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Students hoping to bring technology to community

POCKET will bring computers, expertise to schools

by Brad Morgan

What do you get when you give two entrepreneurial Oberlin students access to the College's antiquated computers? The answer is POCKET (Project for the Oberlin Community, Kicking off Education by Technology).

This entirely student-run and volunteer-based group, coordinated by seniors Dave Phillips and Matt Meisenhelder, aims at organizing a donation of computers to Oberlin's public school system.

Last year, while volunteering at the Oberlin Early Childhood Center, Phillips and Meisenhelder were astounded by the center's lack of computer equipment. They realized the computers Oberlin is continuously giving away could easily be used at the center. "We have a lot of computers and a lot of knowledge here at Oberlin. We want to spread that knowledge to the kids," Phillips said.

The goal of POCKET is to acquire donated computers, install them and teach the children at the Oberlin Early Childhood Center how to use them. The Center is a publicly sponsored youth organization with children ages six months to 13 years. POCKET consists of four main areas of concentration: tutoring and teaching, donations, publicity and fundraising and hardware/software management.

POCKET hopes to supply the children at the Oberlin Early Childhood Center with technology they would otherwise not be exposed to. Furthermore, they hope to inspire confidence in the children's abilities to use and understand computers.

Volunteers will teach the children at the center the fundamental principles of using a computer including how to access and utilize the World Wide Web, and perhaps local email.

The Center currently only has two working computers and they are both obsolete. POCKET has already acquired more than 12 computers which they plan to install in the center along with many more.

Staff of the Oberlin Early Childhood Center are very excited and interested in POCKET. Mary Ayers, director of the center, has been working with both Meisenhelder and Phillips to expedite the process of the computer installations. Phillips says Ayers is, "extremely supportive and accessible and helps put our ideas into context."

The beauty of POCKET, according to Phillips and Meisenhelder, is that "it benefits all who are involved." The donators to POCKET get tax cuts, the College strengthens its relationship with the town and the children at the center benefit from the computers. The donations POCKET receives come from individuals, local businesses and the College.

POCKET plans to install its first working computer at the center on March 25. Once installed, Phillips and Meisenhelder feel that POCKET's productivity will substantially increase. Once their goals at the center are complete, POCKET plans to introduce itself into Oberlin's elementary and grade schools.

According to Phillips, the long term goal of POCKET is to "start a lasting organization that will facilitate computer donations to the Oberlin public schools and the Oberlin Early Childhood Center. To this effort, the organization would install and maintain computer systems at those places. It would also educate teachers and children on how to use these systems."

The coordinators recognize the irony of having a technologically advanced College surrounded by schools with out-dated technology. They hope POCKET will create somewhat of a technological equilibrium between the College and the town as well as strengthen town-gown relations.

The group is looking for volunteers to help out with all of its different functions. Volunteering to POCKET does not require a large time commitment, nor does it require extensive computer knowledge.


Oberlin

Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 17; March 7, 1997

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