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Computer Literacy is one of the most important skills that a person can have in this day and age. With the growing field of technology, more jobs in the United States are being created in the technical sector or have requirements that employees be proficient in knowing how to use technology. Students that attend schools in underprivileged communities are at a strong disadvantage in their future endeavors because they are usually exposed to technology at a much later age or not at all. Lincoln Elementary school in San Bernardino, California is home to one of the most underprivileged communities in California. The school does not have a computer lab and there are a few classrooms that are equipped with a few old Macintosh G3 Desktop computers which were first released in 1997. The computers have one educational video game called number crunchers on it that helps the students with their arithmetic skills and the students are able to learn how to type on the outdated keyboards. These old Macintosh computers are not adequate enough for students to be able to learn the skills necessary to succeed in the future. Mr. Xander Wilson, a 5th grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary has a vision to teach his students how to be proficient with technology and to teach them using the guidance from the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) that was released by the International Society for Technology in Education (ITSE). According to the ITSE there are six essential skills that students should have in order to prove that they are proficient with technology and have skills to be successful. There are six core skills that the International Society for Technology in Education has set as performance indicators. In general these skills are: Creativity, Collaboration, Research Fluency, Critical Thinking, Digital Citizenship and Technology Operations (ITSE). A student must have these core skills in order to be successful in the age of technology. These skills can be utilized and tested in the classroom by incorporating them in different subject areas in subsequent lesson plans. The specific learning need that Mr. Wilson is addressing here is Computer Literacy, and he plans to do this by incorporating technology into lesson plans for other subjects as well. As a general example of a lesson that Mr. Wilson can incorporate with technology is California’s history standards. Mr. Wilson would plan to teach his students how to do a group research project that would teach the students how to be creative, work as a team, measure their ability to research and think while at the same time teaching the students about United States history and Technology Operations (California State Standards). In order for Mr. Wilson’s dream of helping his students become proficient in technology and helping them with these essential life skills, Mr. Wilson plans on purchasing 25 Dell Desktops from Dell’s Education Program if he was to gain approval from this grant. The school already owns a license for bulk licensing for its Microsoft Office Student Edition Suite, so the students would have access to the tools they need in order to learn how to type and create power point presentations. In addition to these Microsoft Tools there are a number of free educational games, and tools that are available for the students to be able to use in order to incorporate other aspects of the classroom into Mr. Wilson’s lesson plans. The price for each All-In-One Dell desktop is currently $468 dollars each and with 20 computers is well within the Grant Proposal’s budget. The school does have internet access that can be connected to all of the computers using ethernet hubs which would cost $50 dollars. Mr. Wilson minored in Computer Networking while in college as has experience setting up the computers and connecting them to the internet. The plan is to also teach the kids about internet safety and citizenship and making it a requirement that the students pass a test before they are allowed to use the computers and internet at school. Having the students pass these internet safety and etiquette tests will teach the students about digital citizenship as well as internet safety which would already help the students with all six of the core ITSE standards. The future job market in an emerging, technology driven society means that people need to be able to know how to use technology in order to survive. Without funding for new computers and teaching kids at a young age how to be proficient at research skills and other ITSE standards, the students at Lincoln Elementary will be at a serious disadvantage and will not be prepared for their endeavors into Middle and High School which would seriously hinder their chances at attending prestigious colleges and ultimately would limit them in getting good jobs. Providing these students with a computer lab will bridge the technology gap and help level the playing field for students at Lincoln Elementary. One of the most important technological skills is the ability to type. To have the students meet the goal of knowing how to type, teachers can use The Typist, a free app on the iTunes app store or on Google Chrome. The app helps students build their typing skills to be faster and more proficient through various typing activities. To prepare them for the real world and future higher education, students need to know how to research and create presentations. Teachers will properly teach and train students how to find information on the World Wide Web for their research using Google Scholar. As well as using Microsoft PowerPoint, we also plan on having our teachers teach students how to use Prezi, a free online site that allows students use their creativity to create a powerpoint presentation. Communication is an important skill in the real-world. In almost every classroom, there are one or two students who are either shy or have a language barrier. To encourage these students to talk, we will use a free online program called Voki. It allows for students to create their own avatar and add voice to it. This is a fun way to use technology and it motivates all students, including the shy ones, to participate in discussion. Teachers will either create or adjust lesson plans to use the technology and the programs that will be made available. Many educational websites such as Voki, have a lesson plan database that teachers can use to implement the technology and programs. Instead of having students write down their ideas on a sheet of paper, teachers can have their students improve their typing skills by having them type up their ideas. Many of the times when teachers assign research projects to students, the parents end up doing most of the work and putting the poster board together. Using the online Prezi program, students will want to work on their presentation by themselves and want to keep on going even when teachers tell them to stop because students love to get their hands on technology. The computer technology will be available for teachers and students to use during school hours. Many of the programs that will be put onto the computers are at no cost