Brian Wetzel EDTECH 551: Technical and Grant Writing March 25, 2012

Needs Assessment
Technology skills are becoming increasingly more important in daily life. Without basic technology skills, people will begin to find themselves at a disadvantage in many situations. In educational settings, a lack of technology skills can present numerous problems. Utilizing technology, students can communicate with teachers and fellow students easier, access grade reports, submit assignments, and do various forms of research with little effort; and this is not nearly an exhaustive list. With basic technology skills, students can explore productivity software and learn much on their own; however, to properly use the software to its fullest potential, students should be allowed access to the technology for these educational purposes on a consistent basis. Additionally, teachers should be encouraged to create technology-enriched lessons to build the technology skills of their students. At Licking Heights Central Middle School, in Pataskala, Ohio, access to technology is very limited. Without more access, many students miss out on the consistent interactions that are necessary to build a foundation of technology skills and how they can be utilized across the curriculum. The biggest issue Licking Heights faces is the amount of resources they have to provide a technology-enriched education. In 2010, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Licking Heights Local Schools was the second fastest growing school district in the entire state of Ohio. According to the most current building report card, Licking Heights Central, servicing sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students, had an average daily enrollment of 757 students. This number will likely be higher when reported for the current school year, since the sixth grade class entering the building was larger than the eighth grade class that transitioned to the high school. Early estimations of the population are approximately 800 students enrolled at

Licking Heights Central. Each classroom in the building is equipped with one computer designated for teacher use. While many classrooms have two or three computers for student use, several others are limited to the one teacher computer. Within Licking Heights Central, there are only two rooms that are designated as computer labs, each equipped with 25 computers. When it comes to whole-class use of computers, the teachers are forced to sign up and share one of the computer labs, as the other is limited to computer application classes which are offered as an elective course to sixth and seventh grade students. While this is obviously not an ideal situation, it becomes even less than ideal for classes that are larger than 25 students. Thus, students often get little class time to work with computers under the guidance of their teachers. However, available computers are not the only resource Licking Heights Central lacks. If Licking Heights Central plans to purchase more computers for student use in the building, there are no rooms in the building that can be used for another permanent computer lab. Any additional technology purchased for the building would have to be mobile. Mobile technology would allow the teachers to transform their own classrooms into computer labs to provide their technology-enriched lessons. Mobile computing devices would also alleviate another issue Licking Heights Central faces. While the intended use of the devices is to allow more opportunities for students to learn through technology during the school day, there would also be the capabilities to provide technology resources to disadvantaged students at home. Licking Heights Central has been designated as a Low-Income School by the United States Department of Education since the 2008/2009 school year. According to the local report card, 44.2% of the Licking Heights Central student body is identified as economically disadvantaged. Many Licking Heights Central students do not have the capabilities to work with technology to complete assignments outside of school. With mobile technology, an overnight loan program could be established to provide access to technology outside of the school day.

Finally, teachers have reported several problems with using the computers in the lab due to the speed of the computers. A commonly reported problem is that it takes students too long to log on/log off the computer, decreasing the amount of instructional time. The teachers reported the desire for faster loading computers to increase the instructional time for the lessons that they prepared. With tablet computers, the startup time decreases to only a few seconds which increases the amount of instructional time available to learning activities.