SCHOOLS Grant will provide some new technology

Teachers can't wait for the new equipment to arrive.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
COLUMBIANA -- Some Crestview teachers will spend part of their summer in the classroom learning to use new technology provided by a $35,000 grant from Hewlett Packard.
Susan Kershner, the district's instructional technology coordinator, wrote the proposal in January for an HP Technology for Teaching grant for Crestview Elementary.
"I wrote the grant for three elementary teachers and two high school teachers, but I learned that the teachers included in the grant all had to be in the same building, and that didn't apply to us," she said. "The high school teachers were gracious, though, and told me to write it for the elementary."
Kershner said the high school teachers who bowed out won't be left out of all the excitement, however. The district will receive projectors and other video equipment, digital cameras and PC tablets to integrate new technology into science and math lessons, with elementary pupils and teachers working on projects with high school students and teachers.
"I went to a conference and saw how the PC tablets could be used in math classes," she said. "It was very exciting, but I tried to keep from being too excited because I didn't know what our chances would be of getting the grant."
Kershner said HP's PC tablets are laptop computers, but users can also write on the screens with a stylus. The information on the screen can go onto a projector or be printed out. The tablets also can translate handwriting to type.
Elementary pupils will work with high school biology and physics students on a number of projects and then will prepare and teach interactive distance learning lessons, she said.
Waiting
The hardest part for Kershner and other Crestview teachers will be waiting for the new equipment to arrive, and then for school to start in the fall so the students can use it.
"It will be about seven more weeks before the equipment arrives, and we can't wait," Kershner said. "We're excited. I will have one of the PC tablets and projectors in the computer lab so everyone can use it."
Kershner said she also has already made arrangements for students in the high school's advanced computer classes to assist the elementary pupils with video editing in some of the projects.
Besides the digital camera, five computers and five projectors, the grant also includes a printer, HP K-12 help desk support for one year, a $500 stipend for each of the five teachers included in the grant, and a professional development program that includes customized learning opportunities, expert mentoring and participation in an online learning community to support teachers' use of technology.
The HP Technology for Teaching grants total around $10 million in the 2004-05 school year and are being distributed among 151 kindergarten- through-12th-grade public schools and 42 two- and four-year colleges and universities.