If you are a programmer, I can see how you would pick up typing through your classes and interests. But many of us working in tech-related fields are not programmers, and for me, learning typing in high school is the best thing my mother ever made me do. I'm a program manager, and 60% of my job is answering email. I type at around 80WPM. My colleague never took a typing class -- I answer probably four times as much email as she does in the same period. I also can take notes on a computer, transcribing whatever is being said at a meeting, for the most part. I have no idea how the innards of my computer work -- and it's never mattered for the kind of jobs I'm in.
do some volunteering (hey - just go to the park and pick up garbage for an hour or two, till the unionized city employees chase you off)
I want to second this -- but on a more serious note. A great way to explore different careers is through volunteering. NetAid Online Volunteering has a database of organizations working in or for developing countries that are recruiting online volunteers. Local online (and offline) volunteering opportunities can be found at VolunteerMatch.
Volunteering is a great way not only to explore potential new career paths, but to also have something to put on your resume in employment gap years. Just remember that, like job searches, you have probably have to apply for several positions before you will find a volunteering opportunity.
I have a golden opportunity in the next 24 months to learn another profession, just as long as I can do it from a wheelchair. What should I learn to do? What's a good job field for us mildly autistic ex-geeks on wheels?
What do you want to do? What topics or tasks are interesting to you? I'm a big believer in following your heart when it comes to pursuing a career, or thinking about a particular education path. A career counselor can help.
A great way to explore different careers is through volunteering, and if mobility is an issue for you as far as getting onsite to locations, then think about online volunteering. There are organizations that have opportunities for online volunteers that are totally tech related -- building an e-commerce site, constructing a database -- and that have very little to do with tech (researching topics, writing stories for newsletters, editing proposals, mentoring young people, translating documents, consulting, etc.).
NetAid Online Volunteering has a database of organizations working in or for developing countries that are recruiting online volunteers. Local online (and offline) volunteering opportunities can be found at VolunteerMatch.
Volunteering is a great way not only to explore potential new career paths, but to also have something to put on your resume in employment gap years. Just remember that, like job searches, you have probably have to apply for several positions before you will find a volunteering opportunity.
The Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet) is a national non-profit membership organization of more than one thousand community technology centers. Its web site and membership has advice on what to do -- and what not to do -- in a community computer lab.
If you are interested in volunteering in an under-developed country to help build people's capacities to apply ICTs to the areas and issues of greatest concern to them -- education, HIV/AIDS, agriculture, environment, etc. -- have a look at the United Nations Information Technology Service web site. UNITeS has placed and supported more than 150 volunteers in more than a dozen developing countries, and is part of the United Nations Volunteers program.
If you would like to help the developing world as a volunteer but not have to travel, UNV also has an online volunteering service through NetAid. Online assignments are both "techie" (build a web site, build a database, trouble-shoot tech issues) and non "techie" (translate a document from one language to another, design a logo, mentor a student, write an article, etc.).
I'm glad that two people noted that they are volunteering -- it's a great way to keep yourself busy in the time you aren't looking for a job, to make connections that could possibly lead to a job (or a spouse, who knows), and most importantly, it's a way to do something positive with your time. If anyone else is interested in exploring volunteering, contact your local volunteer center, search through www.volunteermatch.org and, if you want to volunteer from your home or work computer, check out www.netaid.org/ov.
The United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), an initiative managed by (UN Volunteers, has placed and supported more than 150 volunteers in developing countries doing just this kind of service, and more. Hope they can get together with the Peace Corps and leverage resources even more. And as someone mentioned. UNV manages the (NetAid Online Volunteering service, which allows online volunteers to provide service to organizations serving developing countries.
The vast majority of mission-based organizations need volunteers to contribute to an overall project, rather than just one time, for just an hour or three, via a computer. Plus, there are very instances where you sign up for an opportunity and then get started immediately -- organizations need to read over your resume and, in some cases, ask for samples of your work, to make sure you really are qualified to take on the assignment you've signed up for.
There are many very short-term activities that you can do via the Internet for mission-based organizations; for instance, an organization may need someone to do research online, and this may take about five hours of your time, which you could do all at once or spread out over a few days or weeks. An organization may need experts in a particular subject -- linux, online learning, HIV/AIDS support groups, training people re-entering the workforce, etc. -- to log in to a discussion group once a month to answer any related questions, or to periodically answer questions from the organization's staff via email.
