How do we teach 21st century skills using ink and quills?
April 6, 2012 3:12 AM Subscribe
I have: 27 students, 3 computers, 1 printer, 1 overhead projector.
I've been tasked with getting free technology for the therapeutic high school where I work, but how?
My school is part of a larger system of publicly funded referral-based school in Massachusetts. We have 27 students, 5 teachers, and very little technology. For our own teaching reasons and to give the kids computer skills (they have very little exposure to the internet or computers), we'd love to be able to get the girls laptops and SmartBoards for our 5 classrooms.
Tuition is paid partially by the referring town where our students live, partially by state agencies and a little by parents.
I have a friend who is on the school committee of her town and she said it's highly unlikely that anyone of their board even knows that our school exists and that their town actually sends two kids to us.
She suggests a School Technology Fundraiser and send letters that discuss what we do and what we need financially to:
referring district school board members;
referring district superintendents;
referring district out of district liaisons; and
referring district special education directors.
Would something like this work? What other options does our school have to get our hands on some money/computers, etc? Do Apple and/or SmartBoard give things away as tax writeoffs? What am I not thinking of?
Sidenote: the larger group that we work for said we can do whatever we want to get this stuff but they don't want to make this an institute-wide thing.
My school is part of a larger system of publicly funded referral-based school in Massachusetts. We have 27 students, 5 teachers, and very little technology. For our own teaching reasons and to give the kids computer skills (they have very little exposure to the internet or computers), we'd love to be able to get the girls laptops and SmartBoards for our 5 classrooms.
Tuition is paid partially by the referring town where our students live, partially by state agencies and a little by parents.
I have a friend who is on the school committee of her town and she said it's highly unlikely that anyone of their board even knows that our school exists and that their town actually sends two kids to us.
She suggests a School Technology Fundraiser and send letters that discuss what we do and what we need financially to:
referring district school board members;
referring district superintendents;
referring district out of district liaisons; and
referring district special education directors.
Would something like this work? What other options does our school have to get our hands on some money/computers, etc? Do Apple and/or SmartBoard give things away as tax writeoffs? What am I not thinking of?
Sidenote: the larger group that we work for said we can do whatever we want to get this stuff but they don't want to make this an institute-wide thing.
I have be able to get tons of free materials including laptops, a document camera, & projector by creating projects on www.donorschoose.org. The website has a very easy walk through process.
posted by photogirlguru at 4:43 AM on April 6, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by photogirlguru at 4:43 AM on April 6, 2012 [3 favorites]
My wife has had great success with getting technology for her classroom through donorschoose, like photogirlguru mentions. It might take a while because you'll probably have to start small, but it can definitely work.
posted by drezdn at 5:02 AM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by drezdn at 5:02 AM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
I work in a very similar program. I've scored significant technology by making sure that the districts that send us students are aware of our needs. Last summer I acquired 12 fairly new smart boards (including pcs, DVD players and projectors) when one of our districts upgraded to newer equipment. I've also acquired computers from our districts.
Establish connections with both the Superintendents and the IT directors.
As an aside, I shy away from laptops, they tend to disappear, I've lost several of them over the years.
posted by HuronBob at 5:23 AM on April 6, 2012
Establish connections with both the Superintendents and the IT directors.
As an aside, I shy away from laptops, they tend to disappear, I've lost several of them over the years.
posted by HuronBob at 5:23 AM on April 6, 2012
Consider also the option of having a tablet PC hooked to a projector. This lets you (and students) "write" on the board from your seat, and gives you the same note-saving and dynamic drawing functionality of a smartboard. Since it's not a big thing that needs to be installed, it might be cheaper than smartboards proper.
posted by Wulfhere at 5:49 AM on April 6, 2012
posted by Wulfhere at 5:49 AM on April 6, 2012
TechSoup specializes in very low-cost technology and software for non-profits and libraries. I don't know their policy on schools, but I know some small (registered 501c3) non-profits in my town have gotten extremely discounted software through them (e.g. $400+ Adobe software for $50).
posted by brackish.line at 6:17 AM on April 6, 2012
posted by brackish.line at 6:17 AM on April 6, 2012
I work in a technical high school in New England and all of this advice is really good. My top suggestions would be: donors choose for a one-time costly thing [smart board], Tech Soup for software [though shop around, you may be able to get better prices and their paperwork can be onerous] and Google's chromebooks program.
I'd also suggest seeing if you can partner up with another more affluent local school who may have a three-year upgrade program where you might be able to get some technology, though not super up-to-date, for cheap or free as they move to laptops or whatever as HuronBob says. We have a room full of perfectly servicable computers that just wind up getting recycled and could go a bunch of other places.
