Media Specialist Earns Tech Award

What do you do if your school closes its computer lab? If you're Mark Deming, library media specialist for Orchard Lake Elementary School in Lakeville, MN, you bring computers to the kids.

"There was a space crunch," explains Deming, "and they needed the computer lab for a classroom." The school's computers were also outdated, so Orchard Lake had a portable, wireless computer cart on order when Deming joined the staff in 2001. An expert tech hand, he soon got the 29 laptop computers up and running. Now, "every classroom has network connection ports installed—you just wheel the cart in and plug it in," says Deming.

In part, because of Orchard Lake's success with wireless, the Lakeville district passed a 2002 referendum to purchase similar equipment for all nine district elementary schools.

Deming has also launched a popular morning television news show, created entirely by fifth and sixth graders and broadcast daily throughout the school.

These accomplishments prompted the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) in November 2004 to present Deming with its Tekne Award, honoring technology leadership. Deming's Tekne was the first ever given to a teacher.

"Mark is bringing technology into the classroom in a very fresh way and in a way that's also lots of fun for the students," says Ann Fellman, an MHTA spokesperson.