WSWHE BOCES Administrator Honored as Leader in Digital Education

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Laurie Guyon

ALBANY, NY (03/29/2023) (readMedia)-- ALBANY, NY – Laurie Guyon, coordinator for Model Schools for the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex (WSWHE) BOCES, has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 Leader in Digital Education Award by the School Administrators Association of New York State (SAANYS). This award recognizes a SAANYS member who has demonstrated exceptional, creative leadership in harnessing the potential of technology to further teaching and student achievement.

In addition to her work with the WSWHE BOCES, Guyon is a statewide trainer and Capital Region director for the New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education (NYSCATE) and an adjunct instructor at SUNY Plattsburgh. Since March 2020, Guyon has "hosted over 400 webinars and workshops to support educators in our region with BOCES and statewide with NYSCATE."

She notes that she has "trained over 100 educators working towards their Google and ISTE certifications." She has "created 14 self-paced courses for NYSCATE on the Computer Science and Digital Fluency (CS/DF) standards, tech tools, coding, and SEL in 2020, and just created another 10 on implementing the CS/DF standards and on improving student motivation." In addition, she has spoken at conferences "about supporting how computer science and digital fluency can look in our classrooms."

Guyon's expertise and ability to lead others has also resulted in her writing and publishing a book on technology integration, SMILE Learning: Leveraging the Power of Educational Technology, published in March 2023. She cites "Building Computational Thinking Practices into Instruction" and "Global Collaboration" as best practices that will help support student learning, particularly in the areas of cyberbullying, being safe online, ethical hacking, and being kind online, and to help students become better global citizens.

David R. Ashdown, director of technology and instructional support programs, WSWHE BOCES, says "There are really too many qualifications to list for Laurie Guyon, who has become a household name in the area of digital leadership in our state."

"Laurie is our north star for the region with instructional technologies," says Christine MacPherson, K-12 director of educational technology for Hudson Falls CSD. "She has elevated the conversations and implementation of #TechforGood for administrators, teachers, but most of all students!"

Guyon received an award for Best Overall Implementation of Technology from Tech and Learning-New England in 2022, the Global Impactor Award from the Digital Citizenship Institute in 2022, the President's Volunteer Service Award from ISTE in 2020 and 2021, and the Emerging EdTech Leader award from CoSN in 2020. She was also the BOCES Spotlight Award Winner in 2020 and an NYSCATE Volunteer Hall of Fame Inductee in 2017.

Guyon has been with the WSWHE BOCES since 2018. She taught 6th grade at Schuylerville Middle School from 2008 to 2016 and was the tech integrator for Schuylerville CSD from 2016 to 2018. She received her bachelor of science, master of science, CAS-SBL, and CAS-SDL from SUNY Plattsburgh.

Guyon and fellow 2023 award winners will be recognized at SAANYS' annual awards celebration, taking place on May 5 at the Crown Plaza Albany - Desmond Hotel.

SAANYS represents over 14,000 school administrators, supervisors, and coordinators. As a professional association, SAANYS is committed to providing direction, service, and support to the membership in their efforts to improve the quality of education and leadership in New York State schools. SAANYS is affiliated with the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) and the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).