Since 1961 Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart has provided a transformative educational experience as Florida’s only private all-girls school for grades preK-12. Carrollton’s mission and founding principles date back to 1800, but the school embraces a 21st century approach to education technology.
Back in 2001 Carrollton’s headmistress, Sister Suzanne Cooke, introduced education technology to Carrollton by putting laptops in the hands of young learners. She was instrumental in setting up the school’s wireless network. When Carrollton was ready to expand its laptop program, the school chose UDT to help take its technology commitment to the next level.
Its then-new laptops procured and provisioned, the school assumed day-to-day support duties from UDT. But over time, the technology program lost focus and began to experience service and support issues. It became apparent that Carrollton required more than a hardware vendor – it needed a long-term, trusted advisor with specialized experience in the digital classroom, someone who could reinvigorate the program and provide a long-term technology roadmap.
UDT offers a managed services solution
Carrollton asked UDT to step in and retool its approach to education technology. One of UDT’s first steps was to provide a technician onsite four days a week to resolve hardware issues and monitor servers and switches. UDT instituted a ticketing system so that faculty and staff could track the progress of their repair work. “Re-stabilizing the IT department helped boost morale so that people could get help in a timely fashion,” said Joe Gomez, Microsoft Solutions Architect for UDT.
UDT also assisted Carrollton with its latest technology refresh for student devices, transitioning to a more portable form factor. “The traditional laptop was good, but it’s more of a business tool,” explained Gomez. “Students now identify more with a touch-screen tablet design, so we determined that the Microsoft Surface Pro would be a great fit.”
Carrollton gains a trusted technology advisor
In addition to deploying the new Microsoft Surface Pro devices, UDT is also providing Carrollton with a technology roadmap and a refresh schedule so that their assets stay current. “In the past, they had these great devices that eventually started failing, but they had no refresh plan,” said Gomez. “They were just replacing them one-off, and that’s reactive, not proactive. So we sat down and created roadmaps for service and support.”
As part of its ongoing consultative role, UDT offers the services of its own professional development team staffed by experienced educators who help train teachers to use digital classroom technology.
Now that UDT has helped to re-energize Carrollton’s commitment to education technology, the task ahead will involve keeping this new momentum going. “What they needed was a technology partner,” said Gomez. “Not just devices, but a holistic solution.”
Is it time to reinvigorate your approach to education technology?
When you’re ready to realize your vision for technology in education, remember the experience of Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart: transform, engage and empower through a 360° relationship with UDT.
