By MATTHEW RALPH
When classes at the IU Southeast School of Nursing have to use computerized teaching or testing, students have to split up and go to computer labs all over campus to do it.
A $25,000 grant from the AT&T; Foundation is going to help change that.
The grant, announced at a news conference Wednesday morning, will fund about half the cost of purchasing 50 new laptop computers and desks that will give School of Nursing faculty an opportunity to proctor exams and oversee other types of online or computer-based learning in one classroom.
Mimi McKay, dean of the nursing school, said the computers will serve several purposes, but ultimately bring the school up to date in the area of technology-aided instruction and test practice. The NCLEX — a complex test all nursing students must pass to go into the nursing field — is computer-based.
McKay said the $25,000 grant will be matched with other grants the school is pursuing to fund the technology upgrade. The new computers and specially designed desks that allow the computers to be stowed away when not in use are expected to be purchased and installed in time for use in the fall 2008 semester.
“I’m just thrilled because this just supports our mission to provide an innovative education,” McKay said.
Since there are 50 slots available for each incoming class in the nursing program, the computers will accommodate an entire class of students.
Known as the AT&T; Excelerator program, the grant is one of 34 that will be given by the foundation to nonprofit and educational institutions in the state this year. The grants for Indiana total about $300,000, AT&T; Indiana President George S. Fleetwood said Wednesday before presenting school officials with a check.
“It’s a very competitive program,” Fleetwood said. “I congratulate you on a grant well written.”
Chancellor Sandra Patterson-Randles said the technology upgrade has been needed for “quite some time.”
Since 2002, the AT&T; Excelerator program has provided more than 2,500 technology grants — totaling more than $47.8 million — to organizations across the country.
