Congratulations to our May grant recipients!!

DIGITAL WISH AND MOBILE BEACON PARTNER TO GIVE $10/MONTH DATA PLANS AND FREE 4G MODEMS TO EDUCATORS

May 2013 (Manchester Center, VT) - Digital Wish has teamed up to bring Mobile Beacon’s 4G mobile broadband donation program to educators on DigitalWish.org. Through Mobile Beacon’s program, qualified public schools, 501(c)3 nonprofit schools, and libraries will receive up to 11 donated 4G devices when they sign up for a 1-year unlimited 4G data plan for $10 per month per device. Additionally, Mobile Beacon is offering schools in certain disaster recover states (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island) up to 26 donated devices to help them rebuild following the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

“Connectivity is core requirement as student learning migrates online. We are so excited to be able to offer this program to schools for both teacher and student connectivity. Mobile Beacon is the ideal partner to help us usher in the new era of mobile learning that extends well beyond the walls of the classroom,” said Heather Chirtea, Executive Director of Digital Wish.

Mobile Beacon is a leading provider of affordable mobile Internet service exclusively for educational and nonprofit organizations.  The program helps schools provide 24/7 mobile connectivity for teachers and staff, and offers a method to provide out-of-school Internet access to underprivileged students at an affordable rate.

“Out-of-school Internet access is arguably as important to the overall quality of the learning experience as in-school access,” said Katherine Messier, Managing Director for Mobile Beacon. “This program is designed to give schools maximum flexibility to decide how they can best make use our mobile broadband service. The donated devices can be used by teachers, administrators, staff, or students to provide access both in and out of school.”

Teachers and school staff can choose any combination of 4G devices, including a Wi-Fi modem, USB modem, and mobile hotspot. Mobile Beacon offers assistance determining the best mix of devices based on the school’s planned use. Examples of ways educators can benefit from Mobile Beacon’s 4G service include:

• Using mobile devices to support BYOD and 1:1 learning initiatives.
• Providing out-of-school access to students who do not have Internet access at home.
• Supplementing a school or district’s existing Internet service to meet the broadband demands of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
• Creating a low cost, back-up Internet source in case a school’s primary Internet service goes down.
• Keeping teachers, staff, and students connected during field trips, sporting events, and other off-campus activities.

Interested public schools, 501(c)(3) nonprofit schools, and libraries should visit DigitalWish.org and select the “Mobile Broadband” offering right from the home page and “Shop” areas. If they’re not yet a Digital Wish member, schools can sign up and register their organization for free. They will then be able to request donations.

Additional 4G devices beyond what is included in Mobile Beacon’s donation programs are available at standard rates. There is no limit on the number of devices that can be requested by qualified nonprofit and educational organizations.

About Digital Wish
At www.digitalwish.org, teachers make technology wishes, and donors make those wishes come true with contributions, bringing technology to needy classrooms in all 50 states. Since August 2009, Digital Wish has granted over 30,500 classroom technology wishes through its online network of over 62,000 teachers, and delivered over $13 million in technology products to American classrooms directly impacting over 500,000 students.
Contact: Amanda Stevens, 802-375-6721 [email protected]
 
About Mobile Beacon
Mobile Beacon provides fourth generation (4G) mobile broadband services exclusively to education and nonprofit organizations across the United States. Mobile Beacon was created by a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that has more than 20 years experience serving the educational community and is one of the largest national educational broadband service (EBS) providers in the country. Through an agreement with Clearwire, Mobile Beacon provides high-speed data services and mobile Internet access to educational and nonprofit organizations. For more information, visit www.mobilebeacon.org.
Contact: Katherine Messier, (401) 934-0500

Teachers and students can email their tech questions to [email protected]

Manchester Center, VT, April 18, 2013 – Digital Wish has teamed up with The Community Corps to provide a free technology help desk for schools in April. Just email your questions to [email protected] and get a response from a skilled technology volunteer working at a Fortune 500 corporation.  Every inquiry is screened to remove personal contact information so it’s safe for students too. Responses are returned within one business day. Ask about PowerPoint, Excel, server configurations or absolutely any IT topic.

Make sure you can receive our email

There’s no sign-up required, but you’ll want to make sure you can receive email from Digital Wish. Simply enter your email address at this link and you’ll get a confirmation email to ensure help gets through the school’s spam filter.

http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/helpdesk

“Teachers need more IT support in the classroom” said Heather Chirtea, Digital Wish’s Founder. “We have a team of skilled IT professionals who are standing by to help. We want educators to invite their students to send in questions too.” The free help desk will continue throughout the month of April.

About Digital Wish

At www.digitalwish.org, teachers make technology wishes, and donors make those wishes come true with contributions, bringing technology to needy classrooms in all 50 states. Since August 2009, Digital Wish has granted over 30,400 classroom technology wishes through its online network of over 62,000 teachers, and delivered over $13 million in technology products to American classrooms directly impacting over 500,000 students.

Manchester Center, VT, April 9, 2013 – Invite your students to email career questions to [email protected], throughout the month of April. Students will get responses from real professionals working at one of the largest corporations in America. Every email is screened to remove personal information before it's sent to the volunteers - so it's safe for students. Sign up here and then get an entire class to email their career questions. Responses are typically returned within one school day. Digital Wish has teamed up with The Community Corps, a nonprofit that mobilizes thousands of corporate volunteers each year to bring this great program to schools.

“This a great opportunity for a teacher to assign a class writing project - especially given the proximity to summer when kids will be seeking jobs,” said Heather Chirtea, Digital Wish’s founder. “Teachers can invite an entire class of students to email in their career questions and executives will send answers from the field.”  A team of volunteers is standing by to help. Digital Wish invites teachers to take advantage of this totally free program.

