14 DAY TRIAL // The Northwest school district has come up with an interesting initiative to help some of their students who do not own a computer at home. Jerry Ashton, director of technology for that district said that the school district will donate all its five-year-old computers to the students who do not own one, through a cycle that takes place every time the computers become obsolete and they cannot serve the district's services anymore. The idea to give them away to children is said to have come from Superintendent Karen Rue.
"These computers may not have market value, but they have kid value", said Karen Rue.
According to some estimations, almost 1,000 computers will be available through the replacement cycle. So far around 375 flyers have already been sent to some students' families by means of which the administrators explained the program to the students' parents and asked them if they're interested in the offer. The computers will be equipped with a Linux operating system and they will also include a set of free software such as text processing or photo editing applications and a few games. The initiative has already brought positive results. Some of the families who already received one of the district's computers called the administrators and thanked them.
"That is in the long-range technology plan. The goal is to offer a discounted rate for NISD students. We' ve just started putting together those details", Ashton said.
So far this kind of computers were put up for bid by the school district and the gains were not significant at all. Now, apart from giving them to children, Ashton claimed they also intend to use some of the computers for setting up a summer technology camp.