JFYNet Gives Innovation Awards in Tech-Education to Seven Schools and Four Contributing Partners

June 6, 2012 - PRLog -- (Boston) - Seven schools and four contributing partners received JFYNet’s [http://www.jfyboston.org]  Innovation Awards for Technology in Education at a ceremony in the State House May 30.  Representative Alice Peisch, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Education, presided as the sponsor of the event. House Speaker Robert De Leo gave congratulatory remarks. Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad, a former Education Committee chair, assisted in the presentation of the awards.

“I can tell you I have been out there to observe JFYNet and I have seen the results,” DeLeo said. “I’ve seen the results of the personalized training on overall test scores and reducing achievement gaps. So I’m here to show my support for JFY and all the schools they work with.”

Nicholas C. Donohue, President and CEO of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, New England’s largest education funder, gave the keynote address on student-centered education. He stressed the importance of technology as the way to provide student-centered instruction to the digital generation.

“Today’s students are digital natives,” he said. “In order to compete for their attention, education must meet them where they are: on line.  There are two reasons why technology is an essential and unavoidable contribution to education.  One is that it makes things better, makes them more adaptive, more flexible.  The other is that it’s ubiquitous and there’s really no turning it back. Technology is here to stay and it’s deeply effective for these things.”

The JFYNet Innovation Awards are presented each year to a select group of individuals and schools that have made significant contributions to the cause of improving student achievement through the use of technology. This year’s awards were focused on innovative uses of technology in STEM education and college readiness.  The awards are presented by JFYNetWorks, a Boston-based non-profit enterprise that develops and supports JFYNet blended learning programs in schools.  

The awardees were:
•  North Shore Technical High School
*  Malden High School  
•  Revere High School
•  Knox Trail Junior High School
•  Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School
•  Essex Agricultural Technical High School  
•  Shawsheen Valley Technical High School
•  MIT Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, Software Tools for Academics and Researchers (STAR)
•  Solution Grove
•  Pearson Education
•  The College Board

JFYNetWorks Executive Director Gary Kaplan congratulated the awardees.

“Today, we are honoring a group of schools, individuals and supporters who have contributed to the advancement of student-centered education through the innovative use of technology in the classroom.”   He adds, “These pioneers are helping keep Massachusetts in the forefront of educational innovation. Massachusetts was the first state in the Union to institute universal public education in 1852 thanks to its visionary secretary of education Horace Mann. The Bay State’s educational leadership has continued through the current era of standards-based education reform. The goal of JFYNet is to continue that leadership into the age of online student-centered instruction. Innovation has always been a core competency of the Commonwealth. JFYNet and its partners are proud to be part of that long tradition.”

The JFYNet blended learning program helps schools use technology effectively to improve student achievement. In 12 years of operation in schools throughout Massachusetts, JFYNet has helped more than 60,000 students meet high school graduation standards, close achievement gaps, and prepare for college-level work.