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Grants lend help to two programs: Reading and computer programs enhanced here and in Alamosa.(Pueblo Chieftain, The (CO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 11--Students at Vineland Elementary School will have access to more quizzes for the popular Accelerated Reader program through a new Web-based system that will be purchased with federal grant money recently awarded by the Colorado Department of Education. Adams State College's Nielsen Library also received a grant and will be providing more computer technology training to rural communities through its mobile learning and laptop loan program. Vineland Elementary and the Nielsen Library are among 16 school, public and academic libraries awarded grants to fund innovative projects designed to improve library services and lifelong learning. The grants, totaling $257,000, are from the federal Library Service and Technology Act provided to the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado State Library. Vineland was awarded $1,517 that will be used to purchase the Web-based version of the Accelerated Reader program that will make available to students more quizzes for books already in the school library, said David Gouge, media technician at Vineland. Accelerated Reader is a program that assesses a student's skills by computer exams on books students read. "Currently we have quizzes for about 13 percent in our collection. This will give us quizzes on about 98 percent of the books in our collection," Gouge said. "We had fantastic resources for our students." Gouge said as a Pueblo Library District satellite branch, the Vineland media center has plenty of books, but students couldn't use them in their schoolwork because they lacked the quizzes. "This will allow more students to seek out books within their own interest," Gouge said. Gouge said the Web-based program also will give students and parents a home connection to the program where they can access information about their personal Accelerated Reader accounts. The Nielsen Library received $18,400 to enhance its mobile learning center and laptop loan program. The grant was $6,000 more than what project coordinators had requested, according to Brooke Andrade, an instruction librarian and co-coordinator of the project. "They liked what we were doing so well that they gave us the additional $6,000, which will allow us to buy 10 computers instead of only five that we had requested." With LSTA grant money received last year, Andrade said the library purchased 10 laptop computers that are being used to teach computer classes to residents in the rural communities in the San Luis Valley. Andrade and co-coordinator, Paul Mascarenas, take the computers to the communities where they hold a variety of technology literacy classes ranging from introduction to computer to how to use Excel or other specific programs. Andrade said in the first nine months of the program, they held 66 sessions that have served more than 470 people. Andrade said the new grant money will go to purchase another 10 laptops and to pay a minimal salary for two ASC students to help teach the courses. When laptop computers aren't being used with mobile labs, they are available for ASC students to use. To see more of The Pueblo Chieftain, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.chieftain.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |