Money tends to be a central issue whenever you are looking towards improving technologies in a school. You'll probably need money for hardware, software, networking infrastructure, teacher training, maintenance, and don't forget taxes.

Identifying where your money will go is difficult for a variety of reasons, including the fact that prices of technology are always changing, and it's hard to know what you'll need once you take over a position of administrator or technology leader.

To help keep consistency, you can imagine the following parameters (unless you are working with an actual school). Let's assume that you are the principal/technology leader at a middle school. All of the current equipment and software are in the Apple IIe configuration (very old and outdated). There are eight teachers in each of the three grades at your school. In addition to the faculty, you may also want to include equipment for your staff.

To help with developing your budget, you may want to talk to people at schools (or even our lab) on the kinds of equipment you may need. It may also be helpful to stop in the lab to become acquainted with spreadsheet programs.

Your results are to be turned in by Session 11 (Week 11). You will be graded on the following components:

• An introduction which identifies the school you are helping create the budget, the vision of the school, and an overview of the budget.
• The hardware, software, and teacher training budgets you are requesting, based on relevant needs and costs.
• Correct tabulation of all figures, including taxes and overhead, for a five year plan.
• Justification for all your expenditures, based on your vision statement.
• Clear and concise writing.
• Completion of the report on time.

Further explanation of the grading is shown in the assignment rubric, or by contacting Donn Ritchie. If you need a brief help session on spreadsheets, be sure to ask in the lab or in class.

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