Apr 3, 2003 By Christine Haines 3 min read

REDSTONE TWP. – U.S. Congressman John Murtha tapped his fingers in time to the music as students at Cox-Donahey Elementary School sang patriotic songs during his visit Monday. While the performance by Jonathan and Katie Rohlf, Katie Grahek and Jessie Medofer, accompanied by their teacher Sandy Leichliter was well done, Murtha’s real purpose in visiting the school was to provide the Brownsville Area School District with 200 computers. The refurbished federal surplus computers are being provided to the district through the Technology Literacy Initiative.

“This is such an important program. You can’t do it today without computer skills,” Murtha said.

The district superintendent, Dr. Gerry Grant, said the computers will be invaluable to the elementary technology program.

“They are offering training free of charge to our staff along with the equipment,” Grant said. “We know that students know a lot more about computers than we as adults. They aren’t afraid to try things. They will serve as mentors to the teachers. It’s sort of a twist.”

Maureen Ryan, the manager of education initiatives with the Pittsburgh Technology Council, said she will work with the district for about a year. The process will begin with a preasessment survey of the teachers to determine their literacy level. The second phase of the project is integrating the teachers’ new skills with their lesson plans.

Grant said the plan is to put four or five computers in each classroom for the students, as well as a computer for each teacher. Murtha said he realized how difficult it is to use computers in classroom instruction when there is only one computer in the room.

“We have some classrooms that don’t have one computer,” Grant said. “We’ve been fighting to get even one building wired.”

Grant said that while there is a computer lab in the school, it is difficult to schedule all of the students for time in the lab. Adding more computers to the classrooms will help the district establish mini-labs where students can work on educational computer programs at their own pace.

The Technology Literacy Initiative is a cooperative effort of the Pittsburgh Technology Council and 3 Rivers Connect. It is designed to bridge the gap between the current level of school technology education and the basic level of technological literacy required in the workplace.

The Pittsburgh Technology Council is a regional technology trade association with 1,500 members in 13 counties in southwestern Pennsylvania. A non-profit organization, 3 Rivers Connect is working in cooperation with local, state and federal agencies and public and private institutions to accelerate development through applications of advanced technology.