Report #2 - Peripheral Purchase
The Problem
Your district has received a new state technology grant under the Illinois Peripherals For Schools Program. Your principal has just received a check for $30,000 and you have been asked to help him spend it. The documentation reads, “Purchases made pursuant to this program must be used for computer peripherals that will enhance classroom instruction and associated staff development activities.” It further stipulates that “two-thirds of amount of the grant must be spent on peripheral equipment, one-third on staff development. Your principal tells you that she wants to appoint you as the coordinator for this grant, since you did such a wonderful job as chair of the technology committee that recommended those fine computers just a short time ago. Of course, you accept readily, since you will have a lot of latitude in deciding what is to be purchased, and you have some equipment needs of your own in your own classroom teaching.
What you now must do. You have to work with teachers in your school to decide on what peripherals need to be purchased as well as what staff development activities will be planned. You need to somehow survey the staff for what is needed most, work with a special grants committee to decide on who gets the extra equipment, develop the budget for staff development activities, and prepare the final documentation for the state. The outline for your document should include the following four sections.
Needs assessment. You have decided to ask teachers individually to submit their ideas by a given date. What you purchase will be based on the what teachers ask for and on what money is available. (You will probably need to keep your purchases about $500 less than the projected total cost as a cushion against incurring any school district expense on this project.
Market survey. You will, of course, look for the lowest price on all your purchases, so that you can spread the grant resources out as fairly as possible. You can estimate the cost by surfing the Internet for prices, or use specific company catalogs in pint.
Documentation. You will describe which teachers (by subject or grade) will be receiving new peripherals, describe how the peripherals will be used, and describe how the teacher will assess the effectiveness of the equipment in classroom instruction.
Budget (spreadsheet) page. You will report the cost of all purchases and shipping costs under a heading called Equipment and provide a sub-total. You will also report the cost for staff development under a heading called Staff Training. The latter will consist of the stipend to be paid to the workshop presenter(s) and the stipend to be awarded to each teacher participant. The presenter’s stipend will be whatever you negotiate with him/her. Teachers’ stipends will be based on your district’s policy for awarding stipends to teachers who staff after hours for workshop training. You can decide how much to spend on the cost of producing worksheets and step-by-step instructions. As the grant coordinator, you may factor in 2% of the total grant to pay for the extra work you do in running the project.
Style and mechanics guidelines for this report. This will be the same as the last one.
__ The report contains no spelling or grammar errors. (Please use your spell checker and thesaurus.).
__ Title will be centered and the body of the document justified.
__ Body text will be double spaced.
__ Indent your paragraphs
__ Use at least two different styles of text
__ Use at least two different fonts of text
__ Use at least two different sizes of text
__ Use automatic page numbering with a footer that has the word Page
__ centered (with a space and then the page numbering)
__ Provide the title/heading information as a footer.
__ Provide a spreadsheet or table for your budget
__ Submit as an attachment via email to craig.cunningham@nl.edu.
Link to Rubric for evaluation.
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If any of the above is unclear, please let me know so that we can discuss it before you submit your report.
Examples of Computer Peripherals
Hopefully, this list will give you some ideas of the wide variety of devices that can be added to a classroom computer to help with instruction. It is a suggestive list and by no means complete. You may also want to search on the Internet, review technology education-related professional magazines, such as THE Journal (and especially its extensive online archives and look through computer product catalogs for more tips. While some links are provided, you are encouraged to us your favorite online search engine, such as Google to do a search for more information on any of the types of peripherals listed below.
CD-ROM; DVD players*. (You know what these do.)
CD/DVD/CD Writers* Available everywhere, these create CD or DVD digital recordings. Check out this Terapin site for CD video recorders. http://store.yahoo.com/amagic/terapin.html
Digital Video projectors
LCD projection tablets that work in conjunction with classroom overhead projectors, LCD computer screen projectors. What to look for.
External Hard Drives*:
These are typically used to dock with computers to provide access to files or programs not on the host computer, or to provide added local file storage. Various configurations.
External Backup Drives*:
Various configurations*. These devices are typically used for very limited storage in place of floppy drives. Sony Superdrives; Iomega Jaz and Zip drives.
Game Controllers (used with certain science & math lab devices).
Graphics Tablets:
These are used for computer-aided design and for artistic design work. They usually have a board and a stylus. Check out websites for Calcomp, Genius and Wacom.
Graphics/TV:
Various external devices are available that can connect to your workstation or laptop that provide an interface for cameras, camcorders, and VCRs. Some provide extra features, such as video editing, captioning, chromatic key displays (such as for inserting backgrounds behind TV announcers).
Devices for the disabled.
Various devices for individuals with moderate to severe disabilities. Examples: motion detection devices and typing aids for paraplegics, special monitors and/or Braille printers for the blind. For some tips, try this site for starters: http://www.makoa.org/computers.htm
Modems: phone, DSL.
Monitors:
Desktop analog displays, LCD digital displays, wide-screen digital displays, and color plasma displays that hang on the wall.
Mice and Keyboards
Music devices:
Piano digital keyboards, synthesizers, MIDI devices.
Networking:
Base stations for wireless local area networking. Network cards for printers.
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs):
„Palm Pilots /and other brands that can used with a workstation.
Plotters:
Devices used to print engineering and technical drawings. Some are also used as printers for large posters.
Power Protection:
Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), electric power strips, surge and voltage devices.
Printers:
Ink cartridge printers, Laser printers, Color printers; also, dot matrix printers.
Robotic devices:
Classroom kits used to teach students about robots and their programming.
Science class peripherals:
Various devices. For example, classroom kits that allow for monitoring the weather; devices that periodically adjust the aim of telescopes to watch planets or stars; and digital devices with gooseneck bases that can be used in place of microscopes to display bacteria and other media on slides, or used as video conferencing cameras.
Virtual Reality headsets*:
Personal video display devices in the form of headgear intended to give the wearer a virtual reality experience. Now used experimentally in mostly science areas.
* How the device connects to the computer depends upon the kind of connection standard used, typically, USB; Firewire (also known as IEEE 1394 devices); or SCSI.