Posted by:
Dianne Owen
District admin/coordinator
Murray, KY

Topic:
Find money for what you want

Message:

Schools are certainly finding out that as hard as we thought it was to purchase the initial hardware and software that we have, it is an even greater challenge to upgrade and support it. Although the bulk of the costs have been through state and local funding, the Universal Service Fund certainly helped many schools across the nation and there have been wonderful grants from the US Department of Education and many foundations.

More and more schools are hiring grant writers to find those funds and the shift in funding proposals is going towards professional development and integrating new technology in the curriculum in a meaningful way.

I think the idea of training students to become technology helpers such as the Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP), a statewide program in Kentucky, is right on target. Not only does it cut down on maintenance costs, it empowers students to go out and be leaders in the business world. It does take time to train them, but the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.

There are also on-line training modules for technology integration now and some of them are actually good and worth the time and money. Technology academies and summer camps have proven to be excellent ways to train teachers and then have them mentor others.

In the end, administrators have had to realize that technology carries a high price tag and budget accordingly. I think we have become so accustomed to using technology that the old adage "we find money for what we really want" may apply to this situation.

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