Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, Catherine McCullough has been invited to attend Apple’s Education Leadership Summit in San Francisco, California on April 10 and 11, 2008. According to John Couch, vice-president for Apple’s Educational Division, “The summit will provide opportunities for education executives and global thought leaders to convene and explore a new course of action for creating dynamic 21st century learning environments where today’s students can achieve and thrive.” McCullough will also participate in an “Executive Think Tank Session” which will provide the opportunity to network with peers, explore ideas with other thought leaders and to work directly with those on the front lines of change and innovation.

The Summit will also feature keynote speakers, Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning To Be Creative and Andreas Schleicher, Head of the Indicators and Analysis Division at the Directorate for Education in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, located in Paris. An invitation has also been extended to Angus King, former Governor of Maine who will speak about his personal story of leadership and the very successful program in Main which has empowered students across the state by placing a mobile computer in their hands for 24/7 learning.

McCullough has been invited as one of the select few Canadian Education Executives (one of ten Canadian Directors and one hundred American Directors) based on the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s extensive commitment to technology with respect to the introduction and rapid expansion of the “One to One” Apple laptop program in its elementary and secondary schools since 2002. “Education and the approach to learning have taken on a whole new dimension in the 21st century,” states McCullough. “Technology has quickly transformed the world around us. As a school board we decided to meet this challenge head on. In September 2006, we implemented a board wide one to one laptop program in all of our
Grade 7 and 8 classrooms, (a program unique to Ontario), as well as introducing the use of the ibooks in our junior grades.”

According to McCullough, one of the immediate benefits that was realized by the Board’s laptop program was its unique ability to provide teachers with the opportunity to align teaching activities to the interests, learning styles, and needs of all students in allowing them to be successful. The one to one laptop program provides opportunities to fully engage students in reading, writing, and visual literacy.