through online websites or the app store. If students or teachers would like to download or install a program on any of the thirty computers purchased, they will have to get it approved that the program is for educational use first. Students and teachers will be able to use the internet on the computers as long as they follow the acceptable use policies. After receiving the grant and purchasing thirty desktops, the school district's information technology department will be contacted to set up all the computer stations with internet connection and block sites for safety. Educational Microsoft software will also be purchased for the technology specialist to install on each of the computers. Afterwards, an instructor will be found to train the teachers who are interested on how to use the technology for educational purposes. The teachers will be introduced to new educational websites such as Wordle, Prezi, Khan Academy, Voki, and much more. When the teachers have become educated of the many educational websites out there that they can use to engage students, we will inform our students of the acceptable use policy for using the desktops at school. Students will have to get parent waiver form signed and returned before they are allowed to use the desktops and engage in many of these educational websites. To support this project, teachers will need to attend a training event held by an expert or teachers will need to take some of their own time to learn how to use the technology. We will also need to purchase the educational Microsoft Office program which the children will use to learn to type up assignments, make Excel spreadsheets, and use PowerPoint. To allow the students to be able to search for information through the Internet, we will need to contact the school district to get a wireless network set up at the school. A computer specialist will be needed to set up all the programs on the computers and will be needed if any technological problem occurs on any of the thirty computers. The computer specialist will also have to block websites for the safety of the students. The head of this project will be Xander Wilson who has a degree in computer science. He will be one of the teachers helping out with this project. However, he will see and manage all the details in the project. These details will include teacher-calendar planning, making sure the adequate technology/software needed for the classroom is appropriate. He will make sure the teachers who will provide the lessons/activities for the classroom/lab will be provided with the adequate training. He will also work closely with any information technology staff the school district and school department has provided to facilitate things are going smoothly in the project. The other roles that are going to be involved in the implementation of the project will be an information technology staff specialist provided by the school department who will help out with any malfunctions and updates needed on the desktops or software. The information technology staff specialist will set up all the programs on the desktops. The school department will also provide the classroom with the setup of the wireless network in the lab/classroom. Also, the school district will also have a role in providing the classroom/lab for the teachers. The school district will also provide the filtering and blocking technology for student’s safety. The roles and responsibilities of the teacher Mr. Wilson in this project will be to take into account the needs children who attend at risk schools. Provide activities that will help at risk children bridge the digital divide and enhance their learning. The skills the teacher in this project needs are how to work various different websites and how to work with Microsoft Office programs. They will need to know how to use desktops. They will also need to be up to date on their technological skills. Thus, the teachers will need training to provide their students with the adequate skills needed to be successful. The training will be provided by Xander Wilson who is a specialist in computer science and also the teacher head of this project. He along with some other staff from the school district will set up a training event during the summer, once the classroom/lab is ready for students, to educate them on proper and adequate programs, and websites. These training events will be continually given every summer so the teachers are up to date on their technological skills so they can give their students the sufficient skills needed for them to be successful in bridging the digital divide. The teachers can incorporate measurement tools or assign an end of the year project that tests the student’s skills and knowledge. For example, the teacher can create a simple account to Poll Everywhere to see the students’ progress within the class. This allows the teacher to create a question that is either multiple choice or free response, which the students are able to answer them by taking a quick poll. The teacher also has the ability to control the poll as well as, view the student’s responses. By viewing the responses this allows the teacher to focus on students that are struggling with a specific subject. Survey Monkey is similar to Poll Everywhere where teachers are able to create a free account that lets them generate a survey up to ten questions. After the teacher is done entering the survey questions the website will provide a link in which they can copy the link onto an email. The students can log on to their email address and click on the link that will directly take them to the survey. The teacher can log back on to see some of the responses and also view the data. The students can make their own surveys and put them on the class website where they can spend time to answer each other’s questions. This will allow the students to think critically by developing their own math or reading questions on the website. The teacher can check if the students know the material or not by looking at the questions and responses. The Typist is a free app from iTunes or Google store that teachers can download to help students learn how to type. This program allows the students to type without looking at the keyboard and also lets them record their speed. If the students need to improve on their speed they can get more practice. At the end of each lesson the program displays the results, where the students can see how fast they were typing. After the students are done with all the exercises they can see their progress and what they need to work. The instructor can show the basic skills of how to use Microsoft office and assign an assignment that test the students’ knowledge. For example, the teacher can tell the students to make a propaganda poster from the 1950’s in Microsoft word. This will test and challenge the student’s prior knowledge by allowing them to be creative where they can play around with the font size as well as, the style. Also, the students can explore and use different programs like clip art and templates.
 * Background Information **
 * Project Description **
 * Management **
 * Evaluation **

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