Schools Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho announced in early February that Miami-Dade County took a giant leap towards the digital transformation of the school district and a 1:1 digital initiative, launching a rollout of 100,000 HP and Lenovo Windows 8 devices. Additionally, more than 10,000 interactive boards will be added to classrooms across the district.
Carvalho made the announcement at the Microsoft YouthSpark Connection panel in Miami with Margo Day, vice president, U.S. Education Microsoft Corp., which will provide Office 365 for all district students to use. Microsoft will also provide Skydive, a cloud-based information storage system, as well as technical services that ensure the district's educational materials will run properly on wireless devices. Students will have a single sign-on that will allow them to access their device, the network and applications all with one login.
"Technology by itself, is not going to close the achievement gap between the rich and the poor, a gap that threatens so many of our minority students," said Carvalho. "But when technology is used correctly, we have seen powerful results in our very own technology-rich iPrep Academies, for example, with better test scores and increased employment opportunities."
Carvalho's announcement marks a big step forward for Miami-Dade's 350,000 students. With the infrastructure in place to provide them with Office Pro Plus, connected to enterprise-quality Windows 8 devices, students will have the tools they need to gain the skills proven to be most valuable for success in college and career.
A recent IDC Study which scanned more than 14 million job postings, found that the most in-demand skills for the top jobs through 2020 are the modern skills such as communication, problem solving and teamwork, coupled with the technical skills of Microsoft Office.