Budget to buy a Computer

You have been hired by XYZ Growing School District in North Carolina. XYZ is a very progressive district and, through a grant, allows all faculty in a new school to aid in the selection process for new classroom technology. You have been asked by your principal to put together a classroom technology budget in order to purchase "computer equipment" (both hardware and software) for your classroom. The budget is $2,000. Hint: Everything must come out of this $2,000 budget (that includes paper and ink for printers, cables, etc.)

Visit the Dell website, choose the K-12 Education link (under Government, Education & Healthcare) and then select North Carolina as your state of choice. You will use this site for your computer and peripheral equipment (plus software, if you can find what you need on this site). You can find the cost for paper, ink and other supplies using any source that you would like. You are not limited by anything except your imagination...and the budget. Yes...absolutely--you can get refurbished equipment (just check the price--sometimes, it is NOT less expensive!).  Just because something is inexpensive does not mean that it's a good deal. When choosing your computer make sure you use the knowledge you have gained from the chapter and this web based lesson to insure the computer has enough RAM and a high enough processor speed. This lesson will also help you decide on the other components that are needed

Next, in conjunction with the NETS standards for students and the NC State Technology Curriculum for your grade level, put a budget together, using Microsoft Word. You will want to make certain that anything that you include in your budget is directly related to the standards and the standard curriculum (otherwise, why would you want to buy it?). You should create a table like the example below for your budget.  Make sure you do not go over the budget!  For every line item, you will need to justify how it fits with either the NETS standards or the Technology Curriculum (this should not be terribly difficult).

Include a short narrative addressing the questions given below (1-2 pages) about why you feel that it is important to be a part of these decisions. In other words, why is it important for teachers to be knowledgeable about the technology that will be in their classrooms AND why should they be included in the decision making process? What if they aren't included? Once you have completed the assignment you should upload your Word document containing the table and the narrative to the Assignment Dropbox.

1. What equipment would you buy?

2. Why did you choose this equipment?

3. Which manufacturer(s) did you choose? And why?

4. Where did you find this price (include Web address if you found it online)?

5. How much did each item cost? (Budget)

I would advise that you shop around for prices online and include the website of the vendor(s) when submitting your choice of equipment.

Here is an example budget

You get the idea--this is not an exhaustive list. If you do not spend the entire $2,000, you cannot save that money. You will lose it.