Technology Budget

Your technology director has given you a budget of $10,000 for the purchase of handheld devices in your library. Using the prices in Chapter 5 of Courtney as a general guideline, what would you purchase and why?

I discussed with a middle school and high school librarian and did some internet searching considerations for purchasing technology, specifically mentioning the list as suggested by Nancy Courtney in Library 2.0 and Beyond, Chapter 5. I decided the two most useful items for purchase that I would be interested in are ebook readers and PDAs.

Based on the range of prices for each item I used the median price. For Ebook readers the range was $100-$700, so I went with $400 a piece and purchased 12, putting my total at this point at $4800. From my experience in a middle school I believe Ebooks would be beneficial to the struggling readers, and even middle school students in general, just to get them interested in reading through a new technology. I also think this could permit shelf room if the Ebooks held the resource materials (encyclopedias, etc) which would also in turn open up computer terminals for internet and database research.

The second item I would be interested in purchasing are the PDAs. Their price range is $100-$500, so using the median price of $300 I would purchase 17 PDAs for a total of $5100, taking my grand total to $9900. I found a very interesting blog by Sue Waters who provides a video of PDA use in her science lab. Students are studying fish diseases and each student has a PDA that allows them to pull color images to recheck themselves, as she explained, is more useful than a black and white handout. In addition with a PDA if there is a video or block of notes the students can view and review them at their own pace and interest which allows others to move ahead of their classmates, or work with the aid of the available teacher.

Link to Sue Waters blog http://suewaters.com/tag/mlearning/ . Specific blog article title Why I Use PDAs in the Classroom.