What's most important to remember is that the organization's mission is the most important priority, and they are going to create activities and look for volunteers that will support that mission.
VolunteerMatch, originally Impact Online, began back in 1994 and, at that time, there were very, very few mission-based organizations outside of North America that were online. Launching a service focused on the U.S. -- and maintaining that focus -- keeps VolunteerMatch unique, and that's a good thing. VolunteerMatch requires submission of registration information to screen organizations before they can begin posting volunteering opportunities, and that gives a certain amount of quality to the posted volunteering opportunities over services that don't do such. However, opportunities themselves aren't screened (hence the many opportunities marked as "virtual" that actually are recruiting for onsite volunteers).
IdeaList is globally-focused, and has an expanded mission to provide information beyond volunteering -- there's a database of events, a database of skills offered by volunteers, information for paid work, etc. It's a little harder to find online volunteering opportunities, but they are there, and the number of them grows regularly. I'm not sure how much screening of organizations or opportunities there are.
NetAid offers an online volunteering service, managed by the UN Volunteers program, and its focus is international: all opportunities are in support of organizations working in or for communities in developing countries, and volunteers are recruited from all over the world. Also, all organizations and opportunities are pre-screened, to ensure that the organizations are legitimate and that the opportunities are appropriate.
There are other volunteer matching services serving single countries -- Canada, the U.K., Australia, Spain, Chile... a google search should lead you to these relatively easily.
The Virtual Volunteering Project provides the most comprehensive information available anywhere about how and why organizations should involve online volunteers, and how and why individuals can and should volunteer online. There's extensive information for organizations (how to convince co-workers and board members that this is worth pursuing; how to develop activities for online volunteers; how to recruit, screen, and manage online volunteers; how to protect participants' safety, etc.). For individuals, there's information on how to choose appropriate online volunteering activities, where to find resources to help you while volunteering online, and links to volunteer matching databases.
One of the best online volunteering services is by NetAid, and is managed by the UN Volunteers program. This service is devoted exclusively to supporting organizations working in and for communities in developing countries. Yes, that's right -- online volunteers are making a difference in the lives of people in the third world. And have been for about two years via NetAid. NetAid is also more than a matching service -- organizations can use this free service to manage and communicate with online volunteers, and individuals can use it to report on organizations they support. There's extensive information to help both organizations and individuals during online volunteering. And there are LOTS of testimonials from both individuals and organizations about why online volunteering is worth doing.
Some of you have questioned why volunteer at all. A good place to explore this issue is at Serviceleader.org. Enjoy. But for a personal testimonial -- some activities that I do as a volunteer are things that are applications of my professional skills to mission-based organizations. Other volunteer gigs involve activities which are new things I don't get to do (and sometimes don't want to do -- or, would like to do) in my job. As a volunteer, I feel more free to experiment. My approach to my volunteer activities is quite different than my approach to paid work. I feel more like an investor when I'm a volunteer, and more independent. I feel like I can take greater risks in my work "style." And I feel valued in a different way, a more emotional way, as a volunteer by organizations I help, than as a paid staff member. I wouldn't choose one over the other, but I wouldn't have one without the other.
I've been an evangelist for Virtual Volunteering since 1996 -- really glad to see it being discussed here, and I'm happy to answer any questions offlist for Slashdot users. Feel free to email me on the subject.
The argument that "people need rice, not computers" so misses the point. People used to say the same thing about education -- why are you teaching women and children to read when they are hungry? Because one of the PROVEN ways to address poverty in the long term is education. The more educated a community, the better position its members are in to learn about more successful ways to grow crops, trade merchandise, raise children... and remember, people in developing countries are asking for computers and the Internet. The value is already being seen in developing countries, as women's cooperatives find better markets for their crafts, farmers find cheaper organic pesticides and other information, local citizens communicate their community needs with the government... Addressing the Digital Divide makes a real difference in the quality of life for people in developing countries. The United Nations recognizes this and is employing several programs that are already showing results, UNITeS among them (it was mentioned in the article, and was a topic recently on Slashdot).
the PowerUP national program didn't survive because it was a top-down, corporate driven response to the Digital Divide. It was doomed from the beginning. all of the PowerUP sites in communities are continuing, but are being run by more grass-roots organizations, such as CTCNet, a very successful grassroots Digital Divide effort, and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Your community LAN needs to be under the auspices of a registered nonprofit organization, and needs to have a mission statement that clearly defines it as doing something for the public good, in such a way as not to be seen by ISPs as competition. For instance, the YMCA got into trouble with health clubs because, in some cases, it was promoting itself primarily as a healthclub, rather than primarily as a nonprofit founded "to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind, and body for all."
