About 4 months ago I received a call from Jerry G, another CIO in the Lafayette community. He called to recruit me for a peer review of Saint Thomas Moore. This was a continuation of the work we did some 8 or so years ago with the Lafayette Parish School System through the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce which resulted in NetDays and the hiring of a CIO, but little more.
Jerry told me - "This time it is going to be different, it is going to be quick and we are going to see results". Despite being slammed with work, I agreed to serve on the committee. After our first meeting, I was cautiously optimist.
As time has gone by, the committee has made several recommendations which is going to move Saint Thomas Moore into a high school which is going to capitalize on 21st Century educational tools.
Recommendations included:
- Hire Technology Evangelist to advocate and guide STM in integrating technology in the classroom
- Adopt a laptop/student model
- Hire educational expert on integrating technology in the classroom
- Adopt cloud computing strategies
- Replace the entire wired/wireless infrastructure of the school
- Embrace LUS' Fiber to the Home (allowing students in Lafayette to connect at 100mb/s speed)
The main recommendation was that the initiative needs to be less about the tools and more about the integration of technology in the teaching curriculum. Additionally, that the school needs to be prepared to address challenges associated with "change".
There were hundred of hours put into touring other schools, researching best practices, and brainstorming. Pretty much a mirror image of what happened with the LPSS some years ago.
I doubt that STM parents will ever know that their principle, Audrey Menard, has moved mountains in a very short time period. She has embraced all of the recommendations and has spearheaded the fundraising and budgeting aspect of the project.
In just a short amount of time, she was able to find private donors to seed the initial purchase of equipment as well as find a highly competitive national grant which will assist with the adoption/training of teachers on how to incorporate 21st Century technology tools in the classroom.
The principle of STM has shown unbelievable leadership and has set the stage for future generation STM graduates to exceed beyond the world of paper and pencil... beyond the world of technology... rather on establishing critical thinking skills through their use of electronic communication and collaboration tools (also known as computers).
With principle Audrey at the helm, there is no doubt in my mind that the program will be a program which can be modeled by other schools.
Jerry told me - "This time it is going to be different, it is going to be quick and we are going to see results". Despite being slammed with work, I agreed to serve on the committee. After our first meeting, I was cautiously optimist.
As time has gone by, the committee has made several recommendations which is going to move Saint Thomas Moore into a high school which is going to capitalize on 21st Century educational tools.
Recommendations included:
- Hire Technology Evangelist to advocate and guide STM in integrating technology in the classroom
- Adopt a laptop/student model
- Hire educational expert on integrating technology in the classroom
- Adopt cloud computing strategies
- Replace the entire wired/wireless infrastructure of the school
- Embrace LUS' Fiber to the Home (allowing students in Lafayette to connect at 100mb/s speed)
The main recommendation was that the initiative needs to be less about the tools and more about the integration of technology in the teaching curriculum. Additionally, that the school needs to be prepared to address challenges associated with "change".
There were hundred of hours put into touring other schools, researching best practices, and brainstorming. Pretty much a mirror image of what happened with the LPSS some years ago.
I doubt that STM parents will ever know that their principle, Audrey Menard, has moved mountains in a very short time period. She has embraced all of the recommendations and has spearheaded the fundraising and budgeting aspect of the project.
In just a short amount of time, she was able to find private donors to seed the initial purchase of equipment as well as find a highly competitive national grant which will assist with the adoption/training of teachers on how to incorporate 21st Century technology tools in the classroom.
The principle of STM has shown unbelievable leadership and has set the stage for future generation STM graduates to exceed beyond the world of paper and pencil... beyond the world of technology... rather on establishing critical thinking skills through their use of electronic communication and collaboration tools (also known as computers).
With principle Audrey at the helm, there is no doubt in my mind that the program will be a program which can be modeled by other schools.
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