School of Education receives $5.6 million grant

04/04/08 - The University of Rhode Island's overall technological infrastructure has not been up to code in recent years, but the New Order, Multi-Modal Advanced-Design (NOMAD) program recently put in place aims to change that.Through a $5.6 million state grant, URI's School of Education is providing not only education majors but also the Arts and Science students with access to current hardware, software systems and models of effective use of technology for instruction. Both the Community College of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College have been issued similar grants to develop a consistent program in teacher education for proper technology use.

"The goal is to provide more exposure to models of good technology use in university classrooms," said Associate Education Professor Peter Adamy, the academic coordinator for the project. "So it's not just a school of education initiate, we have been working with folks in Arts and Sciences . and we've been working to improve the technology that's there right now and work with, if we can, those instructors [working in all science and math fields] to help them implement these improvements in the classrooms."

The primary goal of the project, which has an estimated completion date in 2010, is to utilize all aspects of teaching tools within the classroom as well as over the Internet in order to increase educational productivity.

"Classrooms [like those in Chafee] are fairly basic, you can get Internet, but you have to bring your own projector, speakers, and things like that," Adamy said. "So what we're trying to do is to provide the equipment in such a way that it is fairly easy for instructors to make use of it."

Right now the Chafee Social Science Center, East Hall, the Providence CCE building, Pastore Hall and Quinn Hall are targeted for this upgrade.

Three other buildings, Lippitt Hall, the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences (CBLS) and the Bay Campus Pell Library/Inner Space Center will either be renovated or constructed to fulfill the purpose of the NOMAD technology grant.

"This project is an answer to the question, 'How do we ensure that teachers effectively use technology to enhance student learning?'" said David Byrd, director of the URI School of Education, in a press release. "Our own students preparing to be pre-kindergarten through grade 12 teachers need to be ready to use these tools skillfully when they enter the workforce, and current teachers need support so they can use technology as a collaborative tool to enhance learning in all areas."

The grant was a result of a collaboration among the Rhode Island Office of Higher Education, the General Assembly and the governor's office. About $1 million of this grant will trickle down to secondary education collaborations within the university, the most notable of these programs being the Inner Space Center, developed by URI's Oceanography Professor Robert Ballard. This program allows students and teachers in the secondary educational system to view and communicate with oceanographic research teams across the world in real-time.

"Just a couple of weeks ago my son, who's in seventh grade, came home and said 'Oh, Dad, we spoke to scientists on Dr. Ballard's boat," Adamy said. "I said 'Oh great, we're helping to pay for that.'