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The 'old' computers some people here are calling useless get quite a bit of use here, all the way down to 486 machines. These work great for word processing and Internet access, among other things such as older (but still good) educational software. Ultimately the machines we have will need to be recycled somehow, but they're obviously of great use to us until then.

It's a shame that there aren't more *UGs and retirees out there contributing to this cause. Our two volunteers come to our site one or two days a week for a few hours and they keep us running very comfortably. One is a retired engineer and the other is his son. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have had any computers here the first two years we were open. Having visited a dozen or so other campuses, I can say that there are many other schools in the same position we were in a few years ago. Any teacher would attest to teh fact that an old working computer in a classroom is better than no computer in a classroom.

The volunteers have also put together computers from our parts bin for students that really want a computer at home to work but can't afford one. This has also proven to be a very good way to utilize old hardware. And the fact that the computers they get don't have decent fps just might be helping their grades anyway. :P

As for equipment failure, I would guestimate that about 80% of the equipment placed three to four years ago has been running without any problems whatsoever. Actually, the failure rate really isn't that far from the new machines that we have purchased. I guess that says something about how things are made these days...

So, bottom line... without volunteers, I would have to agree - old hardware isn't of much use to schools or other institutions without the means to pay someone to get the hardware working. But this would certainly change at any school if a retiree or a member or two of a *UG would donate a few hours of their time every month to a local school. :)

--SONET

The 'old' computers some people here are calling useless get quite a bit of use here, all the way down to 486 machines. These work great for word processing and Internet access, among other things such as older (but still good) educational software. Ultimately the machines we have will need to be recycled somehow, but they're obviously of great use to us until then.

It's a shame that there aren't more *UGs and retirees out there contributing to this cause. Our two volunteers come to our site one or two days a week for a few hours and they keep us running very comfortably. One is a retired engineer and the other is his son. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have had any computers here the first two years we were open. Having visited a dozen or so other campuses, I can say that there are many other schools in the same position we were in a few years ago. Any teacher would attest to teh fact that an old working computer in a classroom is better than no computer in a classroom.

The volunteers have also put together computers from our parts bin for students that really want a computer at home to work but can't afford one. This has also proven to be a very good way to utilize old hardware. And the fact that the computers they get don't have decent fps just might be helping their grades anyway. :P

As for equipment failure, I would guestimate that about 80% of the equipment placed three to four years ago has been running without any problems whatsoever. Actually, the failure rate really isn't that far from the new machines that we have purchased. I guess that says something about how things are made these days...

So, bottom line... without volunteers, I would have to agree - old hardware isn't of much use to schools or other institutions without the means to pay someone to get the hardware working. But this would certainly change at any school if a retiree or a member or two of a *UG would donate a few hours of their time every month to a local school. :)

--SONET

The 'old' computers some people here are calling useless get quite a bit of use here, all the way down to 486 machines. These work great for word processing and Internet access, among other things such as older (but still good) educational software. Ultimately the machines we have will need to be recycled somehow, but they're obviously of great use to us until then.

It's a shame that there aren't more *UGs and retirees out there contributing to this cause. Our two volunteers come to our site one or two days a week for a few hours and they keep us running very comfortably. One is a retired engineer and the other is his son. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have had any computers here the first two years we were open. Having visited a dozen or so other campuses, I can say that there are many other schools in the same position we were in a few years ago. Any teacher would attest to teh fact that an old working computer in a classroom is better than no computer in a classroom.

The volunteers have also put together computers from our parts bin for students that really want a computer at home to work but can't afford one. This has also proven to be a very good way to utilize old hardware. And the fact that the computers they get don't have decent fps just might be helping their grades anyway. :P

As for equipment failure, I would guestimate that about 80% of the equipment placed three to four years ago has been running without any problems whatsoever. Actually, the failure rate really isn't that far from the new machines that we have purchased. I guess that says something about how things are made these days...

So, bottom line... without volunteers, I would have to agree - old hardware isn't of much use to schools or other institutions without the means to pay someone to get the hardware working. But this would certainly change at any school if a retiree or a member or two of a *UG would donate a few hours of their time every month to a local school. :)

--SONET

The 'old' computers some people here are calling useless get quite a bit of use here, all the way down to 486 machines. These work great for word processing and Internet access, among other things such as older (but still good) educational software. Ultimately the machines we have will need to be recycled somehow, but they're obviously of great use to us until then.

It's a shame that there aren't more *UGs and retirees out there contributing to this cause. Our two volunteers come to our site one or two days a week for a few hours and they keep us running very comfortably. One is a retired engineer and the other is his son. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have had any computers here the first two years we were open. Having visited a dozen or so other campuses, I can say that there are many other schools in the same position we were in a few years ago. Any teacher would attest to teh fact that an old working computer in a classroom is better than no computer in a classroom.

