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2 pages each page 250 words
Running Head: E Books for East High School 1
E Books for East High School Students 10
Proposal
JoEllen Ornduff
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
Smaldino, S., Lowther, D., & Russell, J. (2012). Instructional technology
and media for learning (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Merrill Prentice-Hall
http://www.wvcf.com/
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
First Draft 2
Reduction of Teaching in the Classroom and the Use of Virtual Worlds Environment
Ashwaq Albuhayri
First Draft 1
Reduction of Teaching in the Classroom And the Use of Virtual Worlds Environment
Introduction
For a very long time, the education system has been advocating for a learning system that requires students to sit in actual classrooms for learning. However, this system has many shortcomings that make learning inefficient for most students. It is with this knowledge that researchers have recommended a departure from the actual learning classroom system to Virtual Learning Environments where students can interact with one another as well as with their teachers via a virtual network. This research paper explores the problems associated with the actual classroom learning system and further compares it with the Virtual Learning Environment system.
Problem Statement
The actual classroom learning system requires a teacher to come to class and teach the students in an actual classroom. This system has a number of shortcomings that make it ineffective for both the teaching process as well as the learning process for students. One of the main disadvantages associated with this system is that it works against students who are slow in understanding. This is mainly because the teacher teaches at the learning pace of the most students in the class. Therefore, the teacher is not able to cater for the needs of the students who are slow in understanding. In this way, they always end up being left behind. In addition to this, this system of learning does not favor shy students (Moore & Anderson, 2003). This is because they might not have the audacity to ask their questions in the midst of their fellow students. In this way, their questions are left unanswered and this affects their learning process in a negative way. Another disadvantage of this learning system is that it is time consuming and expensive. This is because it requires students to travel to a central place from where their classes can be conducted. It also requires teachers to come and teach the students from a common place (Gillespie, 2007). Therefore, this makes teachers and students to not only waste money for transport but also waste time that could have been used for learning. Whereas in a Virtual Learning Environment one teacher can teach ten classrooms at the same time, this system requires a teacher to teach only one class at a time. This means that for every class, the education providers have to pay a teacher, which proves to be too expensive compared to the Virtual Learning Environment system (Weiss, 2006).
The research will focus on the disadvantages and weaknesses in the actual classroom and the other better ways in virtual worlds that can help in addressing these disadvantages and weaknesses.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to explore the challenges associated with the actual classroom learning system. In doing so, this research seeks to find out whether the actual classroom learning adds value to the learners. It also seeks to find out whether compared to Virtual Learning Environment it has any unique strengths. In addition to this, it also seeks to find out the preferences of the teachers as well as the students (Ragusa, 2010). This includes finding out whether the students and teachers are comfortable with it or whether they prefer a Virtual Learning Environment system. It further seeks to analyze the damages or the loss it causes in the students’ learning process. Besides being helpful to students, this research aims at assisting all education stakeholders. One of the main beneficiaries of this research is the education providers. This is because this research also aims at finding out whether compared with the Virtual Learning Environment system of learning it is cost effective or too costly (Barajas, 2003).
Literature Review:
Research Methods:
Limitations of the Research
This research is limited to finding out the inefficiencies and disadvantages of the actual classroom learning methods as well as the comparison of the Virtual Learning Environment with the actual classroom learning. However, it does not look at the different teaching methods that the teachers might use, nor does it suggest any effects that different teaching methods would have on learning and teaching.
Conclusion:
References
Barajas, M. (2003). Virtual learning environments in higher education: a European view. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona.
Gillespie, H. (2007). Learning and teaching with virtual learning environments. Exeter: Learning Matters.
Moore, M. G., & Anderson, W. G. (2003). Handbook of distance education. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates.
Ragusa, A. T. (2010). Interaction in communication technologies and virtual learning environments: human factors. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Weiss, J. (2006). International handbook of virtual learning environments. Dordrecht: Springer.
