Pittsburgh School Uses Local Grants To Inject Technology into Classroom
An
elementary school in the Pittsburgh area is taking
advantage of grants from local nonprofits to use technology to enhance
learning
for its students.
Students
at Jefferson Elementary School are
already using a STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art and math
— lab that
was constructed last school year with the help of a $20,000 grant from
the Alleghany
Intermediate Unit Center for Creativity. The room is lined
with
robotic kits, laptops, an Apple TV and 3D printer.
Under
construction now is the SpotEd Media TV
studio, thanks to a $12,000 grant from the Spark Fund for Early Learning at the
Sprout Fund. The impetus for the grant was "JE TV News," a
daily TV show in which
students tape news segments about what's going on around school.
Currently,
students tape the show in an art
classroom while workers and volunteers transform a now-defunct computer
lab
into the TV studio. The studio will double as an instructional space
for any
teacher who wants to inject technology into his or her classroom.
The
grant will give the school a green screen,
three video cameras, a sound system and a teleprompter.
"We
reinvented the space," said Principal Christopher
Very, in a report on Trib Live. "We're trying to dissolve the traditional barriers of learning.
We want
to be on the cutting edge of education."
While
the studio is still under construction,
student TV producers and teachers already are taking advantage of the
video cameras.
Art teacher Adam Gebhardt is using them to videotape class
demonstrations.
"For
some reason, me in front of the students is
not as exciting as me in a video," Gebhardt said.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.