The volunteers have also put together computers from our parts bin for students that really want a computer at home to work but can't afford one. This has also proven to be a very good way to utilize old hardware. And the fact that the computers they get don't have decent fps just might be helping their grades anyway. :P

As for equipment failure, I would guestimate that about 80% of the equipment placed three to four years ago has been running without any problems whatsoever. Actually, the failure rate really isn't that far from the new machines that we have purchased. I guess that says something about how things are made these days...

So, bottom line... without volunteers, I would have to agree - old hardware isn't of much use to schools or other institutions without the means to pay someone to get the hardware working. But this would certainly change at any school if a retiree or a member or two of a *UG would donate a few hours of their time every month to a local school. :)

--SONET

I think this article is based on schools that use computers for several hours during an average school day. I'll be the first to say that most classrooms aren't like that at the elementary level. Even in elementary classrooms with 5-8 computers (or even 20 computers), for each student to spend 30 minutes on a computer (average) per day is very unusual. There are just too many other things to do. And yes, I realize there are some schools that have students on computers for the majority of the day. After visiting dozens of schools in the US I think I'm qualified to say that those schools are the exception and not the rule. Most schools certainly don't strive for such an arrangement, either. Obsticles aside (financial, spacial, etc), there's much more to teaching and learning than just sticking a kid in front of a computer all day.

The fact that most teachers aren't comfortable with the technology is an entirely different subject. Even when well-integrated into curriculum (which I have witnessed in several classrooms), computers just can't realistically make up that much of the day in an elementary school setting.

As an aside, I have to point out that students who are more easily distracted and have problems learning typically perform their best (by a wide margin) on computers. I'm not talking about playing games, I'm talking about actual learning. I have conducted some informal little experiments with this and they have consistantly yeilded the same results. Just had to throw that in. :)

Promotional Statement: Check out some of the mini-web pages 9-11 year old students created using HTML! Student-created Web Pages

Waiver: Nothing I say reflects the values of my employer.

--SONET "Open bombay doors!" Peterson Elementary School

I think this article is based on schools that use computers for several hours during an average school day. I'll be the first to say that most classrooms aren't like that at the elementary level. Even in elementary classrooms with 5-8 computers (or even 20 computers), for each student to spend 30 minutes on a computer (average) per day is very unusual. There are just too many other things to do. And yes, I realize there are some schools that have students on computers for the majority of the day. After visiting dozens of schools in the US I think I'm qualified to say that those schools are the exception and not the rule. Most schools certainly don't strive for such an arrangement, either. Obsticles aside (financial, spacial, etc), there's much more to teaching and learning than just sticking a kid in front of a computer all day.

The fact that most teachers aren't comfortable with the technology is an entirely different subject. Even when well-integrated into curriculum (which I have witnessed in several classrooms), computers just can't realistically make up that much of the day in an elementary school setting.

As an aside, I have to point out that students who are more easily distracted and have problems learning typically perform their best (by a wide margin) on computers. I'm not talking about playing games, I'm talking about actual learning. I have conducted some informal little experiments with this and they have consistantly yeilded the same results. Just had to throw that in. :)

Promotional Statement: Check out some of the mini-web pages 9-11 year old students created using HTML! Student-created Web Pages

Waiver: Nothing I say reflects the values of my employer.

--SONET "Open bombay doors!" Peterson Elementary School

The Optiplex G1 tower is extremely easy to get into. All you have to do is press a button on the front and the side cover pops off. Good idea provided its in the right environment. They even have it set up so that you can put a padlock or 'security cable' so you can lock it down.

--SONET

Peterson Elementary School

To think someone would actually donate a 350MHz(?!) machine to this just makes me ill. Chances of this project ever even getting off the ground are slim and none, these guys are probably going to end up just using the for gaming boxes or something worthless when the project fails.

Really, if you have a computer you don't want, donate it to a school. I work/volunteer at an elementary school, and we wouldn't have literally 70% of what we have if it wasn't for hardware donations, and another 10% of what we have can be attributed to monetary contributions towards technology.

Donate it to a local school and write it off, and if you can't find a local school, we're always open to donations, working or otherwise. :)

Computer stuff we need
Just my two cents.

SONET

As the technology coordinator of an elementary school, I don't buy much software because most of it is pretty bad. I have found that usually software that has good content is usually coded *really* bad (crashes regularly), and when I find software that runs decent (relative term) the content is pointless. It's pretty frustrating.

So, the kids learn how to actually use the computers most of the time rather than having them play useless games all the time. In the computer lab we take machines apart, they learn how to navigate through the file system I created, learn word processing skills, and they make extensive use of the Internet down to 2nd grade. I guess this is most useful for them to learn anyway.

I wish the software we have would run on Linux. Even more I wish the software companies would sell Linux versions of their software... but I realize this is a long way off if it ever happens. I am actually getting some Linux boxes together this weekend to deploy in a classroom or two in the next week or so (primarily for word processing and Internet access).

--SONET
Our School Technology Site