(Posted 10-28-99)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Service Contact: Steve Gilliam, 336-334-5371

UNCG, SERVE RECEIVE GRANT TO PREPARE
TEACHERS TO USE TECHNOLOGY IN CLASS

GREENSBORO--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the SouthEastern Regional Vision for Education have been awarded $2.2 million in grant support from the U.S. Department of Education to support a new education technology project.

Called SUNRAY (Strategies for Understanding and Networking Resources, Actions, and e-Yearbooks), the project is one of 23 to receive a grant under the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology Program. Its goal is to infuse instructional technology into teacher preparation programs. The $2.2 million that has been approved will fund the first two years of the three-year project.

"Teacher training has emerged as the critical issue limiting effective use of modern technologies in today's classrooms," said Dr. Tom Carroll, director of the federal program. "We are investing billions of dollars a year across the country to equip our schools and to connect them to the Internet, and yet only 20 percent of our teachers report that they are comfortable using technology to improve teaching."

The goal of SUNRAY is to assist higher education faculty in developing strategies and partnerships to prepare future educators to use technology effectively for teaching and learning. Carroll said the SUNRAY project will help new teachers arrive at schools well- prepared to teach 21st century students.

The project will conduct professional development institutes, create and maintain a virtual technical assistance community and establish partnerships among higher education faculty across the Southeast.

Dr. Elizabeth Byrom, director of the Technology in Learning Program at SERVE, is the director of the new project.
Partnering with SERVE on the SUNRAY project are the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory in Austin, Texas; Learning Innovations, a division of WestEd in Stoneham, Mass.; the Instructional Technology Resource Center of the University of Central Florida in Orlando; and the National Center on Adult Literacy in Philadelphia. Apple Computers in Charlotte and Hart Inc. in Asheville will provide technical support and services to the project.

Also involved are teams from Mercer University, Ga.; Southeast Louisiana University; Jackson State University, Miss.; N.C. Central University; Universidad Metropolitana, Puerto Rico; Winthrop University, S.C.; and Fairmont State College, W.V.

SERVE is affiliated with the UNCG School of Education and administers contracts and grants totaling $11.5 million for 1999, $51.5 million for the period 1996-2000, and over $83.5 million since its inception in 1990. SERVE is a research and development center at UNCG that has as its core business the operation of the Regional Educational Laboratory for the Southeast, one of 10 regional laboratories across the nation funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Also integral to SERVE are the Southeast and Islands Regional Technology in Education Consortium, the Eisenhower Math and Science Consortium for the Southeast, a subcontract for the operation of the Region IV Comprehensive Technical Assistance Center, and several smaller projects.

SERVE was created to promote and support the continuous improvement of educational opportunities for all learners in the Southeast. Collaboration with business, education, and policy organizations helps SERVE identify and address the most pressing educational needs of the region. SERVE's current priority is developing tools and strategies to assist educators in their systemic education reform efforts.

Over the last four years, SERVE has provided technical assistance and training to more than 23,000 administrators and practitioners across the region and partnered with over 200 Southeastern schools on research and development projects. Unique among the 10 regional educational laboratories, SERVE maintains policy analysts at the state education agencies of each of the states in its region. While SERVE continues to work primarily in the original six-state region of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina, it is also involved in educational reform efforts that are national in scope.

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