Enhancing Technology Proposals

Over the past couple of years we have "tightened our belts" across the district. The technology budget and plan is dedicated to maintaining current technology. Yet we still want to encourage our teachers to create and enhance instruction with technology - especially using best practices. 


To encourage this we have begun a process called "Enhancing Technology Proposals" (here is the template for the requests: http://goo.gl/G3h6o). The goal of this is to allow teachers to propose innovate ways to use technology in an action research format. This will accomplish a few things:

  1. There has to be some investment in the plan behind the instructional change
  2. The focus is on instruction and research
  3. We should learn from data gathered from the project 
With limited funding this should help us find the best ideas that are prepared to impact instruction.

Here is the email that went out today to department chairs to begin the process:
There have been several requests this year for adding additional technologies in various areas around the district. As you know, the current technology plan only has funds for maintaining current technology. However, the Cabinet would like to receive proposals for new technology enhancements that may improve instruction.
Proposals for next year (or future years) can be submitted to the Cabinet by completing this proposal form (http://goo.gl/G3h6o) and sending it back to me by April 27th of this year. The proposal format is designed to favor ideas that are built around best practices of instruction and are research based. Teachers are encouraged to work on proposals, but the proposal must be submitted by an administrator.
There is no guarantee that we will be able to fund any of the proposals we receive, but we are open to reviewing them and trying to find creative ways to make some of them happen.
What process do you use for these types of requests and how to you ensure they are instructional in nature?

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