Local educators hope a $1 million state technology grant will make an impact on the way students learn.

Perquimans County Schools, along with D.F. Walker Elementary School in the Edenton-Chowan Schools, was one of four recipients of a $1 million-plus IMPACT grant.

The grant will ensure that each classroom has a SMART Board (interactive whiteboard), a video projector, a laptop computer, speakers, a digital camera and a scanner.

Funded through the state Department of Public Instruction, the grant goes toward implementing the IMPACT model at each school. A collaborative model, IMPACT pairs teachers with technology facilitators and media coordinators to teach across the curriculum. Perquimans Central School was selected as one of the state's initial IMPACT model schools in 2003.

"Implementing this model in a school does make a huge difference in reading and math and classroom interaction," said

Victor Eure, technology coordinator for Perquimans County Schools.

In the past, Eure said teachers were lucky to have one computer in their classrooms. He said the technology package will allow them to share information and move equipment around.

"They have a vision of what they want to see happen," he said. "We just didn't have the funding for it."

Eure said the technology will be used in two broad areas: meeting the state's 21st century education priorities and increasing learning and communication outside the classroom. He said the priorities include critical thinking skills and cooperative learning, both of which are served through the IMPACT model.

He also said the technology could be used to set up blogs, wikis, podcasts and other Web-based tools that allow students to communicate outside a classroom setting.

According to Eure, the equipment can be used for everything from word recognition in the lower grades to allowing high school seniors to prepare their graduation projects, many of which utilize SMART Boards. He said the more interactive approach to learning has also proven effective with special needs children.

"They are all very open-ended tools," he said.

Eure said teachers would not have a problem adjusting to the new equipment. Each Perquimans school has a technology facilitator to provide support and D.F. Walker will be gaining one as well. Training will take place over the summer and students will begin using everything with the start of the 2008-09 school year.

Nel Hyatt, media and technology director for Edenton-Chowan Schools, said her district could apply for additional IMPACT grant funding in the future.

For more information on the IMPACT model, http://www.ncwiseowl.org/Impact/.