Comcast Celebrates Digital Connectors Program’s Success – Thaindian News – 30 Nov 2010

By Madhuri Dey

Nov 30, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Comcast along with One Economy is celebrating the success of a significant technology learning and service project that deals with teaching youngsters about the broadband Internet technologies and the ways to implement their expertise while catering the Philadelphia community. The initiative named Comcast Digital Connectors started at 2009 at People’s Emergency Center and Project H.O.M.E. Now it is held after school hours all over the year. In this program, 43 high school students hailing from diverse low income category backgrounds work at Philadelphia’s Comcast Technology Labs and Honickman Learning Center of Project H.O.M.E. They learn the basics of digital literacy skills. They try spreading awareness about digital technology even in their neighborhoods.

Some U.S. politicians have lauded the effort. Comcast Corporation’s Executive Vice President David L. Cohen said that it is a really challenging and unique initiative that has been undertaken by the company. One Economy’s mission is enhancing the potential of technology in urban areas across the United States. So far, 35000 young people got involved in this initiative. The Comcast One Economy partnership is aimed at doubling this number and the hour of service they can put in. The Digital Connectors program as well as curriculum was set up by One Economy in the year 2003.

Digital Connectors is meant for empowering needy students and enabling them to use technology to lead a better life. People’s Emergency Center’s President and CEO Farah M. Jimenez said that PED is happy to collaborate with Comcast and One Economy “to bring Digital Connectors to our West Philadelphia community.” The students get to learn ways to connect computer labs, create video documentaries and connect to wireless access points in this project.

Source: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/tech-news/comcast-celebrates-digital-connectors-programs-success_100467524.html

NTUC Share-A-Textbook Project – edvantage.com – 26 Nov 2010

Needy families requesting for textbooks increased by over 50% from 11,500 to 17,500.

NTUC FairPrice's Share-A-Textbook Project, which has been around for the past 27 years continues to meet the demands of needy families and students.

This year the demand from needy families has increased by over 50% from 11,500 students in 2009 to some 17,500 students.

The closing date for collection is on November 30 2010.

Despite collecting 150,000 textbooks and it is still short of its target of collecting more than 200,000 textbooks to help more students in need save on textbook expenses.

The organisation and its volunteers are seeking help from the public to donate Primary and Secondary textbooks before the closing date.

To ensure that the books collected will reach the needy various unions, welfare organisations and schools were earlier invited to nominate suitable students to collect the books under the project's Priority Scheme where they will collect their textbooks ahead of the public.

Though the project hopes to continue to benefit from the public's generosity it also hopes that the public will donate textbooks of the relevant levels and not university textbooks and assessment books or textbooks with missing pages and or defaced textbooks.

The organisation thanks the public in advance for their generosity and hopes to continue aiding the youths to continue their educational pursuits.

Source:  http://www.edvantage.com.sg/edvantage/news/news/501582/Share_A_Textbook_Project.html

Google Gives $250,000 to Tech Education for Needy Communities – Mashable – 30 Nov 2010

Google has just pledged $250,000 to iGotITtoo, an organization that brings technology training and other tools to underserved communities, that will allow the charity to expand across New York City.

The organization was founded in 2007, and its name stands for “I’ve got information technology, too.” It currently operates in Brooklyn, where community members were attempting to make sure everyone in the area had access to technological tools — tools that can sometimes make a huge difference in access to services and quality of life.

The two iGotITtoo co-founders began teaching community center computer classes to address this need; their efforts were met by a growing demand, and iGotITtoo now boasts a staff of 30 volunteers teaching two to three classes and labs per week at each of the organization’s three locations in Brooklyn.

CEO Santana Kenner said in a statement on Tuesday, “It is our mission to end digital inequality by building communities’ capacities to leverage technology to improve educational and economic opportunities — a pattern which affects social capital in both the physical and digital domains.” iGotITtoo is planning a citywide launch in 2011.

Do you think more cities and neighborhoods could use programs like this one? Let us know what you think of Google’s grant and of iGotITtoo’s programs in the comments.

Source: http://mashable.com/2010/11/30/google-igotittoo/