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Dakota State University in TECWEB
Consortium for Dept of Ed Grant

(Madison) Dakota State University is a member of a partnership recently awarded a five-year grant from the US Department of Education in excess of $3.5 million dollars.

The highly competitive Challenge Grant for Education was given to the Todd County School District, the fiscal host, for the twenty-three member partnership. It is only one of nineteen grants issued throughout the entire nation, and one of only four in the Northern Plains states.

Working under the group title of TECWEB, the consortium plans to produce and sustain an innovative program to improve the education and economic competitiveness of nearly 3,000 K-12 disadvantaged and special need Native-American youth in a tri-state region. The program will operate with additional educational partners like Sinte Gleska University, South Dakota School of Mines and Prairie Lakes Educational Cooperative. The partnership even includes Xi’an Jiaotong University in China. Corporate partners include the software giant Microsoft, US West Communications and the 3M Corporation. The project will operate in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

The group seeks to connect classrooms to the Internet and help students and teachers learn how to use the technology. The group plans to provide technical training to 350 teachers using an innovative endorsement model and to integrate technology, curricula and culture for 40 projects throughout the tri-state region. TECWEB’s unique approach will be to utilize the Native-American culture in the program. Its goal is to provide teachers with a simple way to merge technology into curriculum guided by the Lakota/Dakota philosophy and concepts. With these resources, teachers will be able to provide lessons and activities appropriate for their students and improve educational outcomes and employment success.

TECWEB will create modern communication centers for Dakota and Lakota students and will provide leadership in encouraging a college education for its students. A Community Education Center will be established in both Todd and Moody Counties of South Dakota, and will be open to all community members. Each center will be community-defined -- tribal needs, arts, culture, history, and language differences will be recognized. Training based on Native-American cultural integration will be provided in computers, information management, educational technologies, and communication technologies.

"Dakota State University is extremely proud to be a part of the Challenge Grant award. It will be exciting to see the program begin," said Dr. Jerald Tunheim, President of DSU.

Dakota State University’s Business and Education Institute assisted in the development of the project, using Dakota State developed models for educator training and the delivery of curriculum through computers. Dakota State University is well-known for its technological abilities and the integration of computer technology in all its degree programs, including the teaching degrees offered by the more than century old College of Education. Dakota State University personnel will be an integral part of the team implementing the five-year project.