In 2017 both St. Maarten Academy and Milton Peters College started with the implementation of the DigiTeenz project. Next to the installation of a wired fiberoptic and wireless network, Foresee Foundation was able to also support with the purchase of chromebooks for both schools.
When ordering the 32 laptops via ANTEK, Mr. Leo Ligthart, one of the directors/owners, had a nice surprise announcing that he managed to have Lenovo donate an extra 32 systems to both schools. Director of Channel sales at Lenovo USA, Mike Abplanalp, was on St. Maarten last week and during the presentation he explained that his company Lenovo always collaborates with local IT companies. After hearing from ANTEK about the DigiTeenz project, he decided that this was an excellent opportunity to assist St. Maarten education. He explained how ‘amazing it is to see how kids these days take the technology.‘ As Lenovo representative he is happy to support the schools in bringing this experience into the classrooms.
Sergio Blomont, coordinator at the MPC VSBO department, explained that while being at a major ICT for Education Conference in the United States, they started doing research on the popular and affordable Lenovo chromebooks. However, after returning home the decision was taken fast to buy locally.
St. Maarten Academy decided to also opt for these Lenovo chromebooks as they are very sturdy, affordable and fast. Principal Mrs. Tallulah Baly expressed her pride and excitement to collaborate with Foresee and MPC in the DigiTeenz project. She sees the need of bringing modern technology into the schools and more importantly equipping the students with 21st century skills. “St. Maarten is a 37 square mile island rich with talent. We must prepare our students to be competitive in the global market. On behalf of the Board, Management, Staff and Students, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Antek, Lenovo and the Foresee Foundation for this very generous donation!”
Renaldo Baker, in charge of the integration of technology in the MPC classrooms, outlined the plan he has for the future. Three pilot classes and ten teachers spread out over the three different departments will receive the Lenovo chromebooks and explore 21st century learning technologies.
Lenovo, Mike Abplanalp, was quite impressed with the outline on the implementation given, which he highlighted with the quote “I love a man with a plan”. He generously offered twenty more Lenovo chromebooks to the school, which was received by the attendees with a warm applause.
On behalf of all present Mr. Vital Carty, deputy director MPC, thanked ANTEK and Lenovo for the donations and promised to make good use of the devices and expand in the future.
With this presentation the first phase of the DigiTeenz project at MPC is being finalized. With the network in place not being damaged during Irma and a new 100Mb internet speed sponsored by UTS, the school is ready to move forward in 2018.
Foresee Foundation President, Jose Sommers, was happy to see that after its earlier projects DigiKidz, the media lab in the library, DigiWorkz and the two ICT educator conferences CTEC, DigiTeenz is now also taking shape. With an over US$ 1 million in funding by American charity Windsong and local partners, Foresee has been able to contribute to some large innovations in the St. Maarten educational landscape. They are looking forward to another positive year with new plans.