The purpose of these types of grants is to serve as a "proof of concept". This type of grant affords the district with the flexibility of trying some cutting edge technologies with new instructional approaches. A possible outcome would be cutting down on the need for traditional textbooks, paper/copying, graphing calculators, adaptive devices, and more. Without grants such as i3, districts would not be able to gamble on these types of initiatives with the current school funding levels. There is also merit to the collaboration with other districts. This project is aligned to the goals of the National Educational Technology Plan that was adopted by the US Department of Education in March 2010.
I am excited about the possibilities of partnerships that may come out of this. For example, the Science Museum of Minnesota is very interested in working with us along with Apple. We are exploring other partners as well by working through a foundation site that allows others to find us (https://www.foundationregistryi3.org/).
"The challenge for our education system is to leverage the learning sciences and modern technology to create engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences for all learners that mirror students' daily lives and the reality of their futures. Technology provides access to more learning resources than are available in classrooms and connections to a wider set of educators, including teachers, parents, experts, and mentors outside of the classroom. On-demand learning is now within reach, supporting learning that is life-long and life-wide (Bransford et al., 2006)."
