Assignment 3 Grant Proposal
Grant Proposal
First Last
Sample State University
Summer 2020
Grant Proposal
Executive Overview
The report details a grant proposal plan for curricular technology integration at a new networked charter school. In an attempt to make learning accessible, the school plans to adopt a curricular technology. Successful implementation of this project will help the networked charter school to meet various educational and curricular needs, including improving teacher-student interaction, achieving learner-centered teaching, and improving efficiency and accountability. The budget of the proposal is estimated to be $20,000, including $10,000 computer hardware expenses and $8,000 for software, staff development, maintenance, and other costs. The funding sources for the proposed program include State and Federal grants. The school will also partner with corporate and private foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to raise funds for the program. The implementation of the program will take approximately six months to be completed. The initial planning of the project will take one month, and the purchase and installation of the computer system. Staff development, which includes training of students and teachers on how to networked computers, will take two months, while configuration and testing of the computer system will be completed in the last month.
Statement of Educational and Curricular Needs
Integration of the curricular technology plays a critical role in the improvement of the overall educational outcomes. The implementation of this proposal will address various educational and curricular needs in the network charter school. First, the changes in the modern educational system have made it mandatory for schools to use technology to facilitate educational outcomes. The current education system requires teachers to account for student’s progress in school, hence the need to use the most efficient teaching approach. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 emphasizes accountability for quality and progress in school (Roblyer & Doering, 2012). Some students, including those with disabilities, find it difficult learning in traditional classrooms using typical teaching approaches. Therefore, curricular technology integration helps in ensuring that these students have access to assistive learning technologies and improve their interaction with instructors.
Another educational and curricular need being addressed by the proposed educational technology integration is the issue of a learner-centered teaching approach. This learning system requires reading materials to be customized to meet the diverse needs of the learner and ensure fairness and equality in the learning environment. The use of educational technologies such as hypermedia will help in achieving this goal. According to Gerjets & Kirschner (2009), hypermedia materials such as videos and graphics stimulate learner’s interest to learn and gain knowledge. Consequently, the emergence of online learning has increased the need for integration of curricular technology. Roblyer and Doering (2012) indicate that there is an increasing reliance on virtual K-12 courses in the U.S. mainstream education system. This phenomenon requires schools to implement educational technologies in their classroom. Overall, the proposed curricular technology integration seeks to improve teaching efficiency and enhance student learning outcomes.
Proposal Goals and Objectives
The main curricular technology integration proposal is to enhance student learning outcome through the use of educational technologies. The integration of curricular technology is the school is expected to enhance student achievement by increasing their access to unique information resources. The use of various technologies allows students to access a wide range of information, hence enriching their knowledge base. Integrating educational technology also allows students to organize ideas and solve problems using a variety of media and technologies.
Another goal of curricular technology integration is to provide a creative and meaningful learning environment for teachers and students. This proposal recognizes the need to create a supportive learning environment in the school. Some of the objectives for obtaining this goal includes adopting educational technology that allows instructors to transfer knowledge using media and other modern learning tools. Moreover, the grant proposal seeks to ensure that all students in the networked charter school have equitable access to learning opportunities and technology resources. This goal can be measured by the number of students who can access and use curricular technology in the school. Additionally, curricular technology integration project aims at increasing access to education by removing constraints of time and place. Objectively, education technology focuses on instituting distance learning by integrating online learning programs such as Zoom and Webex in the system.
Proposed School Partnerships
The integration of curricular technology in the school requires adequate funding. Roblyer & Doering (2012) argues that the success or failures of a technology plan depend on available funding. The funds are used in purchasing hardware and software and setting up the physical infrastructure that will help the school in fulfilling its curriculum needs. Even so, the school do not have a budget to finance the curricular technology proposal. As a result, they must establish partnerships with governments, companies or groups to achieve its goals and objectives.
The school can source funds for curricular technology integration from the federal grants. The federal government funds different initiatives such as educational technology integration through its grant programs. Grants.gov program, under the Office of Management and Budget, provides over 1000 federal funding opportunities to grant seekers Grant.gov, 2020). Alternatively, the charter school should consider sourcing funds for its project from the state Ed-Tech program. According to the U.S. Department of Education (ED, 2014), Ed-Tech program supports school technological initiatives by providing grants to State educational agencies (SEAs). As a result, the school should partner with both federal and state funding agencies to raise funds for its curricular technology integration initiative.
The school can also source funds from private groups and corporate organizations. Roblyer & Doering (2012) large companies such as Honda and Verizon have charity foundations that provide grants to technology-related programs in schools. Similarly, the school can raise funds for its project through private funding sources such as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, NEA Foundation, and Pearson funding. As a result, federal, state, corporate grants and private foundations are the major sources of funding to the school curricular technology integration program.
Implementation Plan
The implementation of the curricular technology integration program will take a maximum of six months to be completed. The project is estimated to cost approximately $20,000. These include the cost of purchasing computer hardware, software, installation fee and technical support, staff development, and other expense such as maintenance. The school plans to install four networked computers in each classroom and 25 others in the computer lab. In the initial phase, the school board will hold a meeting with all stakeholders to deliberate on the implementation of the program. The board will appoint a project manager will be responsible for managing and directing project resource. One of the tasks of the project manager will be selecting project team members who will undertake the actual implementation process.
The next step of the plan involves the planning of the program activities. At this stage, the project manager will identify project deliverables, prepare the project schedule, and assign tasks to the project team members. Some of the deliverables during the implementation of the curricular technology integration include identification and selection of appropriate software vendor, computer hardware purchases, preparing classrooms and computer labs for the installation of the computer system, and staff development, including allocation of materials and staff training.
After successful planning, the project manager, with the assistance of the project team members will identify potential risks that might affect the project. Some of the potential challenges that might jeopardize the implementation of this project include inadequate funds, inability to online and legal policies, and staff resistance. After the approval from the board to continue, the installation of the computer network in the school will commence. The process will begin with the installation of 25 networked computers in the school computer lab and followed by the other four computers in each classroom. The next step involves the training of teachers, students, and administrative staff responsible for handling the computers. Once the staff development activity has been completed, the team will configure software, test the computer system, and launch the project.
Budget Narrative
Staff development, which includes training, will be done in-person after school. According to Roblyer & Doering (2012), a learner must have hands-on technology to learn technology integration skills efficiently. Therefore, online training which involves watching demonstrations, will not be sufficient to achieve adequate staff development goals.
References
ED. (2014). Programs: Enhancing Education through Technology (Ed-Tech) State Program. U.S. Department of Education, Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/programs/edtech/index.html
Gerjets P. & Kirschner P. (2009) Learning from Multimedia and Hypermedia. In: Balacheff N., Ludvigsen S., de Jong T., Lazonder A., Barnes S. (eds) Technology-Enhanced Learning. Springer, Dordrecht DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9827-7_15
Grants.gov. (2020). About Grants.gov. Retrieved from https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/support/about-grants-gov.html
Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.) Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.