You probably also know this too but I'd be very very careful with anything "donated" that doesn't come from an institution. It's possible your community has just the thing that you need, but more likely that they have something that only sort of works, thinks they're doing you a favor by giving it to you but it winds up turning into a project that you don't have time for. This is what i usually tell libraries, but be mindful of this. Your time is worth money.
To the best of my knowledge Apple offers discounts on technology but does NOT gift anything, same with Dell and the other big folks.
posted by jessamyn at 7:08 AM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'd also suggest seeing if you can partner up with another more affluent local school who may have a three-year upgrade program where you might be able to get some technology, though not super up-to-date, for cheap or free as they move to laptops or whatever as HuronBob says. We have a room full of perfectly servicable computers that just wind up getting recycled and could go a bunch of other places.
You probably also know this too but I'd be very very careful with anything "donated" that doesn't come from an institution. It's possible your community has just the thing that you need, but more likely that they have something that only sort of works, thinks they're doing you a favor by giving it to you but it winds up turning into a project that you don't have time for. This is what i usually tell libraries, but be mindful of this. Your time is worth money.
To the best of my knowledge Apple offers discounts on technology but does NOT gift anything, same with Dell and the other big folks.
posted by jessamyn at 7:08 AM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
Side note: If you wish to teach your students about computing without needing any extra hardware, I'd recommend the CompSci Unplugged classroom activities and videos.
Related: Google Tech Talk about this CompSci Unplugged project.
ME mail me if you ever want to chat about teaching programming to kids.
posted by stungeye at 8:25 AM on April 6, 2012
Related: Google Tech Talk about this CompSci Unplugged project.
ME mail me if you ever want to chat about teaching programming to kids.
posted by stungeye at 8:25 AM on April 6, 2012
Yeah, sadly the days of tech companies giving to schools (or even providing a significant discount) are over. I would work out your instructional priorities and figure out which of these tools will be the most useful to both teachers and students first, and do a DonorsChoose campaign. Five SmartBoards or the like will cost about as much as one $500 laptop per 27 students. Then apply for grants (thislooks like a place to start) for the balance of the gear & PD (don't forget the PD! All the fancy tech in the world won't work if teachers don't know how to use it effectively with their students). Also considering researching local nonprofits in your community and see if any of them have missions that align with tech in schools.
Does your school already have a decent Internet infrastructure in place? Is there wireless? Is it behind a decent firewall? If not, that'll have to be your first priority (child online safety issues and all).
posted by smirkette at 8:41 AM on April 6, 2012
Does your school already have a decent Internet infrastructure in place? Is there wireless? Is it behind a decent firewall? If not, that'll have to be your first priority (child online safety issues and all).
posted by smirkette at 8:41 AM on April 6, 2012
I think the first step is to find a volunteer who can do the legwork of calling around to area companies, asking for old laptop donations, and setting them up to meet your needs. There's not a lot of difference between a 2007 laptop running a recent OS update and a 2012 laptop. A volunteer with an IT background could probably solicit 30 laptop donations from local companies and get them up to date in a month or two.
Smartboards are a different story. It's not like there are millions of unused Smartboards gathering dust, like there are laptops. Plus, people definitely think of them as a luxury item for well-funded private and suburban schools, not as a basic classroom necessity.
I'd focus on the laptops first, since it is a much more attainable goal.
posted by miyabo at 10:58 AM on April 6, 2012
Smartboards are a different story. It's not like there are millions of unused Smartboards gathering dust, like there are laptops. Plus, people definitely think of them as a luxury item for well-funded private and suburban schools, not as a basic classroom necessity.
I'd focus on the laptops first, since it is a much more attainable goal.
posted by miyabo at 10:58 AM on April 6, 2012
The director of my department is affiliated in some unknown way with Free Geek (maybe he knows a director? I forget). They have a "nearby" division to which you might consider delivering a heart-wrenching grant request to. 27 might be too many to gather up at one time, especially if you're asking for laptops.
I doubt they'll have a smartboard for you though. The smartboard, I would argue, is damn near useless in most classrooms. As best I can tell, their main purpose is to collect dust on a suburban high school wall, passively emitting anti-poverty rays unto students. Your best bet is probably, as HuronBob alludes to, making good friends with local school district and college IT and surplus managers, and a Mother Teresa-like level of patience.
posted by pwnguin at 8:21 PM on April 6, 2012
I doubt they'll have a smartboard for you though. The smartboard, I would argue, is damn near useless in most classrooms. As best I can tell, their main purpose is to collect dust on a suburban high school wall, passively emitting anti-poverty rays unto students. Your best bet is probably, as HuronBob alludes to, making good friends with local school district and college IT and surplus managers, and a Mother Teresa-like level of patience.
posted by pwnguin at 8:21 PM on April 6, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by syzygy at 3:33 AM on April 6, 2012