Local school administrators honored at the 2009 Dataseam Technical Conference

Jill Roaden and Kevin Anderson from Whitley County Schools received their Apple Certified Systems Administrator (ACSA) certificate during a ceremony at the 2009 Dataseam Technical Conference. Mrs. Roaden and Mr. Anderson were among a select group of Kentucky education technology professionals to earn the advanced designation.

Candidates completed five weeks of training classes and passed several exams demonstrating their knowledge of the computer systems and their ability to manage them in a large installation like a school district. The Whitley County School District now operates several hundred computers, which were donated to the schools by Dataseam over the last four years.

Dataseam provides computers funded by coal severance to coal county schools to support better exposure to technology and 21st Century learning opportunities. The computer processing power is shared with university researchers when students aren’t using the machines. Scientists at the University of Louisville James Graham Brown Cancer Center access the computers to look for potential life-saving cancer drugs.

In addition to learning more about the results of recent cancer research, the two-day event gave educators from 33 districts a chance to share information and learn more about how to support classroom teachers using computers. Representatives from the University of Louisville and Morehead State University outlined special scholarship programs for students in participating Dataseam districts.

“With the dramatic increased use of computers and technology in today’s schools it is important to have qualified individuals,” said Dataseam CEO Brian Gupton, “The ACSA professionals make a difference for the kids in Kentucky every day.”