The Consortium for School Networking announced U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) as the winner of its public service award at a luncheon during the final day of its annual conference here in New Orleans Wednesday.
The 3,000-student Cullman City (Ala.) school system won CoSN’s outstanding team award, and Tim Wilson from Minnesota’s 21,000-student ISD 279-Osseo Area won CoSN’s Withrow Award for outstanding chief technology officer.
Miller, who has served California’s 7th congressional district since 1975, has been a longstanding champion of technology in education, said CoSN chair Bailey Mitchell. Miller helped craft the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the federal stimulus, which included $650 million in funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology program, according to a press release. He also insisted on including explicit funding for education technology during a failed attempt to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, said Mitchell.
Among its accomplishments, Cullman City became the first school district in its state to achieve 1-to-1 computing. The district has also established an online classroom management system and expanded online learning opportunities for students via Alabama’s ACCESS program.
Wilson has led his district through a restructuring of three technology-oriented departments into one 68-person unit that supports increased access to the Internet, videoconferencing, cable television, and e-mail. For those efforts, Wilson was given a Minnesota Technology Leader Award by TIES, a state ed-tech group.