TEACHER-LIBRARIAN at Convent of Mercy Academy ‘Alpha’ Hopplin Thompson is the winner of this year’s Zed-Makeyla Technology Award for creative use of the classroom management software, RenWeb.

A teacher-librarian is a certified teacher who also has training in librarianship. Hopplin, who received the award at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Thursday, beat out a field of 19 to win the top prize. The four runners-up were D Evans of Holy Childhood High, Maud Patterson of St Elizabeth Technical, Christopher Soutar of Campion College, and Shaneque Banton of The Queen’s School.

They were awarded for mastering different aspects of the RenWeb system.

RenWeb allows administrators, teachers, parents, and students to connect with an integrated solution in schools across the island. It is a product of Zed Jamaica, a high-powered interactive creative agency which offers web, multimedia, film and video production services. Makeyla Technologies is the sister company of Zed Jamaica and focuses on application development with a specialty in the programming and implementation of accounting systems and related solutions.

The RenWeb has been on the market for some nine years and is being used in various preparatory, primary, and high schools, as well as tertiary institutions.

“Teachers can score, grade (mark) attendance whether by laptop, their phones or computer, and they can do assessment and disciplinary reports… Parents can also go on their phones and see results in real time. It reduces the traffic in the schools because you have the information ahead of time so you can make informed decisions,” managing director of Zed Jamaica Carlton Grant explained to the Jamaica Observer.

Minister of state in the Ministry of Science Technology Energy and Mining, Julian Robinson, who delivered the keynote address, talked about the importance of Internet connectivity, saying 60 hospitals and health centres islandwide were recently equipped with broadband network and that police stations are next on the list.

He also urged women to become involved with Start-up Jamaica, as “95 per cent of participants are males”.