Dedham Schools to Receive Technology Funding

The Dedham Library Innovation Team announced the awarding of $3,500 in grants which will pay for technology for all of to the Dedham Public Schools.

The grants will be used to fund the purchase of a digital audiobook collection at the Dedham Middle School and Dedham High School, a robotics lab at each of Dedham’s elementary schools, and an iPad2 digital tablet at the Early Childhood Education Center, according to an email from DLIT co-founder Paul Reynolds. 

With the grant, each elementary school library will build a LEGO Makerspace robotics lab, which allows students to undertake creative design & engineering projects, including a special LEGO WeDo Robotics program, DLIT said in a press release. Students will design models, featuring more than 150 elements including a motor, tilt sensor, motion sensor and support for a wide range of cross-curricular, theme-based projects.

The Early Childhood Education Center library will receive an iPad2 digital mobile tablet which will include pre-reading and read-aloud apps.

The Dedham High School and Dedham Middle School libraries will also receive $1000 total for each school to develop a digital audiobook collection for student use.  The goal of this project is to provide students with alternate resources necessary to access literature, to instill a love of reading, and to support school projects and assignments, DLIT said in a press release.   

“This generous support from DLIT helps us accelerate the increasing number of innovation learning options we are now offering Dedham’s students,” Dedham Public School’s Technology Director Don Langenhorst said in a written statement. “I’m especially excited about being able to introduce robotics at the elementary level, as this will better prepare Dedham students for the engineering programs at both the middle and high schools - and better prepare them for future studies and rewarding career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math.”

The money for these donations was raised at DLIT’s 60’s Blast Soiree fundraiser last spring, which was the finale gala party that helped conclude the highly successful 2-month Dedham Reads Together 2013 program.