America's 'FutureReady' Education Visionaries Announced; Dell, Microsoft and Intel Honor FutureReady Winners With $750,000 in Technology and Services for Their Schools

Business Wire, March 23, 2006

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Three forward-thinking U.S. K-12 schools -- chosen in a nationwide search conducted by Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), Microsoft and Intel as part of the FutureReady program -- each will receive technology and services with approximate retail value of $250,000 to make their education technology vision a reality.

These visionaries, whose innovative essays merited the award of a custom technology solution from the companies, are:

--Small school winner Hall Fletcher Elementary School (Asheville, N.C.) -- Rocko Smucker, technology chair and first grade teacher at his school, has established a three-year technology plan to prepare students to be "producers, creators and entrepreneurs." Using interactive whiteboards and wireless Dell notebooks, Smucker aims to have students' develop 21st century skills by eventually producing 90 percent of their assignments digitally.

--Medium school winner Union Pines High School (Cameron, N.C.) -- Robin Calcutt, a teacher at Union Pines, plans to aid teachers in integrating technology into the curriculum; equip a Ninth Grade Academy with handheld computers and other devices to help reduce drop-out rates; and help seniors create e-portfolios of their course work that can be shared with scholarship committees, universities and future employers.

--Large school winner Abington Senior High School (Abington, Penn.) -- Laurence Goldberg, director of technology at Abington, envisions students using MP3 devices to create digital portfolios; Dell Intelligent Classroom(TM) technology for collaboration and project-based learning; a state-of-the-art mobile video production lab to produce multimedia reports; and advanced software to create their own multi-user virtual environments. He also plans to implement a platform that enables teachers to manage lessons and assessments on the Web, providing students with anytime, anywhere access to educational content that can be customized to their learning styles, abilities and schedules.

"Visionaries have the unique ability to dream of what's possible and then make it a reality," said Michael Dell, Dell's chairman, who teamed with Microsoft's Bill Gates to determine the winners. "We are excited to watch these visionaries use technology to help students develop skills in collaboration, critical thinking and teamwork that they'll need to compete in the global economy."

In a video presentation, Gates said of the visionaries that "Their important work is helping to improve instruction and helping to challenge young people to perform at higher and higher levels. All of them showed a great deal of effort and creativity and I look forward to hearing about their progress in using technology to enhance learning."

FutureReady is a collaboration between Dell, Microsoft and Intel designed to help students reach their full potential through innovative use of technology in the classroom. Companies including CrossTec Corp., maker of NetOp School software, and Datamation also contributed products to the prize packages.

FutureReady also offered two other ways for K-12 schools to win technology for their classrooms. Earlier this month, five schools were announced as winners of the FutureReady Mobile Lab Contest, in which schools rallied their communities to log votes on www.futureready.org for a chance to win a mobile computer lab with approximate retail value of $10,000.

Additionally, the following schools, selected by random drawing, have won FutureReady's Dell Intelligent Classroom(TM) Sweepstakes. Each will receive classroom technology with an approximate retail value of $75,000:

--Large school winner Tulare Western High School in Tulare, Calif.

--Medium school winner Antietam Middle Senior High School in Reading, Penn.

--Small school winner North Shelby School District in Shelbyville, Mo.

For more information about the FutureReady program, visit www.futureready.org.

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