2 area schools get technology grants

YOUNGSTOWN -- Two area schools have been awarded a total of nearly $40,000 in eTech Ohio grants to develop programs that use innovative methods to integrate technology into the classroom.
Crestview Elementary School in Columbiana County received $19,776, and Newton Falls High School in Trumbull County got $19,997.
eTech Ohio, created by the Ohio Legislature to enhance learning through the use of technology, provides up to $200,000 each fiscal year to fund its Competitive Professional Development Grants program. Twenty grants were awarded this year.
These grants allow schools to introduce new technologies into classroom lessons and gauge their impact through live-action research.
Crestview's program targets literacy in kindergarten and first-grade pupils, using hand-held monitors and special computer software to monitor pupil test activity and follow along as the children do reading tasks.
The Newton Falls program is designed to improve pupils' planning, revising, editing and research skills pertaining to various writing genres.
The grants are for two-year periods and teachers participating in the program will take the eTech Ohio Action Research and Technology online course, which includes conducting research within the classroom.