Low-income families to get used computers BY JEFF
WILFORD, Journal Times, Oct. 17, 2002
RACINE -- Hoping to bridge the digital divide, a Racine-based
nonprofit organization plans to distribute 300 old but refurbished
computers to low-income families over the next year. The effort is
an extension of a similar but smaller pilot program that ended in
August.
The first two batches of families started computer
training Tuesday and Wednesday at Tech Corps Wisconsin Inc., 1220
Mound Ave.
For many of the parents, it will be their first
time using a computer, Tech Corps Executive Director Michael Pitsch
said. One parent and one child from each of the 24 families attends
the training.
Tech
Corps' mission is to refurbish old computers and distribute them for
educational use. Usually, that means installing computers in
schools. But the digital divide doesn't always end in the classroom.
The aim of this program is to put the computers in low-income homes
with school-age children, Pitsch said.
"That's what the
schools are telling us -- when they're at school, they have access
to technology, but when they're at home, they don't. And that's
where the divide is," Pitsch said. "In order for kids to be
successful at school, they need to have access to this technology at
home."
The Racine County Human Services Department donated
the computers, Pitsch said. Volunteers at Tech Corps installed
modems, CD-ROM drives and doubled their memory and storage space,
Pitsch said.
The families have to take five hours of computer
training, split over two sessions, to receive the computers. They
are scheduled to pick up their computers on Oct. 26.
The
computer training is rudimentary. That's because while the children
probably have at least a passing familiarity with computers from
using them at school, their parents do not, said Kristoff Ausderau,
an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer at Tech Corps. Ausderau developed the
training curriculum for theprogram.
Some people who took the
training in the pilot project had to be shown how to move the cursor
with a mouse.
"I knew it was going to be basic, but I didn't
know how basic it would be," Ausderau said.
In the original
pilot program, Tech Corps delivered 54 computers to low-income
families. The program was funded by Human Services Department,
Racine County United Way and SCJohnson.
The current program
is funded by a 21st Century Learning Grant, and is run in
affiliation with Racine Unified School District's Lighted
Schoolhouse and the Next Generation Now day care center.
The
program also comes with free Internet access, something the pilot
program didn't have, Pitsch said. Tech Corps recently expanded its
server to handle up to 300 online users at a time. That was so
families could take full advantage of having a computer in the
house.
"A computer is only about 50 percent useful if it's
used as a word processor and to write presentations," Pitsch said.
"The other 50 percent is e-mail" and Internet access.
To be
eligible for the program, children have to be enrolled in the
Lighted Schoolhouse program and their families have to qualify for
free or reduced-cost school lunches, Pitsch said. Lighted
Schoolhouse decides who is eligible and Next Generation Now sets up
the training schedule.
The families will get Omni Tech
computers made almost five years ago. Although updated, they lack
the firepower of newer models and are limited in the software they
can run. But they will be good enough for school assignments, word
processing, e-mail and Internet searches.
"They will be
useable for a couple of years," Pitsch said. "They will do what
they're set to do now forever, basically. Expectations will
change."
When they do change, Pitsch hopes those families
will make getting a new computer a priority. "Part of the program is
to introduce to these families the value of having a computer in the
home."
Pitsch said the program can last up to five years and
could eventually expand beyond Racine Unified students.
