1997-1998 Grant:

Bloomingdale Schools was awarded a grant from the State of Michigan for $270,000 to improve teaching and learning through the use of computers and related technology.

 

Key components of the grant include:

1. Putting a computer in each classroom in the district
2. Adding an additional computer lab to the high school
3. Initiating teacher training programs
4. Providing a digital camera and scanner and computer to TV adaptor for each building
5. Establishing a web site
6. Purchasing network servers and software

 

Progress:

The district was able to purchase  104 Micron Pentium 200 computers over Christmas (1997) break.

The computers were configured in the high school computer lab eight at a time. We had a technology inservice day scheduled for early February which involved setting up three temporary labs around the building.  Since the labs were to be temporary, the computers were configured and then reboxed until the day before the inservice. The labs were set up that afternoon, used on the day of the inservice, and then torn down.   The computers were then reboxed and shipped to every classroom throughout the district.

Technology work day -- Teachers had the choice of a major session in the morning and another in the afternoon. The possible choices included introduction to Windows 95, basic word processing using Microsoft Works, advanced word processing, publishing using Microsoft Publisher, database development emphasizing classroom uses, and introduction to spreadsheets emphasizing graphing. Following each major session there were drop in sessions in which teachers could wander from room to room to visit vendors, demonstrations of scanning and digital cameral use, internet use, etc.

Later in the spring, teachers were offered after-school classes in the same topics. These sessions were two hours in length and consisted of three sessions. A session was also offered in simple web page development concepts.

Over the summer of 1998 and early fall, scanners and TV adaptors were distributed to the individual buildings. A class for building web teams was conducted during the summer. Twelve teachers (3 from each building) met from 9 am to 12 noon each day for a week. They were taught the basics of putting a web page together using FrontPage 98. 

OUTCOMES:

So far the outcomes have surpassed our expectations. Teachers have been generally enthusiastic. We gave teachers a survey like the one they responded to before the grant was awarded.

Unintended outcomes included more ownership on the part of teachers and requests for more training. They are actually asking for more training than we can provide at this time. There is a high expectation on the part of students that the equipment be available for their use and that teachers know how to use it.  It provides sort of a self-driving improvement program.

If we had it to do over again...

...we would do it essentially the same way. Our greatest need was hardware. With that need met, we are able to move forward on the training for application to the classroom. We would not have had such an involved technology day so close to the day our computers arrived. It was quite a scramble to get everything done on time.

(Page modified 9/29/98)