I have seen the troubled expressions that administrators have when trying to makes sure students have the available to them via their budget. There are several common sources of funding that I know firsthand. There are federal grants (NIH or NSF), business grants (Texas instrument and others), and local businesses. These are not the only available ones, but these are the ones that I have experience with. As an administrator, I would rely on as many as possible. Though there is a lot of work to gain access to funding it is worth the time and effort to help the students. This is not limited to administrators to seek funding. There are many funding opportunities for individual teachers and groups of teachers.
When teachers and administrators work together in financial planning there are many experiences and knowledge that can be brought to the table. I can only imagine the true stress and responsibility that those that manage a school budget must go through as they are continually monitoring and correcting when different situations occur. A good administrator will talk to their teachers and discuss where teachers have seen what technology can help and assist students in their learning.
There are a lot of opportunities for funding technology that are outside of the “normal” budgets for schools. It takes time and effort to seek these opportunities. There are many grants available for technology, but with my experience, you do not always get every grant that you apply for. This can be a deterrent for individuals to apply for grants.
List of some grants:
https://www.kajeet.net/extracurricular/10-new-grants-for-ed-tech (Links to an external site.)
Article with links of grant sites:
This semester has been an eye opener to the work that leaders must go through to take care of those they are responsible to oversee and lead. There are many areas that I need to work on. Focus and sticking to ONE project and seeing it through. I see projects through but sometimes I find “rabbit holes”, those interesting pieces of knowledge that catch my attention.
My biggest takeaway from this class is that integration and development of technology programs in schools are difficult. There are many opportunities for leaders to grow in their leading the charge in implementation of new and innovative devices and programs that will help students and teachers. I see that leaders need to know what technology can do and in what ways technology can help students progress. Just using technology can actually be detrimental to student growth. When students spend significant amounts of time waiting on a teacher to use a piece of technology they can quickly become disinterest in the class and the teachers ability. There are many things that go into finding, researching, and integrating technology in schools.
Michael's Reflections of ETEC 589 