Martin County Schools teachers and staff recently participated in a technology workshop available through the district’s partnership with Dataseam, with each educator earning a new classroom workstation to begin the upcoming academic year.
Dataseam, an education and workforce education organization based in Louisville, works with Kentucky K-12 schools, improving the state’s technology workforce as part of providing new classroom technology to schools addressing advanced curriculum needs preparing students for next-generation workforce demands.
Martin County has been a partner in the statewide program since 2006. Recent district participation has brought students and staff nearly $405,422 in new classroom technology – equivalent to over 12 years of state technology funding in the two-year timeframe.
Superintendent Larry James shared, “Our partnership with Dataseam brings these new classroom computers, helping us leverage all available resources while we help Dataseam and the University of Louisville find new ways to fight cancer, which impacts so many of our community.”
Computers provided by Dataseam are linked across the state district-by-district to assemble the DataseamGrid, a vital piece of Kentucky’s innovation and commercialization network. It helps the University of Louisville’s Brown Cancer Center develop more effective cancer drugs quicker and with reduced costs. The cancer computations run securely in the background and do not impede the districts daily classroom and Internet demands. Dataseam has worked in partnership for over 20 years with Kentucky K-12 schools advancing these efforts.
“Our Eastern Kentucky neighbors developed and presented an outstanding day of training with staff unboxing and configuring their classroom computers.” relates Roscoe Mullins, district Director of Technology. “The experience allowed our staff to see the process behind getting a computer ready for the classroom environment, as well as fostering ownership of that computer. Even with our nearly 20-year partnership with Dataseam, much has changed and our staff was able to refresh and expand their technical skillsets.”
“Martin County Schools is one of our longest tenured program partners,” said Brian Gupton, Dataseam. “Their technology teams have consistently led the discourse within the Dataseam ecosystem helping set the direction for how all of us work together to enable unique approaches to develop Kentucky’s next generation workforce. We are thankful to the state legislature making these things happen for the region.”
With efforts funded by state and federal funding and appropriation through the Kentucky General Assembly, Dataseam now serves 59 Kentucky districts accounting for 40% of the state’s over 630,000 K-12 public school students.
“Martin County’s long partnership with Dataseam shows how smart investments in technology pay off for our classrooms and our communities,” said Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville. “These computers give students the tools they need to succeed while also powering critical cancer research. I’m proud the legislature continues to back a program that delivers for Eastern Kentucky.”
For more information on the district: https://martin.kyschools.us
Download a copy of this press release HERE.