I strongly suggest you -- and anyone who wants to engage in a community tech initiative -- contact the folks at CTCNet; they should have some excellent guidance on forming a community/nonprofit LAN.
Knowbility.org is a nonprofit org in Austin, Texas focused on providing tech education, access and career development to people with disabilities. Email them -- they could probably answer your question. Knowbility.org also hosts a fantastic one day web site building contest with volunteer programmers that both provides web sites to nonprofits and teaches programmers about accessiblity issues. The most famous is the annual eventin Austin, but they have them in other cities as well (and would love to have them in even more).
You wrote that "but as nice as it sounds to bring the internet in parts of the world who don't have it I don't quite see the sense in it when at the same time thousands of people die everyday."
People in developing countries WANT access to Information Communications Technologies (ICT). They want Internet access. Farmers want to be able to track weather patterns and find local organic materials that can help them fight pests and look at what their crops are selling for in big cities so that they can better negotiate with the middlemen. Women want access to healthcare information and career information and ways to preserve the traditions of their culture. Children want access to education and career information and tools that will help them in their lives. The argument, "They need food, not...." was used against education programs in poor communities for a long time, and it took a long time to show that education had an impact on extreme poverty (and it does -- a very positive one).
There is lots and lots of information about ICT volunteering programs abroad, the tools that these volunteers find useful, and why ICT volunteers are so important in addressing problems in developing communities at:
www.unites.org.
"Can you have a fun tech job, without the worry of being suddenly unemployed?" You can't have any job, fun, tech, or otherwise, without the worry of being suddenly unemployed.
"If you are you forced (as I am) to get your fun on the side what are some good projects to get involved in?" Many, many tech folks volunteer their skills on the side to nonprofit organizations. They like the feeling that their experience and knowledge can be applied to helping their communities, the environment, etc. Think about what causes you care about, contact organizations in your area that address those causes, and offer your services as a volunteer. It's worth noting that a poster to the Her Domain discussion group said that her sister got hired because the interviewer was impressed that, while she was unemployed, she volunteered -- and had noted it on her resume.
Studies of people who telecommunte actually show that such workers work much longer hours than people in the office. This is because the workers at home feel that they have to "prove" they are working as hard as their onsite co-workers, prove to their employers that letting them work from home is a good idea, and because telecommuters have trouble setting boundaries between work hours and home hours -- they tend to take calls and inquiries at off hours and deal with whatever work related issue comes up even late at night.
"With scarce resources available for very basic development needs, such as water and sanitation, education, food security, income generation, many people wonder why bother to provide these new technologies, and whether they are not unnecessary luxuries in many contexts. It is not an 'either-or' scenario anymore, as these technologies are nothing more than advanced information tools to be used if/when it is beneficial. Among a poor farmer's first priorities is to get sufficient food for his family; perhaps ICTs can help him find better prices for his produce, enabling him to buy more (and higher quality) food. People from development countries are best placed to know when and whether ICTs are appropriate for them. Much will depend on the value they attach to information. Hardly anyone will question the value of basic education. Yet reading and writing are, at their core, skills to access and produce information. The issue of ICTs and the digital divide is ultimately about greater choices, as is human development."
United Nations Information Technology Service
UNITeS.
Placing ICT volunteers in developing countries, including Africa -- and making a difference!
Please check out United Nations Information Technology Service, which sends volunteers in ICT to developing countries, including Africa. And note this excerpt from the site:
With scarce resources available for very basic development needs, such as water and sanitation, education, food security, income generation, many people wonder why bother to provide these new technologies, and whether they are not unnecessary luxuries in many contexts. It is not an "either-or" scenario anymore, as these technologies are nothing more than advanced information tools to be used if/when it is beneficial. Among a poor farmer's first priorities is to get sufficient food for his family; perhaps ICTs can help him find better prices for his produce, enabling him to buy more (and higher quality) food. People from development countries are best placed to know when and whether ICTs are appropriate for them. Much will depend on the value they attach to information. Hardly anyone will question the value of basic education. Yet reading and writing are, at their core, skills to access and produce information. The issue of ICTs and the digital divide is ultimately about greater choices, as is human development.
