Mount Carmel School is preparing for the new school year by rolling out new upgrades to its Information Technology (IT) system, all as part of a 21st Century Education initiative.
The most important upgrade is an increase in the bandwidth of the campus WiFi and local area network. Working with both IT&E and Docomo Pacific, connection speeds have been increased from 36Mips to 200Mips range. At those speeds, teachers and students will be able to stream education videos, access online content, and work with various learning management systems.
The school is also transitioning to a new student information management system (SIMS), RenWeb, that offers more user-friendly features for students, parents, and teachers. With the new SIMS, users will be able to access grades, submit homework, and eventually pay tuition online.
These upgrades come just in time for the school’s new AP course in Computer Science Principles, which the College Board approved recently.
The school has even formed a Tech Task Force to make the most of the upgrades. The task force includes four teachers representing the entire K-12 grade spectrum and will serve to provide training and tech support to the faculty and student body.
The Tech Task Force is headed by the school’s IT Director, Jonathan “JC” Clark, who has over 20 years of experience in application development, network management, and computer programming and is a Linux Foundation Certified Engineer. Under JC’s leadership, the school has steadily improved its IT system over the past two years.
“I am very satisfied with our progress,” said Clark about the improvements. He added, “We have established a strong basic infrastructure which we can build upon and are opening up to more possibilities and giving ourselves more options in managing electronic content.”
For Clark, the most important goal is to help students. As he said, “The improved bandwidth means that students will have a better UX (user experience) when at school and we can provide online content from our data center when off campus.” This is why he has also invested time and resources into training teachers. On that note, he said, “Better trained teachers and staff will be able to deliver content in a clear and concise manner.”
Looking ahead, Clark noted, “One of our goals is to have a digital library for a relaxing area for study and research.” According to Clark, “We want to make as many tools available for students and teachers.”
The upgrades to the IT system are all part of the school’s recently announced Strategic Master Plan. In its commitment to the tech initiative, the school’s Board of Directors approved the allocation of human and financial resources to ensure that students are getting the most technologically advanced education possible on island.
For more information about Mount Carmel School, or to enroll for the new school year, call 234-6184 or visit www.mountcarmelsaipan.com.
