6/26 - Experience so far

Lindsay and I were invited to participate by Dr. McColgan and Dr. Colesante in early May. My personal reason for getting involved was my interest in STEM education, and to find ways to increase access and motivation for kids in poorer communities. An issue in modern education is the growing presence of, and need for, technology in the lives of students, and FLOSS Desktops seems to be a promising way to both increase access to needed technology at home (computer with internet is becoming more and more important), and to grow interest in STEM fields by getting kids to take computers that would otherwise go to waste and refurbish them for themselves with new software for the low cost of $0.00.

The two of us had no real prior experience in repairing or troubleshooting computers and software, and zero experience with coding, so the first two weeks were mainly for getting our bearings. We familiarized ourselves with the goals of the FLOSS Desktops program according to Pat Masson, ran through it with two computers, and attempted troubleshooting on a handful of other computers (old desktop PC and laptops that we brought in) with varying degrees of success. And now we are preparing a room and dealing with the logistics of actually leading a group of 12 students through the program, starting with basic computer knowledge and ending with a working, recycled computer that can create websites and do other projects with free, open-sourced software.

We are now both more confident in working with computers at home; Lindsay is building a gaming PC; I repaired and repurposed a computer with a damaged BIOS that my father was going to throw away. And we're also more confident in working with learning coding languages like python and html.

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