I just posted on this list about the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), a global volunteering program that places high tech volunteers in developing countries, including Africa. I won't repeat myself now, but do check out that later post or visit the UNITeS web site. UNITeS may be the right volunteer program for you.
In addition to the advice you have already received, consider setting up a portion of your curriculum to focus on online safety. What is appropriate -- and what isn't -- for a young person to do online? What does something "inappropriate" look like on, say, a chat room? (i.e. someone asking you for your home address or phone number, someone telling you not to tell your parents something, etc.). Make it a very open-discussion, not just a dictate from an adult about what to do and what not to do. There is a lot of information about online safety for kids, including links to lots of other resources, at Virtual Volunteering Project - Safety Suggestions
If you are looking to teach kids things they can do online that are "positive", while also helping them learn to interact with the computer better, see the list of suggestions for online mentors and youth, also by the VV Project. These are suggestions for activities for online adult mentors to engage in with youth, but they could be easily adapted to your own curriculum, without online mentors.
I loved this essay, because I love reading opinions from actually *users* of computers and software, particularly personal details about how they really use a particular piece of technology, vs. how marketing people tell us how we should use it.
This essay prompts me to post a question here I've been asking alot on various online discussion groups -- I am looking for examples of volunteers/citizens/grass roots advocates using hand held computer or phone devices as part of their community service/volunteering/advocacy. I've found lots of examples where a particular city has given out hand helds to volunteers to report infrastructure and crime problems (abandoned cars, pot holes, drug deals, etc.) -- know of any others?
Slashdot Mirror
If you are a programmer, I can see how you would pick up typing through your classes and interests. But many of us working in tech-related fields are not programmers, and for me, learning typing in high school is the best thing my mother ever made me do. I'm a program manager, and 60% of my job is answering email. I type at around 80WPM. My colleague never took a typing class -- I answer probably four times as much email as she does in the same period. I also can take notes on a computer, transcribing whatever is being said at a meeting, for the most part. I have no idea how the innards of my computer work -- and it's never mattered for the kind of jobs I'm in.
I want to second this -- but on a more serious note. A great way to explore different careers is through volunteering. NetAid Online Volunteering has a database of organizations working in or for developing countries that are recruiting online volunteers. Local online (and offline) volunteering opportunities can be found at VolunteerMatch.
Volunteering is a great way not only to explore potential new career paths, but to also have something to put on your resume in employment gap years. Just remember that, like job searches, you have probably have to apply for several positions before you will find a volunteering opportunity.
What do you want to do? What topics or tasks are interesting to you? I'm a big believer in following your heart when it comes to pursuing a career, or thinking about a particular education path. A career counselor can help.
A great way to explore different careers is through volunteering, and if mobility is an issue for you as far as getting onsite to locations, then think about online volunteering. There are organizations that have opportunities for online volunteers that are totally tech related -- building an e-commerce site, constructing a database -- and that have very little to do with tech (researching topics, writing stories for newsletters, editing proposals, mentoring young people, translating documents, consulting, etc.).
NetAid Online Volunteering has a database of organizations working in or for developing countries that are recruiting online volunteers. Local online (and offline) volunteering opportunities can be found at VolunteerMatch.
Volunteering is a great way not only to explore potential new career paths, but to also have something to put on your resume in employment gap years. Just remember that, like job searches, you have probably have to apply for several positions before you will find a volunteering opportunity.
The Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet) is a national non-profit membership organization of more than one thousand community technology centers. Its web site and membership has advice on what to do -- and what not to do -- in a community computer lab.
If you would like to help the developing world as a volunteer but not have to travel, UNV also has an online volunteering service through NetAid. Online assignments are both "techie" (build a web site, build a database, trouble-shoot tech issues) and non "techie" (translate a document from one language to another, design a logo, mentor a student, write an article, etc.).
I'm glad that two people noted that they are volunteering -- it's a great way to keep yourself busy in the time you aren't looking for a job, to make connections that could possibly lead to a job (or a spouse, who knows), and most importantly, it's a way to do something positive with your time. If anyone else is interested in exploring volunteering, contact your local volunteer center, search through www.volunteermatch.org and, if you want to volunteer from your home or work computer, check out www.netaid.org/ov.
The United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), an initiative managed by (UN Volunteers, has placed and supported more than 150 volunteers in developing countries doing just this kind of service, and more. Hope they can get together with the Peace Corps and leverage resources even more. And as someone mentioned. UNV manages the (NetAid Online Volunteering service, which allows online volunteers to provide service to organizations serving developing countries.
