What's a CEMIS, anyway?

The word C.E.M.I.S. is a French acronym standing for Les Centres D'Enrichissement en Micro- Informatique Scolaire or, very roughly translated into English, Centres for the Integration and Development of New Technologies in Education. There are thirty-five CEMISes in Quebec, five of which serve the English-speaking community. The Laurentian CEMIS is one of those five.

In brief, the mandate of the CEMISes, in general, and the Laurentian CEMIS, in particular, is the training of teachers, modeling to students, and the development of curriculum integration strategies as it applies to what has become known as the new technologies.

The CEMIS executes this mandate fluidly through direct in-school contact with teachers and administrators coupled with electronic support.

The CEMISes serving the English-speaking population are divided into regions. The Laurentian CEMIS covers a geographic area of roughly one hundred forty kilometers (84 miles) square, running from the Ontario border in the West to roughly eighty kilometers west of Quebec City in the East; from the Island of Montreal in the South; to a point roughly fifty kilometers North of Ste. Agathe. The region includes thirty-two (32) elementary and five (5) secondary schools.

More interestingly, the schools within the Laurentian CEMIS’ region range from upper middle class suburban to rural schools of less than eighty children whose only concrete educational data delivery system, short of the teacher, is the Internet.

The current coordinator of the Laurentian CEMIS is Peter Bilodeau.