Plainfield School Wins $15K in Contest

Photo: Students at Saint Mary work on their laptops for the schools’ 1-to-1 program.

The administrators at Saint Mary Immaculate Parish School had plans in place to make the school more in line with today’s 21st century standards. That meant drawing a bigger emphasis on technology. So when Collaboration Nation came up, a contest that would recognize the nation’s finest examples of collaboration and successful educational technology projects, and award the winning school $15,000, the challenge couldn’t be passed up.

A collaborative effort by administration, instruction and IT departments resulted in bringing their plans for a more technology-driven future into fruition. Faculty and staff came up with #CollaborateSMI - an idea that says the curriculum must drive the technology, instead of the other way around. Everyone at the school worked together to come up with a program that works.

Per the contest rules, Saint Mary created a 90 second video on what they have done and how they did it. The winner was determined by how many shares it got on Facebook. Saint Mary was declared the winner with 5,263 shares.

Apparently, it’s paid off.

Recently sixth-grade students were enrolled in a 1-to-1 program, where they each have their own device on which to do homework. Next year, the seventh grade will join, and the year after eighth grade will participate.

“They take them home, they do homework on them, they submit homework on them,” Saint Mary Assistant Principal Jennifer Errthum said.

They also have a technology class once a week and a mobile computer lab for teachers to bring into the classroom.

“The future’s kind of endless right now for where we can take this,” Errthum said.

Collaboration Nation is an awards program launched by CDW-G to recognize the nation’s finest examples of collaboration and successful educational technology projects. Saint Mary educates kids from pre-school to eighth grade.