laptopgrant

Wallingford//** **//Education Foundation Mission//**
 * //[[file:Laptop grant Version 4 Aimee's edits.doc]]
 * In partnership with the community, the Wallingford Education Foundation enhances public educational opportunities for students to meet the challenges in a global society.**


 * Project Title: Preparing Students for a Flat World**


 * Abstract: ** //Brief overview of the project, including the number of students//

If awarded, this grant will make my 8th grade social studies classroom a 1:2 laptop room; that is one laptop computer for every two of my 100 students. A 1:2 laptop room provides educational opportunities for my students to fully participate now in the global society by engaging in activities such as creating products for an authentic world-wide audience, learning face-to-face with people from across the world, and producing ideas and information using the same tools available to the public and private sectors across the globe. The laptops will allow my students to be engaged in the real work of mathematicians, scientists, composers, filmmakers, authors, historians, engineers and others in the global society.

Fix-Current conditions do not allow for these types of projects as a whole class, only small groups of students can be engaged at a time…. The project title is a metaphor for preparing students for a world in which all people have equal opportunity. Technology is creating a level playing field for people across the globe. It is vitally important our children are prepared to not only meet the challenges this creates, but have the 21st Century skills necessary to succeed in the global society. The 1:2 laptop room I envision is a room in which computers are used not for special projects, but as part of the everyday fabric of implementing curriculum. This room mirrors the way professionals work in the world utilizing the very same tools they use. Engineers, accountants, mathematicians, artists, and thinkers of all industries work in our global society with computers at their disposal. Each year, my students should have the same access. Currently in my classroom our tools for engaging in a global society are inadequate and include: · A 1,000-page textbook providing facts, but little engagement and/or interaction and therefore little retention · 50 computers in the school library and two on carts shared with 900 students on a ‘sign up’ basis. Computer time must be scheduled well in advance, prohibiting spontaneous usage as a part of the fabric of the classroom and limiting all work with them to special projects. The Flat World Grant would allow my students to have access to computers at any time as their work in the global society requires. It is laughable to imagine telling a research scientist they can only use a computer a few days each month at 40-minute intervals and they have to schedule their time weeks in advance. To successfully participate in the global society, our students need to be creating for and authentically involved in this society today rather than passively receiving information in an effort to be prepared to enter it years from now. Therefore we must build upon the technological fluency the students bring to the classroom and provide students with conditions that exist in the global society. The Flat World Grant will do so. Objectives of the Flat World Grant: The primary subject area involved in the Flat World Grant is social studies and by using the laptops as I propose, as a tool for truly engaging the content areas of the curriculum, all of the skill areas are met as well. Today’s 21st-century learners have grown up in a digital world with cell phones, computers, video entertainment, iPod technology, and the Internet. They are active learners. Yet, students experience a huge disconnect every day when they walk into a classroom. A classroom where pencil, paper, lecture, textbook, review, and test are still the norm. Engaging these students and making education relevant once again is critical. The Flat World laptops will not be glorified pencils and notebooks, but portals to engagement in the global society. In order to prepare students to succeed in a digitally connected world we need to have new kinds of teaching and learning. Skills such as global literacy, computer literacy, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and innovation have become critical in today’s increasingly interconnected workforce and society--and technology is the catalyst for bringing these changes into our social studies classroom. In a 21st-century school, all students are able to learn. Project-based inquiry learning supported by technology allows students to acquire 21st-century skills in the context of real-world scenarios. The integration of video and other media to support instruction links students with outside resources enabling teachers to address many learning styles at once. The Flat World Grant will transform this classroom into one not waiting for the teachable moments, but creating them. Flat World Grant funds will be used to allow 100 students yearly the ability to work on laptops in social studies class. But the impact goes much farther than that. Using just the ‘sign up’ computers this past year we worked on endeavors with students in Australia, California, Kansas, New Jersey, Alabama, Missouri, and many other states. We have talked directly and through video conference with classrooms and professionals from across the United States. Our videos, podcasts, blogs, and wikis, have been distributed world-wide and viewed and listened to by over 20,000 people. My students are not idle consumers or passive learners; they are exercising their responsibility to positively contribute to the world. With Flat World Grant