How To Help Our Public Schools With Technology?

armorer writes "I'm a programmer engaged to an inner-city public school teacher. I've been thinking for a long time now about what I can do to help close the technology gap, and I finally did something (very small) about it. I convinced my company to give me a few old computers they were replacing, refurbished them, installed Edubuntu on them, and donated them to her classroom. I also took some vacation time to go in, install everything, and give a lesson on computers to the kids. It was a great experience, but now I know first-hand how little technology these schools have. I only helped one classroom. The school needs more. (Really the whole district needs more!) And while I want to help them, I don't really know how. With Thanksgiving a week away and more holidays approaching, I suspect I'm not the only one thinking about this sort of thing. I know it's a hard problem, so I'm not looking for any silver bullets. What do Slashdot readers do? What should I be doing so that I'm more effective? How do you find resources and time to give back?"

Comments

Re:What do \. readers do?

[stewbacca]

2. Diatribe on the bad products and business practices of Microsoft

As of your post, YOU are the only person in this entire thread to even mention Microsoft. EPIC TROLL FAIL.

Diatribe is a noun. Using it as a verb is an EPIC GRAMMAR FAIL.

Re:Freecycle

[cayenne8]

"No, look for the computers you donated on craigslist after one of those 'inner-city' students steals them and puts them up for sale."

Or, perhaps a few entrepreneurial ones will find that they can use them to sell crack or craigslist, or help the young ladies there set up 'personals' ads as providers to make a little money on the side?

Troll?....Ouch....tough crowd here tonight.

Ok..so have you heard the one about the Priest, the Rabbi, and the Lutheran minister...?