Well according to Wise Geek: What is a Grant Proposal: a grant is an award of financial assistance from a federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States. Federal grants are not federal assistance or loans to individuals. Each year, the U.S. government along with private foundations and public corporations offer billions of dollars in funding to individuals and organizations to be used for specific projects. This funding, which is called a grant, requires no repayment as long as it is used to fund the project for which it was allocated. Grants can be given to individuals, non-profit or not-for-profit companies, charitable organizations, or educational facilities.


National Science Foundation - Science and Technology Studies (STS)
The STS Program supports research and related activities that contribute to systematic understanding of the character and development of science and technology, including their cultural, intellectual, material,and social dimensions.

U.S. Department of Education
Enhancing Education through Technology (Ed-Tech) State Program
The primary goal of this program is to improve student achievement through the use of technology in elementary and secondary schools. Additional goals include helping all students become technologically literate by the end of the eighth grade and, through the integration of technology with both teacher training and curriculum development, establishing research-based instructional methods that can be widely implemented.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After completing the ISTE Assessment, the following information was obtained.



Technology Profile and Action Plan for Improvement
Prepared on 1/15/2009 for:
Sherry Hegstrom
Elm St. Middle School
Middle School
SAU 42 Overall Result Summary
According to the Technology Support Index (TSI) your system is considered "Satisfactorily Efficient" requiring limited improvements. The "Satisfactory Efficiency" level of development refers to a system that is doing a very good job of support in many areas. Improvements in a number of areas will enhance the organizational capacity to effectively implement technology.
The following recommendations were made:

Domain Result Summary: According to the TSI your Professional Development (Domain 3)is considered "Moderately Efficient" requiring attention and improvement. The "Moderate Efficency" level of development refers to a system that has some areas of excellence, but typically isolated and limited in implementation. While there is some good support in place, improvement will be required to overcome technology challenges Recommendation: Organizations that use technology effectively can balance self-help provided by the end user with the additional technical support provided by the district. It is recommended that very basic troubleshooting skills are built into the professional development program decreasing the number of low-level technical support calls.
Cost: Minimal to Moderate Recommendation: Just-in-time-training provides opportunities for staff to learn exactly what they need, when they need it, in small-defined pieces. When an effective system of just in time training is in place, staff are empowered and overall support requirements of the organization are reduced. It is recommended that a just in time training program is implemented and used as part of the organizational culture.
Cost: Moderate Recommendation: Empowering the school employee to use technology effectively is a very effective strategy to address technical support issues. The staff member should not be expected to solve difficult technical problems. However, if simple problems can be solved or merely identified by the end-user, technical staff can concentrate on more complex tasks. It is recommended that an effective training program for ALL staff is put into place. This program should include appropriate incentives, accountability, and a diverse set of learning resources.
Cost: High

Domain Result Summary: According to the TSI your Enterprise Management (Domain 4)is considered "Moderately Efficient" requiring attention and improvement. The "Moderate Efficency" level of development refers to a system that has some areas of excellence, but typically isolated and limited in implementation. While there is some good support in place, improvement will be required to overcome technology challenges Recommendation: An application service provider serves a large population of users with one very large central processing resource. The ASP takes advantage of the economies of scale to provide application services at a reduced cost. With this scenario, many of the technical support issues are shifted to the ASP including backup and server performance. When appropriate infrastructure is in place, it is recommended that core applications are hosted by an Application Service Provider.
Cost: Moderate to High Recommendation: A thin-client is a computer that does not serve as a full-functioning stand alone PC. The Operating system and applications actually run on a remote server and are all centrally controlled and managed. As a result, the hardware requirements for the end-user are typically substantially less. In addition a thin-client strategy allows a small staff to ensure that users experience a consistent environment and that critical updates and software upgrades can be easily and quickly deployed. While the hardware requirements are very low for the client, they are very high for the server. Costs for hardware and software are marginally lower or neutral but support costs can be dramatically decreased. It is recommended that a thin-client computing environment should be considered for administrative applications that have little or no multi-media requirements and where end-user hardware requirements may be challenging.
Cost: Moderate to High
Resources: www.citrix.com, www.microsoft.com (Terminal Services) Recommendation: Electronic communication can profoundly impact the effectiveness of an organization. For technical support, technical solutions can be provided through e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, or the Web. With the pervasive use of electronic communication the possibilities for effective support are expanded substantially. It is highly recommended that electronic communication is in place for ALL employees and is readily used as the normal means of communication.
Cost: Minimal to Moderate Recommendation: A large percentage of technical issues that arise are often simple in nature. In most cases, with the right information and a culture that promotes minimal troubleshooting, users can help themselves for many technical problems. An easy to use and searchable knowledgebase is critical to empower users to solve the simple problems themselves. The more effective knowledgebase implementations are those that grow with the organization and are populated by staff that are solving problems. To more effectively use staff time and resources, the purchase and use of an online knowledgebase is strongly recommended.
Cost: Minimal to Moderate Recommendation: Server management can be time-consuming, complex, and resource intensive. Whenever possible, consolidation of server resources to minimize management is a great advantage. This reduces labor required for backup, redundant systems, and unnecessary overhead. To create server farms a robust network must be in place. It is strongly recommended that when appropriate network infrastructure is in place, centralization of servers is implemented.
Cost: Moderate to High