Make Sure you can Receive our Email

There’s no sign-up required, but you’ll want to make sure you can receive email from Digital Wish. Simply enter your email address at this link and you’ll get a confirmation email to ensure help gets through the school’s spam filter.

http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/helpdesk

About Digital Wish

At www.digitalwish.org, teachers make technology wishes, and donors make those wishes come true with contributions, bringing technology to needy classrooms in all 50 states. Since August 2009, Digital Wish has granted over 30,400 classroom technology wishes through its online network of over 62,000 teachers, and delivered over $13 million in technology products to American classrooms directly impacting over 500,000 students.

Executive Director, Heather Chirtea talks about all the tools and resources on Digital Wish that can help classroom teachers. Heather gives a sneak peek into whats coming to Digital Wish soon. During the podcast Heather describes:

• 1:1 computing implementation during the 2 year Vermont project
• Lesson Plan Library
• Grant Opportunities
• Virtual Volunteers
• Apps Center
• Thoughts on digital content delivery and Digital Wish’s newest initiative
• Hear insights and learn about the resulting IT Curriculum and IT Sustainability Guide, now available.

To hear Heather reveal what’s new and upcoming at Digital Wish, listen to the podcast and go to 43:08 on the podcast here: http://www.edlisten.com/2013/03/edlisten-19-digital-wish.html

March 4, 2013 - Manchester, VT -- On March 5th and 6th, GrantStation memberships will be offered to educators for just $99.  After that, the price will return to Digital Wish's teacher-only price of $249. (The regular retail price is $699).  GrantStation lists thousands of private, Federal and state grants focused on education, and they only list those funder who are giving within the next 12 months.  

GrantStation is a smart school investment as a time-saving tool for securing grant money. You also get the weekly Grant Insider newsletter.  This promotion ends Wednesday, March 6th at midnight.  Get the $99 subscription here.

GrantStation Webinar Tour - Listen to a 12 minute webinar tour of GrantStation for educators  here!

Major Capabilities of GrantStation include:

• U.S. Charitable Giving: Members get connected to the top national, regional, and local giving programs. They can perform powerful, targeted searches on thousands of private grantmakers, including foundations, corporate giving programs, religious funders, and associations with grantmaking programs.
• GrantStation Insider: GrantStation's weekly bulletin of grant seeking opportunities is delivered right to members' desktops each week. The Insider provides the latest information on upcoming national and regional funding opportunities.
• Federal Grants and Loans: Produced exclusively for members and sorted by deadline date, the federal grants and loans section offers detailed program, contact, and application information on an extensive listing of federal grant opportunities. This information is updated twice weekly.
• State Grants and Loans: GrantStation links to each grantmaking department in every state, making state funding research easier.
• International Charitable Giving: Identify grantmakers based in other countries that support organizations throughout the world.
• Write and Learn: Step-by-step tutorials on building grant requests, writing letters of inquiry, and managing grant awards.

Get the Special $99 Subscription to GrantStation here:
http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/product?id=GS001

Mark Your Calendar - On March 5-6, you can receive a GrantStation membership for only $99!  (The retail subscription is $699.) GrantStation filters through thousands of private, Federal and state grants each year. They only list those funders who are giving within the next 12 months.  There are nearly 3,000 active education grants with detailed online search tools. You can save huge amounts of time finding pre-qualified opportunities by region or topic.  We use GrantStation at Digital Wish to identify grants.  It’s a smart investment as a time-saving tool for securing grant money. Get it here.

Subscribers also receive GrantStation Insider, a weekly newsletter that provides the latest grant opportunity summaries for both private and governmental grantmakers.

After the 2-day promotion, Digital Wish will offer GrantStation subscriptions for a special teacher-only discount of $249.

Webinar: A webinar tour of GrantStation will be given on Thursday, 28th at 4:30 pm EST. Register here
 

Afterwards, the webinar recording will be available any time at this link.

Manchester Center, VT - February 5th, 2013 - Digital Wish has unveiled their highly anticipated 2013 grants calendar, featuring 63 new technology grant awards for K-12 classrooms. By simply uploading a technology-based lesson plan to Digital Wish's lesson plan library, teachers become eligible for smartphones, software and IT curriculum grant awards.  New grants will be announced regularly, and awarded each month.  See the grants calendar here.

Just submit an original lesson plan on Digital Wish to enter each monthly contest. Lesson plan submissions must demonstrate creativity, student involvement, and describe how the classroom technology would be utilized to complete the project. Lesson plans are then shared with other educators in the free Digital Wish Lesson Library.  Educators can find and download categorized lesson plans from the library. See the library here.

The grants calendar has a combination of recurring and themed grants, with something new and exciting happening each month to encourage repeat participation! With over $15,000 worth of awards up for grabs, teachers across the country will soon be able to enhance their curricula with great new technology!

"Digital Wish grants are a wonderful way for teachers to get new technology in their classrooms while sharing lesson plans with fellow educators. Some lesson plans have been viewed and downloaded by teachers thousands of times.  We're thrilled to be awarding some exciting technology from our partners and we’re looking forward to announcing more grants each month," said Heather Chirtea, Digital Wish's executive director and founder.

Digital Wish frequently announces grants and promotions first through Twitter and Facebook, so it’s worthwhile to “like” and “subscribe” to Digital Wish!
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For more information contact:
Heather Chirtea
PO Box 1072, Manchester Center, VT 05255
P: 866-344-7758
Email: heather@digitalwish.org
www.digitalwish.org