Eisenhower Foundation Ed Program Gets New Technology

TCT GIFT TO EISENHOWER FOUNDATION ENHANCES FIELD TRIPS TO PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

There's an app for that! School field trips to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home are being enhanced by the addition of 25 iPad minis recently donated by TCT, Inc., a telecommunications company headquartered in Council Grove, Kan.

According to Emily Miller, Ike EDucator, the donation enables students to research historical information online when participating in Ike EDucation programs offered on-site at the Eisenhower Presidential Library. Ike ED offers a variety of educational curricula to meet the age level and needs of visiting students and teachers. The Eisenhower Foundation established Ike EDucation in 2013. It offers K-12 school groups complementary programs and activities that relate the life and times of the 34th President to today's students.

The on-site programs at the Eisenhower Presidential Library allow students to hold pieces of history - objects such as diaries, maps, and photographs - as they draw conclusions about the object's significance to a world event. A study of the weather on D-Day might include a secret military document describing the weather requirements necessary for a successful invasion, a weather balloon artifact, and the name of a meteorologist who reported daily to Eisenhower. With the addition of the iPad minis, students can conduct further research by online before stepping into Eisenhower's shoes to decide whether to commence or delay the D-Day invasion.

"The students are able to access information online, such as primary documents and videos," Miller says. "For example, in our program Holocaust: From a Name to a Number, students can scan a QR (Quick Response) code to watch interviews of actual Holocaust survivors and hear stories about the atrocities they endured at the hands of the Nazis."

TCT supports the communities it serves by funding local grants, sponsoring area events, providing numerous scholarships, and contributing to charities as well as civic and service clubs, according to Angie Schwerdtfeger, TCT's director of public relations.

"We know that a lot of students in our service area participate in this program, and we thought this was a great way to marry historical programs that teach kids about history, about leadership and about responsibility, with technology that is going to grab their interest," she says. "It's fine handing students a pamphlet, but that's not going to engage them as much as technology will, and therefore they are going to learn things because they are excited about the technology. We're hoping that through this technology, they will get more excited about leadership, responsibility and history."
TCT opened a Solutions Center in Abilene to service customers in the surrounding area, Schwerdtfeger adds, and contributing the iPad minis to the Ike Education Program is just one way the company supports the region.