laptops at their fingertips the spontaneity and continuity would vastly increase the level at which students are active and engaged in history and social studies in truly meaningful ways. Having a 1:2 laptop social studies classroom will fully allow students to work in a project-based classroom that replicates how real entrepreneurs and business people work. We will not mimic, or do pretend projects. The value of mimic-type pretend projects is questionable and there just is not time for that type of activity. The students are not entering the real world in seven years – at this very it exists for them. They need tools now so they can engage the real world which has transformed into a global society. Waiting for days or weeks for a computer slot to open in the library interrupts the process of being engaged in social studies learning in the modern classroom. Students require access to the same basic tools professionals use to contribute to the world. I will use the Flat World computers to melt away our four classroom walls allowing consistent exposure to the real world, to those that operate in the real world, and to real research. For example, a group of students recently finished an undertaking with the Palace Production Center making a movie for National Public Television abut Frederick Douglass and life in America in the 19th-century. My students reviewed the script and offered suggestions for changes. Using my laptop, they were able to have a conference call with the educational consultant on the film, a Fairfield University professor. The Vice-President of the company then reviewed their suggestions via emails and asked for more specific feedback. Once again, via a conference call through the computer students provided suggestions all while meeting a tight film production timeline. The laptop made this possible. It allowed them to engage real people in the field in a real-world scenario. They met a real deadline with real consequences using the real tools of the global society. The students actively learned all about Frederick Douglass and life in America in the 19th-century, and they were able to do more than take a test on their knowledge. To complete the task they had to understand what they read, use it to analyze a real-world problem, and apply it to a meaningful solution. The task required, and the laptop allowed, them to evaluate their work and the work of others, and ultimately create a new product. This type of higher order thinking is crucial for students to successfully participate in the 21st-century. Nothing they did was “role-playing” or ended up in the trash can at the end of the semester. In fact, you may be able to watch the results of their work when the movie airs nationally on television next February. Moran Middle School’s learning objective as set forth in our Mission Statement is to “encourage independent thinking, self-worth, and mutual respect necessary to become responsible productive citizens in our ever-changing society.” The Flat World Grant will allow students to participate in projects focused on higher order thinking skills that not only encourage independent thinking, but are necessary for student success in the global society. Students develop self-worth by generating creative products and seeing them used by people across the world. Students will exercise responsibility. They will gain mutual respect by working collaboratively with students and adults locally, nationally, and globally. I am not preparing students to become responsible citizens in the future; I am expecting them to be responsible, productive citizens each day they are in class. The Flat World Grant allows me to do so in exciting, engaging ways as the class fully participates in a society ever-changing and ever more global. I will ensure the success of the Flat World Grant by making certain the laptops are used in a classroom environment that supports their instructional use. I am not proposing the addition of laptops to a traditional classroom. In order to be effective in boosting student achievement and preparing them for work in the 21st-century, the laptops must not be used as $1,000 notebooks and pencils. They must not be used to do the same type of traditional activities that just end up in the trash can – why would any person be motivated to do an assignment that they knew would juts be thrown out after they completed it. They must not be used to simply acquire facts. They must be used to create new knowledge, new products. I will make sure the laptops are used for the higher order, project based, in-depth thinking which will lead to the creation of knowledge products that are authentic and valuable.
 * Statement of Need and Rationale: **// Description of the current need and evidence that the project funded will address those needs //
 * Award Purposes and Objectives **// : Describe objectives that will be met by this project. List the subject areas involved in the project. How will the project enhance the students’ learning experience in these areas? Elaborate about the objective within your school goals //
 * Increase student academic performance through use of technology by acquire access to and developing skills using the same tools employed by modern global professionals
 * Prepare students for today’s workplace by promoting economic development
 * Transform the efficacy of instruction by creating products for an authentic audience
 * Responsibility: ** //Describe what the project director will do to ensure success.//
 * Project Activities **// : Describe what the students will do and how the activities will produce the objectives above. Description of the activities the award will facilitate and how these activities will produce the objective(s) //

