The Buddy Project began as “The Computer at Home” project in 1988 when a group of business and education leaders envisioned a world where students had access to home computers and a vast array of educational resources for learning beyond the bounds of school time and place. With startup funding from private and public sectors, Buddy made grants to schools to loan 4th through 6th grade families home computers and to support professional development for teachers to guide the computers’ use toward meeting curriculum goals. In 1991, the Indiana General Assembly chartered the Corporation for Educational Technology and funded it to administer the Buddy Project and other technology initiatives. Since that time, with continued state funding, Buddy has directly served over 50,000 families in 125 schools and, through its professional development programs, thousands of Indiana teachers, representing every Hoosier county.
Buddy has evolved, over the years, to support technology integration at grades K-12 through research and development projects, professional development programming, and online resources of benefit to all Indiana educators and families. Our presence on the world-wide web has extended our reach to interested educators beyond Indiana boundaries, contributing quality educational resources to the world community. These online resources include Buddy Teaching and Learning Center and our newest resource, The Writing Site.
