N4L is excited to welcome school principal Carolyn Stuart to its senior leadership team. Carolyn fills the newly created role of Education Sector Lead, where she will be working collaboratively with principals, school leaders and other education sector representatives to ensure N4L’s services and operations are constantly in tune with their needs.
She will be responsible for alerting N4L to the opportunities and challenges facing schools as they progress on their journey of bringing new technologies and digital learning resources into the classroom.
Carolyn is no stranger to e-learning and the New Zealand school community. She comes to N4L following 13 years as a principal; firstly at a rural school in Canterbury and most recently at Wellington’s Tawa Intermediate. In recent years Tawa Intermediate has welcomed many visitors who have come to witness the school’s use of Google Apps, MyPortfolio and other cloud-based applications. Many of her students have brought their own devices, as she’s encouraged their use to complement the e-learning experience.
As a former Project Director for two ICT Professional Development (ICTPD) Cluster, Carolyn worked with other school leaders to transform thinking and best practices around information and communication technologies. She is also well-known throughout the education conference speaking circuit; has made regular contributions to the NZ Principals Today magazine and was involved with First Time and Aspiring Principals programmes.
A big and important part of N4L’s services will include offering a diverse range of world-class teaching and learning resources that make it easier for schools to teach, assess and ultimately improve student achievement. This content and related services will be added over time and Carolyn and other members of the N4L team will be constantly reaching out to schools to ask for their input on this.
N4L recognises that in many cases there have been several years of great progress and knowledge built up in schools from their existing technology and e-learning initiatives. It is in everyone’s interest to retain the benefits gained from these, and Carolyn will ensure these opportunities are identified, reviewed, and included in N4L’s programme where it makes sense to do so.
Carolyn will be based in the N4L Wellington office but will spend most of her time in the school community.
She leaves Tawa Intermediate at the end of term 1 and joins N4L on 8 May.