Local educator to address forum

St. John's chief to speak on use of technology

The Rev. Joaquin Martinez, president of St. John's Jesuit High School and Academy, will share the school's success with technology, including the use of iPads in the classroom, with 400 colleagues from 61 countries who will be attending a conference in Boston. The event begins Sunday.

The Rev. Joaquin Martinez, president of St. John's Jesuit High School and Academy, will be in Boston for the first international conference of Jesuit secondary schools that begins Sunday.

About 400 educators from 61 countries will attend the International Colloquium on Jesuit Secondary Education at Boston College that runs through Thursday.

"I'm hoping this is something that allows us to keep talking about what our mission is as Jesuit schools," Father Martinez said.

The colloquium will focus on three themes: the Jesuit mission and Jesuit identity, worldwide communities, and new technologies in education.

Father Martinez will give a presentation on emerging technologies and their uses in secondary education. Last year, St. John's became one of two Jesuit schools in the United States that provide iPads for the entire student body.

"Part of what I'm doing is referencing on the use of [iPads] in the classroom, how we started the program, and some recommendations," Father Martinez said. "A lot of people don't have a point of reference for it, so we are the point of reference . … We have been the people that a lot of other schools have been going to to see what our experience has been."

Although Jesuit secondary school educators have never held a global conference, those in America get together frequently. Father Martinez said the presidents of the country's 59 Jesuit high schools meet every other year, and the principals meet ever year.

"It's the biggest network of Catholic high schools in the country, so we do really stay in touch with each other," he said.

This summer's international meeting has been in the works since educators at Boston College High School, a Jesuit high school in Boston, proposed the idea last year.

Although the educators have never met before as a group, Father Martinez said he is already acquainted with many of the 400 participants.

"I know a lot of those people, I went to school with a lot of them, we've met in Jesuit circles," he said. "We've never really sat down together and done something as focused as this, but informally a lot of us know each other."

If the Jesuit secondary educators decide to hold another worldwide colloquium in the future, Father Martinez said he expects it will not be for several years.

"I can imagine logistically this is a very hard thing to put together," he said. "It takes a while to plan."

Contact Mel Flanagan at: mflanagan@theblade.com or 419-724-6087.