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http://www.wvcf.com/

Background

The proposal will be centered on a fictional high school’s library that is has no e-books for the students and the budget does not allow for this educational technology. The school is in the Wabash Valley area. The school shall be called, East High School. The primary requester will be JoEllen Ornduff, volunteer grant writer, who will be working in collaboration with the Resource Center to write a grant to receive e-books for the library at the high school. The grant will be written to the Wabash Valley Community Foundation in Terre Haute. The Foundation awards grants for education and other areas of interest throughout the Clay, Sullivan and Vigo County areas.

Relevant and Concise Grant Proposal Title

The title for this mock grant proposal will be E-Books for High School Students

Key Personnel

The key personnel involved in this project will be:

1. JoEllen Ornduff – Volunteer Grant Writer

2. Ima A. Student – Librarian

3. John Smith – Principal of East High School

Target Population

The East High School is a rural school in the Vigo County area. The school has population of 782 students. The population is made up of 50 Caucasian, 40% African American, and 5% Spanish and 5% Chinese. The majority of the students have access to technology equipment such as: IPODS, Smart Phones, tablets and computers. The students have requested the library to provide e-books for their use. 21st century learners like the availability and portability of online access to books. More schools and libraries are offering the books for students to use e-books portability and online access mean no more heavy backpacks, and no more missed assignments because books got “lost” between school and home.”

Figure 1: Student Population Demographics

Figure 2: Reason for request

The students have requested the library to provide e-books for their use. 21st century learners like the availability and portability of online access to books. More schools and libraries are offering the books for students to use. The portability and easy access of online or e-books are becoming more popular in schools and libraries because of the students easy access to them. They can read the book on several devices and never leave it behind at home when +they are at school. This helps them to complete reading assignments, and also helps the library in not losing books.

Objectives and Educational Significance

The goal is to provide the 21st century learner with educational technology that can enhance their learning experience and to make the process more enjoyable. With the addition of e-books in the library the learner will have the increased opportunity to use creativity and scientific thinking using modern e-book technology.

Objectives:

Provide modern e-book technology to encourage the students to read more

Learn to use technology to access the e-books from the high school library, check them out, and read them on their own devices.

Stimulate creativity and allow students to analyze and compare information in a more productive manner.

Educational Significance:

More students have mobile devices that support e-books and internet than ever before. The students are more likely to read the book if it is on their favorite device instead of hauling around a big heavy book. “Educators are concerned about the 21st century learner’s decline in active reading because of the traditional view that reading a book is a more valuable use of time than computer usage” Jones V.R. (2012). However, the learners are most adept at finding books, magazines and articles and other print media online.

Modern day school librarians have found it necessary to become technology leaders, instructors and information specialist, and having the time to really promote reading is becoming more difficult. However, as the school library changes the focus should still be on how to help the student achieve the reading skills that will assist them in processing the information and learning in this technology and information seeking world. Student reading should still be a priority and it is important for students to be able to be proficient in reading skills, and have the ability to analyze what they have read. By utilizing different modes of technology such as e-books this will make reading more attractive to the average student. The 21st century learners demand the use of various mediums of technology in their learning environment, and e-books are another way to assist their needs. School libraries need to include e-books in their environment for student access Morris, R.J. (2012).

Facilities/Equipment

The high school will provide the computer and personnel to oversee the e-book collection.

Timeline:

August 2013 – Students and teachers are selected to assist in recommendation of books to be purchased

September 2013 – Proposed books are selected and purchased

October 2013 - Technology (computer, data, and personnel are in place)

November 2013 – e-books are available for student lending

Budget –$ 5,000

Quantity – 250 books (averaging $20 per book)

Fiction - 125

Science and Technology - 50

History -40

Miscellaneous - 35

Budget and Item Justification

Today’s learner in the 21st century needs to be able to achieve the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S). Smaldino, S., Lowther, D., & Russell, J. (2012).

Through the purchase of the e-books the students will be enabled to develop more computer literacy, utilze visual literacy thru reading the online books and develop audio literacy from audio books that will also be e-books purchased with this grant.

Educational Significance:

Because the 21st century learner is focused on using technology to learn, the use of the e-books in the high school is a matter of keeping up with the student’s way of life and making it easier for them to learn. High schools and libraries have been using e-books since the 1980’s and more school library and public libraries are offering e-books as a way to enhance the amount of material that students can access to gather the knowledge and information that they are needing to learn and analyze more about their world. The more the student reads and comprehends and acquires knowledge the better equipped they will be for this technology centered world.

Thru the utilization of e-books students can access images, interactive books and also receive audio that a paper version can’t offer. The motivation for some learners to read has increased their ability to learn Dorian, R. (2011). There is a VARK learning styles inventory written by Neil Fleming, Baldwin (2012) that used 4 different types of learning: Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic. Students from each type will able to utilize the e-books. The types of learning are easily broken down to be understood. Visual learners prefer to learn by looking at things and are usually good at designing things, artistic endeavors.  Aural learning is a preference for sound and read/write learners prefer to read and then have a chance to write the information down to help learn.  Kinesthic learners need movement and hands on activities Baldwin (2012).  Different learners seem to lean more toward one style than another, but each learner can benefit from the use of all of the styles. Because e-books come in different formats, such as interactive, audio, and basic text this can be easily incorporated into the students learning styles.

Evaluation

The e-books usage by students will be evaluated through a Likert survey which will be administered to the students and the teachers at the end of the first year and also again the 2nd year. The survey will be used to determine student’s useage of e-books and their increased productivity on homework assignments requiring books to be read. The librarian will also keep track of the e-books borrowed versus the regular books and a comparison report will be given.

References

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks/b?ie=UTF8&node=154606011

Baldwin, Amy, (2012). The community college experience (3rd ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson, Education, Inc.

Dorian, Ray, (2011). Using e-books and e-readers to promote reading in school libraries: lessons from the field. Conference.ifla.org/ifla77

Jones, V. R. (2012). Essentials for Engaged. Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, 87(7), 16-19.

Morris, R. J. (2012). Find Where You Fit in the Common Core, or the Time I Forgot about Librarians and Reading. Teacher Librarian, 39(5), 8-12.

http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/assets/downloads/pdfs/ebooksbrochure.pdf

Smaldino, S., Lowther, D., & Russell, J. (2012). Instructional technology

and media for learning (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Merrill Prentice-Hall

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Library Resources limiteded

Limited budget for

materials

Inadqaute space avaialable for additional resources

Students request additional books as e-books

Insufficient funds for purchasing quantity of e-books

E-books - $5,000 Fiction Science/Technology History Misc. 2500 1000 500 1000 Population of students attending East High School Caucasian African American Spanish Chinese 0.5 0.4 0.05 0.05