There are many very short-term activities that you can do via the Internet for mission-based organizations; for instance, an organization may need someone to do research online, and this may take about five hours of your time, which you could do all at once or spread out over a few days or weeks. An organization may need experts in a particular subject -- linux, online learning, HIV/AIDS support groups, training people re-entering the workforce, etc. -- to log in to a discussion group once a month to answer any related questions, or to periodically answer questions from the organization's staff via email.
What's most important to remember is that the organization's mission is the most important priority, and they are going to create activities and look for volunteers that will support that mission.
IdeaList is globally-focused, and has an expanded mission to provide information beyond volunteering -- there's a database of events, a database of skills offered by volunteers, information for paid work, etc. It's a little harder to find online volunteering opportunities, but they are there, and the number of them grows regularly. I'm not sure how much screening of organizations or opportunities there are.
NetAid offers an online volunteering service, managed by the UN Volunteers program, and its focus is international: all opportunities are in support of organizations working in or for communities in developing countries, and volunteers are recruited from all over the world. Also, all organizations and opportunities are pre-screened, to ensure that the organizations are legitimate and that the opportunities are appropriate.
There are other volunteer matching services serving single countries -- Canada, the U.K., Australia, Spain, Chile... a google search should lead you to these relatively easily.
One of the best online volunteering services is by NetAid , and is managed by the UN Volunteers program . This service is devoted exclusively to supporting organizations working in and for communities in developing countries. Yes, that's right -- online volunteers are making a difference in the lives of people in the third world. And have been for about two years via NetAid. NetAid is also more than a matching service -- organizations can use this free service to manage and communicate with online volunteers, and individuals can use it to report on organizations they support. There's extensive information to help both organizations and individuals during online volunteering. And there are LOTS of testimonials from both individuals and organizations about why online volunteering is worth doing.
Some of you have questioned why volunteer at all. A good place to explore this issue is at Serviceleader.org. Enjoy. But for a personal testimonial -- some activities that I do as a volunteer are things that are applications of my professional skills to mission-based organizations. Other volunteer gigs involve activities which are new things I don't get to do (and sometimes don't want to do -- or, would like to do) in my job. As a volunteer, I feel more free to experiment. My approach to my volunteer activities is quite different than my approach to paid work. I feel more like an investor when I'm a volunteer, and more independent. I feel like I can take greater risks in my work "style." And I feel valued in a different way, a more emotional way, as a volunteer by organizations I help, than as a paid staff member. I wouldn't choose one over the other, but I wouldn't have one without the other.
I've been an evangelist for Virtual Volunteering since 1996 -- really glad to see it being discussed here, and I'm happy to answer any questions offlist for Slashdot users. Feel free to email me on the subject.
The argument that "people need rice, not computers" so misses the point. People used to say the same thing about education -- why are you teaching women and children to read when they are hungry? Because one of the PROVEN ways to address poverty in the long term is education. The more educated a community, the better position its members are in to learn about more successful ways to grow crops, trade merchandise, raise children... and remember, people in developing countries are asking for computers and the Internet. The value is already being seen in developing countries, as women's cooperatives find better markets for their crafts, farmers find cheaper organic pesticides and other information, local citizens communicate their community needs with the government... Addressing the Digital Divide makes a real difference in the quality of life for people in developing countries. The United Nations recognizes this and is employing several programs that are already showing results, UNITeS among them (it was mentioned in the article, and was a topic recently on Slashdot).
the PowerUP national program didn't survive because it was a top-down, corporate driven response to the Digital Divide. It was doomed from the beginning. all of the PowerUP sites in communities are continuing, but are being run by more grass-roots organizations, such as CTCNet, a very successful grassroots Digital Divide effort, and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
I strongly suggest you -- and anyone who wants to engage in a community tech initiative -- contact the folks at CTCNet; they should have some excellent guidance on forming a community/nonprofit LAN.
Knowbility.org is a nonprofit org in Austin, Texas focused on providing tech education, access and career development to people with disabilities. Email them -- they could probably answer your question. Knowbility.org also hosts a fantastic one day web site building contest with volunteer programmers that both provides web sites to nonprofits and teaches programmers about accessiblity issues. The most famous is the annual eventin Austin, but they have them in other cities as well (and would love to have them in even more).
You wrote that "but as nice as it sounds to bring the internet in parts of the world who don't have it I don't quite see the sense in it when at the same time thousands of people die everyday."
