By Charles Du, Director of Technology

The world has shifted into an even more digitally oriented society in the past few weeks. Educators around the world have scrambled to move everything online. Many of those not prepared for digital classroom learning are struggling to continue to educate students during this unprecedented time.

Forest Ridge has been integrating technology into the classroom since 1996. We have been at the forefront of technology since the beginning of the digital boom. Our teachers started using Microsoft OneNote back in 2006. Seeing the strength in cloud computing, we transitioned to Veracross SIS and LMS in 2012 and migrated to Microsoft Office 365 in 2013. Many of our teachers took the initiative during the snow closures of recent years to begin implementing Microsoft Teams, as well as Zoom, to ensure the continuous education of our students. Forest Ridge is prepared to quickly and dynamically change gears to support our students continued learning while social distancing.

Ever since we started the 1:1 educational platform in 1996, our goal has been to ensure that our faculty, staff and students have the technical support they need. Forest Ridge has a dedicated Technology Support Team available during regular school hours Monday through Friday. My team and I are ready to assist with questions or issues, whether they’re hardware or software-related. We can respond to questions and troubleshoot in several ways, be it through Microsoft Teams, scheduled drop-off and pick-up or providing tutorials. We understand how important learning is for our students. Therefore, the school provided tablet devices are covered with accidental protection to ensure there is minimum impact on the students’ learning capability.

As we navigate through this challenging time, our priority is for our students to continue to learn and to stay safe in the digital world. We have the knowledge and experience to make our students successful and the resources and infrastructure for our teachers to be the best at what they do. Our parents have been nothing but supportive and engaged with the teachers and students. Our community has supported each other, and we will continue to do so. Please stay safe and healthy and practice proper social distancing.