Representatives of the Foresee Foundation, the two DigiKidz Schools (Hillside Christian Asha Stevens Campus and Seventh Day Adventist), the Ministry of Education and public education attended the ISTE conference 2014 (International society for Technology in Education) in Atlanta from June 28 until July 1.
With the recent implementation of DigiKidz and the plans of the Minister of Education Patricia Lourens to bring ICT in St. Maarten’s primary classrooms, the conference was viewed as an excellent opportunity for St. Maarten delegates to familiarize themselves with current trends in technology.
Focus was on how to implement integrated technology in the classroom, open educational resources and how to implement and manage innovations in school. This participation in this conference is part of a full comprehensive program by both the Ministry of Education and Foresee’s DigiKidz projects.
Successful implementation of ICT requires professional development and good management structures next to the physical infrastructure. Providing students with laptops is not sufficient and is just part of a comprehensive plan as envisioned by Foresee/DigiKidz and Minister Lourens.
The delegation from St. Maarten included Leandra Edwards from Hillside, Uredise Stanford from the Seventh Day Adventist School, Georgiane Henriquez representing public schools, Marcus Nicolaas of the Foresee Foundation, Alston Lourens from the Ministry of Education and Jose Sommers, President of the Foresee Foundation, initiator of the DigiKidz project.
At the conference the delegation members received four full days of inspirational professional learning opportunities catered to help in building the skills to support digital age learning, networking opportunities with nearly 18,000 educators, education leaders and
corporate representatives from around the globe, three powerful keynote addresses from ed tech leaders and experts and much more.
