Tech companies aid recovery effort

“Our goal is to provide guidance to help the area and rebuild schools in the 21st century format,” says Terry Smithson, education strategist and marketing manager at the Intel Corp., who is spearheading this effort. “Our plan is that this recovery effort will be documented from day one and can be used as a framework to help education recover from disasters anywhere in the world.”

The Intel effort will focus on four strands: schools that were totally destroyed; schools with wind or water damage; schools in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida that have absorbed displaced students; and the more than 100,000 students who have left the Gulf region and relocated to other states.

Joining Smithson on the disaster team’s oversight committee are Cathilea Robinett, vice president of the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute based in Folsom, Calif.; Melinda George, executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, based in Arlington, Va.; and Mike Hall, deputy superintendent for the state of Georgia. A U.S. Education Department official is expected to be added.

Confirmed members of the team include Dzana Homan, CEO of Futurekids, a company that focuses on education technology and professional development; Nancy Knowlton, CEO of Smart Technologies, a manufacturer of interactive white boards; and Tim Loomer, president of Scantron, a testing and assessment company.

The team’s goal is to rebuild 180 schools that have been destroyed or damaged with an “enhanced 21st century format.”

The disaster recovery team will provide guidance on how schools can best use the funding and other resources contributed by the companies involved on the team and from other sources, Smithson says. This will relieve school officials of the burden of locating assets and help them get discounts.

While a great deal of money has been donated to schools affected by Katrina, “much of it is not being spent properly,” he says. “It does no good to put equipment into schools without having a coordinated strategy. It is not enough to have updated technology. Schools need the right kind of technology and they need professional development to go along with it.”

“No self-serving companies will be allowed to be a part of this effort,” he says, noting that affected schools have already been targeted by companies out to make a quick profit, leaving schools with the wrong equipment and inadequate training.

“This is an opportunity to leapfrog into the future,” Smithson says. By providing a model for new school construction that takes into account the most up-to-date technology available, this initiative will offer insights for future disaster recovery efforts.

In a related development, Cisco Systems Inc. announced a $40 million, three-year initiative, called 21S, “to provide a holistic approach to building a 21st century educational program benefiting current and future generations of Gulf Coast children.”