story by Christina Elias, photos by Katie Hornbeck

Four years ago, in 2010, the administration announced its plan to integrate technology into STA’s learning environment with the introduction of personal netbook computers for each student. This year, the class of 2014 is the first class to graduate from STA to have had access to netbooks every year.

The St. Teresa’s Academy website gives an overview of the school’s technology initiative, called Going Global – Utilizing Technology for 21st Century Education, which “provides every student with a customized mini laptop computer for lease throughout the school year. The laptops will serve as a tool for students to access information and technologies necessary for advanced instruction and learning.” The Going Global initiative is the school’s “vision for employing the latest technology to improve and enhance quality and depth of education.”

According to senior Becca Ferron, the class of 2014 wasn’t aware of the introduction of netbooks until Star Night, when admitted students received their Moodle information and were able to log on using loaner netbooks.

“I think that STA is doing a pretty good job adjusting technology to fit the student’s needs,” she said. “In all of my classes technology was incorporated into our daily lives whether it was through powerpoints, research papers or graphic designing.”

According to technology coordinator Jeff Zimmerman, who started at STA the year the school introduced netbooks, the computers have not been the only changes the administration has put in place since 2010.

“Technology at STA has dramatically changed over the last four years,” Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman listed many changes, including the 1:1 program for students (the school’s goal of having one netbook for each student’s personal use), integrating “some form of interactive learning (such as Smart Boards and Mimios) in most classrooms and we have pushed beyond the standard classrooms to online collaboration environments (Moodle, Google Docs, Turnitin, etc). STA has made it clear that we’re not afraid to adopt technology that both benefits and excels our students, teachers and the school as a whole.”

Senior Clare Mitchell said she saw the biggest changes in the resources used in classrooms, including the additions of SMART Boards and the software used on the netbooks.

“I love that STA stays up-to-date [with technology],” she said.

Ferron said the senior class has seen many changes in the technology students use in class, and that “our general computer usage has evolved and increased through the past four years.”

“Because we are so incredibly privileged to have this technology, I can’t think of any changes I would like to see,” Ferron said. “The technology at STA is advanced, easy to understand and even sometimes more than we need.”