|
Kathleen Peloquin is the Virtual Education Space (VES) District Facilitator and Online Trainer for the Worcester Public Schools (WPS). Her primary responsibility is to implement the use of VES district wide. She believes that VES will impact how we learn, communicate and collaborate. "Until we can afford to purchase a computer for each student, VES will help narrow the digital divide by providing our students with essential tools for learning. Each student will be empowered by owning his or her own small piece of the Internet." As the online trainer for the WPS she has established a three-year partnership between EDC and NEIRTEC for building the internal capacity of the district to develop online professional development, and in 2002, the partnership will create online courses. She is also excited about the WPS online transitional program with Worcester State College (WSC). In this program, juniors and seniors from Worcester high schools can take college online courses as part of their daily schedules, with the hopes of entering WSC as a sophomore upon high school graduation. Kathy is also an adjunct faculty member for the Curriculum & Instructional Technology Graduate Program at Framingham State College (FSC) and has created the online course, Discipline Specific Topics in Instructional Technology. She finds her work with graduate students "fun" and quite stimulating. The most interesting part of the course is all the information and methodologies the students share with one another. From 1996 - 2000 she was an Educational Technology Trainer for the Worcester Public Schools. She was directly responsible for training the teachers in the South Quadrant (SQ) Schools, grades Pre-K - 12, to integrate technology within their curriculum. In addition, she is the mentor for the SQ web masters, http://www.wpsweb.com/southquadrant, on the WPS CLASP Team and coordinated the DOE pre-service grant with Clark University and WPS Professional Development Schools. Previous to 1996 she was the technology facilitator/network manager for Sullivan Middle School. She has been an educator for over 27 years, and in that time she has taught science, mathematics and computers on the secondary level. She has been quite active in a statewide volunteer technology organization, Massachusetts Computer-using Educators Inc. (MassCUE) as a member of the board, and conference committee http://www.masscue.org. In 1998 she was awarded the MassCUE Pathfinders Award for her work as a leader in technology. She serves as MassCUE's president beginning in the fall of 2001. Kathy holds a B.A. in Biology and a M.Ed. in Education with a Computer Science Concentration from Worcester State College. She has continued graduate coursework at Clark University and currently is working on an administrators certificate at Worcester Sate College. She has participated in the Leaders and New Technologies Summer Institute sponsored by Harvard University and EDC http://edc.techleaders.org/LNT99. When not working or online she loves to spend time with family and friends, golf, garden, and go to movies. She has been married for 28 years, has three children and two grandsons. Contact Information:
|
