Hooked Up: UMaine Undergraduate Provides Technology Expertise for Northern Maine Schools
Contact: Nick Houtman, Dept. of Public Affairs, 207-581-3777, houtman@maine.edu
ORONO– Reuben Caron knows first hand what laptop computers mean to Maine school children. As a technology consultant for eight Aroostook County school districts, the graduating University of Maine senior saw middle school students, who had never used a computer, become overjoyed at their first touch of a keyboard.
During his four years at UMaine, Caron helped the state’s pioneering laptop initiative to level the learning field for students without computer access at home. He created a computer network for the eight districts, providing online access to more than 2,000 students and 400 teachers.
The oldest son of Roland and Linda Caron of Portage, Reuben graduated on May 8 with a degree in electrical engineering technology. This summer he is headed for a job with the Putney School in Vermont as a network operations manager. “They want me to re-do their entire computer network. It’s a one-year contract, and after that we’ll see where they want to go with it,” says Caron.
As a student engineer, Caron provided information technology (IT) support for the electrical engineering technology program. “Reuben brought a lot of experience to his course work. He could take a job and go out and find the solution. We could count on him for anything we needed in the information technology area. He will be hard to replace,” says Scott Dunning, associate professor, program coordinator and one of Caron’s advisors.
While at UMaine, Caron designed and installed computer systems for department labs and for UMaine’s Advanced Manufacturing Center.
It seems that Reuben’s fingers have never been far from a keyboard. The 2000 graduate (and valedictorian, as was his younger sister Robin) of Ashland High School learned the fine points of technology sales and management working for the Computer Connection, UMaine’s technology purchasing unit. He took academic courses in management information systems, computer programming and electrical networks.
As though that weren’t enough, he worked with the University of Maine System’s computer network (UNET) and Apple Computer to conduct nightly backup operations for the state’s middle school laptop network. He found himself working in the dead of night after daily traffic on the statewide school network had died down.
In 2003, Caron broadened his skills in a summer job with Kannon Communications, Inc., a New Gloucester, Maine company. He consulted with businesses throughout New England on their network needs and continued to provide services to the Maine Laptop Initiative.
However, it was a school networking project that brought him back home. As a freshman he began as the technology consultant for MSAD 32 in Ashland, where his dad had become the superintendent. He created a computer bulletin board system and advised teachers on computer hardware problems. With the laptop initiative came a need for other districts to buy hardware, and Reuben saw that joint purchases could save them money.
Caron eventually made arrangements with eight districts, and created a group known as NorthStarConnection.org: Ashland, Van Buren, Washburn, Danforth, Hodgdon, Sherman, Island Falls and Frenchville. For his required senior engineering project, he purchased and installed computer systems and conducted training sessions for technology coordinators in each district. When he’s not in the County, he answers questions and performs maintenance activities from his apartment in Orono.
As the technology coordinator for Ashland, Caron has maintained facilities in classrooms and libraries as well as the middle school laptop program. “He is incredibly reliable,” says Gene Bradbury, Ashland High School principal. “If I call him, within the hour he has my computer doing things. I don’t know where we’d be without him. A lot of students would rather be out doing other things. He is mature beyond his years.”
Using the commercially available First Class software, Caron trained technology coordinators in file management and system rules, giving each of them the skills to work with teachers and students in their districts.
“Each school determines its own priorities and policies on e-mail, access to folders and other system issues,” says Caron. To make that job easier, he developed a user manual and set up e-mail accounts for every student, teacher and administrator.
“E-mail rules are important. When students first get online, they get excited and tend to want to send messages to lots of people at once. So we (technology coordinators) talk about spam and language issues. Since e-mail communication lacks visual cues that we use in face-to-face communication, students learn to use other written expression techniques. Without knowing it, they are becoming better readers and writers. They are writing back and forth to each other, peer to peer,” Caron adds.
“Before this project, I worked a lot on my own. This project has given me the chance to meet with other technology coordinators and discuss problems,” he says.
In the long term, Caron hopes to start his own technology consulting business in Maine. “Some of my friends and I are all going out on our own right now, but once we build up our experience, we may come back together as a group. We know there are exciting possibilities out there.”