Schools learn about technology grants

Administrators in dozens of schools statewide learned today about receivingup to 50-thousand dollars each to upgrade their classroom computers. Thefederal grants are being distributed by the Iowa Department of Education to67 schools for a total of two-point-seven million dollars.John O’Connell is an instructional technology consultant for state ed. Thegrants from the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund target schools with thehighest percentages of children living in poverty and the greatest need fortechnology. He says the grants have to be used in certain ways:The specific areas for subject emphasis this year are in reading and math.About half of the grants (31 of 67) are going to just elementary schools, asO’Connell says students are never too young to start working with computers.He says some of the computer programs are even targeting kindergarten andpre-kindergarten students to bolster reading skills.