Qualitative studies find using laptops in the fabric of the classroom increases student interest and academic performance due to the development of more self-confidence, greater enthusiasm, an increased depth of knowledge, and a higher level of engagement with other learners. The impact of writing for real people across the globe and not just for a grade in a marking book cannot be underestimated. Through their blogs, my students are writing and reflecting more often and to an authentic audience. Our wiki has garnered the respect of well-regarded search engines and my students are very aware of this as they are producing either pages of notes or final drafts in the various social studies content areas. As I type this, there are people from Pennsylvania, California, and Sweden using our student-developed products to learn about the Battle of Trenton, the Louis and Clark Expedition, and the treatment of the mental illnesses in the 19th-century. My students are no longer consumers of information, they are producers of knowledge. With that comes great and exciting responsibility which focuses a young mind to achieve results they would not ordinarily attain. (Hmmm..things we did last year worded like we are going to do them again) These are some of the collaborative projects we have lined up for next year:
 * Created websites(wikis) on the presidential candidates with other partner schools
 * Hold live debates with a class in Kansas with each school taking on one candidate
 * Created children’s books on the War of 1812 that will be written by us, illustrated by a school in MO, and reviewed by a school in CA.
 * Create an online exhibit with an AP Psychology class from MO on the treatment of the mentally ill in 19th Century America
 * Interview professionals for our Lunch Time Leader Podcast on what it will take to succeed in the 21st Century. Past interviews included from mayoral candidates, leaders of internet companies, CEO of Gaylord Hospital, and a research scientist from Yale.
 * Created a video on Harriet Tubman for an elementary school in CT for African American History Month
 * Interview experts on the various topics that we will be studying next year

The Flat World Grant is not facilitating a once-a-year project. It is making possible a change in the learning process of my students each and every day.

Fantom Titanium-II External Hard Drive $140 14 Apple MacBook Laptops 2.1 GHz $999 x 14 = 13,986 1 Apple MacBook Laptop 2.4 GHz $1199 1 Tradesman Security Box and lock $355  Belkin Y Audio Cable with Mini Stereo Plug $   4 x 13  52  = Total $15,720.00
 * Budget: ** //List project expenses itemize a list of project expenses including supplies and cost for each item Source of Funding: Identify any funding that is or could be available from other sources.//


 * Plan for Evaluation and Follow-up: ** S//tandards of measurement to be used to determine if objectives have been achieved and timeline for assessment of results, announcement of award//

At the beginning of the year students will complete a survey addressing various aspects of learning from writing ability, to the amount of joy in learning, and level of confidence. The same survey will be administered at the end of the year. Additionally, all students will be given quarterly surveys and be required to blog monthly about how the Flat World Grant is impacting their education. A parent meeting will be held at the beginning of the year to discuss how these tools will be used in our class. A follow-up parent meeting at the end of the year will assess the impact on this project in other parts of their child’s life.

The announcement of this award will be announced in our team’s welcome back letter to students and parents as well as listed in the school’s monthly newsletter. The Flat World Grant will also be listed in a prominent spot on our wiki and blog, which have received over 20,000 visitors this year, truly giving the announcement both a local and global audience.

I will be the person responsible for administrating the project activities. My classes have blogged, podcasted, created wikis, and conferenced via video with audiences across the world. I personally have blogged, created wikis, and have a top-rated iTunes podcast. My professional quest during the last three years has been to research and now implement technology in a classroom as a tool to 21st-century real-world success.
 * Personnel//:// ** //Names, qualifications, and roles of those responsible for administering the project activities//

Hmmmmmm…. The Flat World Grant will have its success measured by the impact my students’ work has on the world. Simply put, we will answer the question: are the students’ products being used to benefit others? This can be measured through observation and dialogue with collaborators to and consumers of those products. For example, student-authored books on the War of 1812 are used to educate students in West Virginia. Student-created music CDs are used to educate elementary students in New York. A student-produced video on Harriet Tubman is used to educate an entire Elementary School in Oakland, CA on the impact of her heroic acts -- the original song composed for the video by my student will be sung by that school’s chorus for an African American History Celebration next year. Our podcasts are used by members of the Wallingford Community to examine the political views of the Mayoral candidates in 2007.