[NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2701] NYTimes article: Mississippi Students Build Their Own PC's

From: Jeff Carter (jcarter@worlded.org)
Date: Thu Dec 19 2002 - 17:12:00 EST


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From: Jeff Carter <jcarter@worlded.org>
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Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2701] NYTimes article: Mississippi Students Build Their Own PC's
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Today's New York Times Circuits section included an interesting story
about an initiative in Mississippi in which high-school students are
building computers as part of the state's mission to put at least one
Internet-connected computer into every Mississippi classroom by the end
of 2002.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/19/technology/circuits/19buil.html>

Excerpts follow:

> Wiring of all 30,000 classrooms for the Internet should be complete by
> the governor's deadline, educators said. The larger hurdle at the
> outset was obtaining computers for the 6,000 classrooms that still
> lacked them. Officials said the state could not afford to buy that
> many through conventional means.

> ...the computer class is not limited to the academically gifted but is
> oriented toward students who are likely to benefit from its hands-on
> approach. In the past, hands-on tasks have been seen as the stuff of
> vocational training. But with the computer course, "this is a hands-on
> academic program," she said. For many students, it was an irresistible
> combination.
>
> One of the most exciting results, she said, is not only that computers
> are being placed in classrooms, but that the students who built them
> are learning marketable skills. Preparing students for certification
> as computer technicians is an important goal of the program.

Why couldn't we do something like this in Adult Ed? Even if not on this
scale (although I don't know why it couldn't be on this scale). Anyone
on this list working with students on building and maintaining the
computers for their program, for example?

Jeff

Jeff Carter
World Education
Boston, MA
(617) 482-9485
--------------
e-mail: jcarter@worlded.org
<http://literacytech.worlded.org>
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