Navajo Elementary school is working to solidify a partnership with Arizona State University involving a one-to-one technology immersion program with a laptop for each of the almost 500 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The partnership would also bring graduate students into the classroom to run hands-on labs and extracurricular activities such as a robotics club, said Principal Shaun Holmes. In addition, the school wants to hire a science teacher who can work with other instructors on the campus to develop high-level math and science lessons

Such plans can be realized this fall if Navajo receives a technology grant through the Arizona Department of Education. Navajo is one of five finalists. The grant's winner, to be announced at the beginning of the school year, will get $1 million over the course of three years to implement a technology program, so long as the Legislature continues to fund the grant.

If Navajo does get the grant, the funds would cover interactive white boards and accessories, electronic voting systems and amplification systems for every classroom as well as laptops for every student. Holmes explains that several of those items would be covered anyway through a capital override voters passed in 2007, but the grant would let Navajo get a head start.

$250,000 of the award would be earmarked for two instructional technology specialists to help teachers integrate technology into their lessons. "It's one thing to provide teachers with a lot of really useful tech and provide students access. ... It's another thing to be able to use it effectively in an academic environment," Holmes says. "[Technology] should be used to have a positive effect on academic achievement and be used in the classroom to be a means to an end."

Holmes also hopes that the grant-funded program could help the community understand the value of the technology. Two years ago, voters rejected funds for take-home laptops for all of the Scottsdale Unified School District's high school students. According to district technology director Ernie Nicely, “We can actually demonstrate a one-to-one program, which may actually impact the direction of one-to-one computing in education in the future."

Source : East Valley Tribune, Navajo Elementary ready for high-tech face-lift , by Amanda Keim