator. The girls inserted a background with continuous text, due to the duplication of slides. We had begun to realize the importance of children speaking with expression, using clear enunciation and also the importance of using a quality microphone. When working with primary aged students, teachers need to be aware of grammar; diction and spelling, otherwise the standard will be impeded. While a good microphone is essential, when recording it is critical to find a quiet time away from classroom noise. Basically, the whole production of The Naughty Little Mouse was text, clipart and voice. The year after The Naughty Little Mouse won an ATOM Award, Strawberries & Bananas was a finalist. Strawberries & Bananas was created in PowerPoint using alot of clipart and involved children playing with voice and creating voice distortion using the SoundRecorder.

To enter work into the ATOM Awards it must be of an extremely high standard. Firstly, teachers need to be aware of children's ideas. Then, our role is to support them, expand their ideas, and actively encourage discussion with other class members. Often it is then that the teacher is surprised by the creativity and skills of their students. Last year's ATOM finalist entry, Potato Man Looks For A Home, began with two students who were keen to use the digital camera. They took the camera to a corner of the room with some plastic toys and created a story, learning how to photograph each movement and position the toys. Backgrounds for Potato Man Looks For A Home were done in art classes. Grade two students moved the toys and photographed each sequence until they had about four hundred pictures and learnt how to insert those pictures into a PowerPoint presentation. Then, in their own classrooms, they made up a rhyme that is repeated throughout the production.

It seems to be a simple exercise to record children's voices but in reality it can require many retakes to get it right. Children love to hear themselves speak, but competition means expertise is required. After much practice, many hiccups, nervousness, hilarity, much exasperation and a lot of fun, it all came together and at 'Sprockets & Flares' in Geelong they won a Gold award. It was entered into ATOM and, being a total class exercise, the children were really excited.

To enter Potato Man called for an extension of the story, so two grade five boys created links to include more adventures that had been created by other children from grades three to five. By this time, Potato Man was in full swing! The grade two children created a video of themselves singing Japanese songs and another segment was videoed with musical instruments which they had made. The two boys from grade five had been visitors at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Multimedia Division, and used knowledge gained there to put the finishing touches to the presentation. Digital image manipulation and some imaginative adventures were added to the original script to produce this final presentation and they were thrilled when Potato Man was chosen as a finalist last year.

As the children's ideas expanded, we encountered difficulties with PowerPoint freezing due to excessive use of slides. Some students were creating PowerPoint productions that were way too large and slow (excess of 1000 slides) so we looked for new options. While teaching 5/6, we heard from a student about Flash files being smaller, so we downloaded the 30-day free trial of Macromedia Flash and a group of three boys decided to create a story. They created Grand Theft Auto 3. At the time we couldn't afford to purchase our own copy of Flash, so we also downloaded another 30-day free trial to a laptop.

GTA3 made it to the finals in ATOM and was selected to be viewed at Studio Nova. Technical advice at the time was that Flash was far too hard for primary school students--our students proved that wrong, so we went ahead and purchased one copy of Flash 5. When students venture into new software, the teacher needs to master it as quickly as possible. Also, as teachers, our role is to encourage, give guidance and make recommendations to students, whilst allowing them flexibility and the freedom to explore new programs.

Each year at Lara Primary School we have a Japanese intern who teaches Japanese for nine months. The Preps were very interested in the story Hairy Maclary and rather than just draw pictures of him, used auto shapes.

The children loved it and some found grouping not at all difficult. Preps love to model what the bigger children are doing and are wonderfully receptive to new programs. We coloured our auto shapes and then sang 'Hairy Maclary' in Japanese. We were thrilled when we were informed that Japanese Activities was an ATOM finalist in 2002.

Another finalist in 2002 was Halloween. Halloween was made by grade six students and included the insertion of movies into the production.