People in developing countries WANT access to Information Communications Technologies (ICT). They want Internet access. Farmers want to be able to track weather patterns and find local organic materials that can help them fight pests and look at what their crops are selling for in big cities so that they can better negotiate with the middlemen. Women want access to healthcare information and career information and ways to preserve the traditions of their culture. Children want access to education and career information and tools that will help them in their lives. The argument, "They need food, not...." was used against education programs in poor communities for a long time, and it took a long time to show that education had an impact on extreme poverty (and it does -- a very positive one).
There is lots and lots of information about ICT volunteering programs abroad, the tools that these volunteers find useful, and why ICT volunteers are so important in addressing problems in developing communities at:
www.unites.org.
"If you are you forced (as I am) to get your fun on the side what are some good projects to get involved in?" Many, many tech folks volunteer their skills on the side to nonprofit organizations. They like the feeling that their experience and knowledge can be applied to helping their communities, the environment, etc. Think about what causes you care about, contact organizations in your area that address those causes, and offer your services as a volunteer. It's worth noting that a poster to the Her Domain discussion group said that her sister got hired because the interviewer was impressed that, while she was unemployed, she volunteered -- and had noted it on her resume.
You can even look into volunteering online. NetAid Online Volunteering is focused on organizations that work in developing countries. Also see the Virtual Volunteering Project.
Studies of people who telecommunte actually show that such workers work much longer hours than people in the office. This is because the workers at home feel that they have to "prove" they are working as hard as their onsite co-workers, prove to their employers that letting them work from home is a good idea, and because telecommuters have trouble setting boundaries between work hours and home hours -- they tend to take calls and inquiries at off hours and deal with whatever work related issue comes up even late at night.
"With scarce resources available for very basic development needs, such as water and sanitation, education, food security, income generation, many people wonder why bother to provide these new technologies, and whether they are not unnecessary luxuries in many contexts. It is not an 'either-or' scenario anymore, as these technologies are nothing more than advanced information tools to be used if/when it is beneficial. Among a poor farmer's first priorities is to get sufficient food for his family; perhaps ICTs can help him find better prices for his produce, enabling him to buy more (and higher quality) food. People from development countries are best placed to know when and whether ICTs are appropriate for them. Much will depend on the value they attach to information. Hardly anyone will question the value of basic education. Yet reading and writing are, at their core, skills to access and produce information. The issue of ICTs and the digital divide is ultimately about greater choices, as is human development." United Nations Information Technology Service UNITeS. Placing ICT volunteers in developing countries, including Africa -- and making a difference!
Please check out United Nations Information Technology Service, which sends volunteers in ICT to developing countries, including Africa. And note this excerpt from the site: With scarce resources available for very basic development needs, such as water and sanitation, education, food security, income generation, many people wonder why bother to provide these new technologies, and whether they are not unnecessary luxuries in many contexts. It is not an "either-or" scenario anymore, as these technologies are nothing more than advanced information tools to be used if/when it is beneficial. Among a poor farmer's first priorities is to get sufficient food for his family; perhaps ICTs can help him find better prices for his produce, enabling him to buy more (and higher quality) food. People from development countries are best placed to know when and whether ICTs are appropriate for them. Much will depend on the value they attach to information. Hardly anyone will question the value of basic education. Yet reading and writing are, at their core, skills to access and produce information. The issue of ICTs and the digital divide is ultimately about greater choices, as is human development.
I just posted on this list about the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), a global volunteering program that places high tech volunteers in developing countries, including Africa. I won't repeat myself now, but do check out that later post or visit the UNITeS web site. UNITeS may be the right volunteer program for you.
If you are looking to teach kids things they can do online that are "positive", while also helping them learn to interact with the computer better, see the list of suggestions for online mentors and youth, also by the VV Project. These are suggestions for activities for online adult mentors to engage in with youth, but they could be easily adapted to your own curriculum, without online mentors.
I loved this essay, because I love reading opinions from actually *users* of computers and software, particularly personal details about how they really use a particular piece of technology, vs. how marketing people tell us how we should use it.
This essay prompts me to post a question here I've been asking alot on various online discussion groups -- I am looking for examples of volunteers/citizens/grass roots advocates using hand held computer or phone devices as part of their community service/volunteering/advocacy. I've found lots of examples where a particular city has given out hand helds to volunteers to report infrastructure and crime problems (abandoned cars, pot holes, drug deals, etc.) -- know of any others?