Solving the Digital Equity Puzzle

Solving the Digital Equity Puzzle

Event status: Not started (Register) Date and time: Tuesday, November 15, 2016 3:00 pm
Eastern Standard Time (New York, GMT-05:00)
Change time zoneDuration: 1 hour Description:

School districts across the country have different types of challenges around digital equity, capacity planning, E-rate challenges, and affordability. A scalable solution will require that businesses, schools, DOE, state education officials and education nonprofits get out of their silos and work together as a community.

Tech & Learning Content Director Kevin Hogan will lead our panel discussion on this challenging topic. Panel members also include administrators Henry Thiele, superintendent of a large suburban district and Scott Harris, tech director of a rural district as well as Chris Prekopa from Comcast Business.

The panel will also share resources to help schools and communities work together to solve the digital equity puzzle.

Featured Speakers:

Henry Thiele
Henry Thiele is Superintendent of Community High School District 99 in Downers Grove, IL and was formerly the Assistant Superintendent for Technology and Learning in the Maine 207 Schools in Park Ridge, IL. Before moving into roles, he was a high school science and music teacher for ten years while also serving in the role of technology coordinator. He has been a featured presenter at conferences, for corporations such as Google and Follett, and for many government agencies in Illinois. Henry is one of the co-founders of the Illinois Google EDU K-12 user group, Chicagoland GEG, and has supported many schools in Illinois as they transition to Google Apps for Education.

Scott Harris
Scott Harris, Technology Director of Neosho, MO School District, is entering his 20th year in educational technology. Scott spent the first 12 years in the field at Miami, OK Public Schools where he established, with the help of eRate, their first school-wide WAN, both copper and fiber, first Internet connectivity and helped get them started on their journey towards transforming education with technology. He is currently in his 8th year at Neosho, where he has been responsible for completely rebuilding out their wired and especially wireless infrastructure, as well being a key player in Neosho's transformation to personalized instruction. Neosho is currently in year 3 of their 5 year 1 to 1 initiative plan.

Chris Prekopa
Chris serves as division director of sales for the government and education sectors at Comcast Business, where he helps schools close the digital equity gap with innovative classroom connectivity solutions, including Ethernet, Internet, and WiFi. With more than 22 years experience in the telecommunications industry, Chris brings a wealth of experience to the challenges that school districts and their communities face.