2008 Grant Proposal Details

Non-mobile computer lab upgrade   Edgewood Elementary

Total: $2000

Description:  The purpose of this grant is to support our school with the necessary memory upgrades for our non-mobile computer lab. Our K-5 school is heavily reliant upon our computer lab and in order run our necessary programs for this range of users, we have to modify our existing computers in order to support all necessary software programs. This means that we have to purchase more memory for each of our 30 student computers in our lab. As we have increased technology within our school, it has become clear that without upgrades to our computer lab, teachers are not be able to utilize the full scope and potential of our common software due to our hardware limitations.

Why is this important?  Our overall goal is to allow students to be engaged at a higher level by using current software that does not bog down our computers functionality. Teachers often produce lesson plans using their computers and then have to alter their activities to accommodate the current capacity and capability within our computer lab. This memory upgrade will allow us to share common programs and follow through with well-planned and rich lessons that the teachers have prepared.

Who will be served?  Each of our 310 students will benefit from these upgrades. All students share our computer lab and this memory upgrade will give teachers the ability to add necessary programs that best fits the grade level in which they teach. Too often, our current computer memory limitations force teachers to choose one single software program per lesson where as if we were not faced with hardware limitations, they would be able to utilize multiple programs to differentiate instruction.

How will this be evaluated?  Our students continued engagement and enthusiasm for the use of technology will serve as a strong indicator during our evaluation process. Another indicator of success would be through teacher usage of the memory upgrades by allowing them to now utilize multiple software applications simultaneously. We are also confident that with increased memory on our computers and new programs available. teachers will also increase the time committed to lesson plans which would include the computer lab as a tool for engaging higher numbers of students. Lastly, an increase in the computer lab use will also serve as another area for valuation of our success in improving our schools service and movement towards teaching through the use of technology.

Does this build on existing programs?  This proposal does build on our existing desire to improve our student and teacher use of technology in the classroom.

Budget:  We will be purchasing 63 1GB memory chips. Each memory chip is priced at $24.95 and we are looking at purchasing 63 chips this will total $1571.22. We anticipate paying about $200.00 for the service worker to mount these chips in the computers. Our total will come to $1771.22.

Proposal #:  33