Big Dreams

Good morning all,

I hope you're all warm, safe and happy.  If that's not true yet (growth mindset - just add yet to a negative thought), I hope it will become true for you soon.  My business finance teacher in high school encouraged big dreams.  He defined dreams as what you'd do with unlimited time and unlimited money.  Here's mine - hope you enjoy.  I model this for my students when discussing a SMART goal with them, so it has been edited at least yearly for several years now.

I have a charity, which is going through the process of becoming a 501c3 now.  It's called @gr8fullyfeclub, and I keep trying to think of ways to make it more widespread.  I'd like to do that full time, once it is big enough, and be a professional "technology integration specialist."  To do so, I'd need a big donor or nearly unlimited money.  So, onward to the dream.

I want to bring a big truck/trailer full of laptops to underprivileged schools, and leave them with the students and teachers.  I think chromebooks would be enough horsepower, but I'd love off-lease i3s or i5s with ubuntu, mint, or debian.  To make this sustainable, I'd need agreements with big companies to take their off lease computers when they upgrade.  I'd also need at least a few expert students or former students to help me install operating systems or fix hardware before sending it into schools.

Ideally, the truck/trailer would be powered by a fuel cell engine or electric motor, and covered in solar panels so that it can charge everything inside on the way to the destination.  I'd love to deck it out with @goalzero solar, and charge controllers that could power at least 100 laptops at a time as well as the lights/AC/etc in the trailer/van.  I'd have a google jamboard and a SMART board in the van, at front and back, and sideways seating for students along the walls, so I could do mini classes in the van for about 10, with two screens running simultaneously.

When I arrive at a school, I'd have a quick assembly with the whole student body, if possible, or several mini lessons for a few grade levels at a time, explaining open source, linux, some internet resources and how to access them, and best practice for students with our technology.  I'd also like to present quickly at staff meetings, hopefully the same day, on best practice for teachers with the tech I'd be giving out to the school.  This initial visit would be followed up, monthly, with an update visit, which would be mostly Q&A and support for students and teachers who need it.  I'd hopefully train a tech integration specialist or two at each school, maybe 5 teachers and 5 students, who'd be responsible for tackling the easy questions, helping users with their computer problems, and reaching out to me and my team if they get overwhelmed.

The overarching goal: EVERY student, in EVERY school in America, should be able to access the internet, do basic word processing, watch Khan Academy videos, and find out how to do things on the internet.  The gauge for whether a student would be successful used to be whether or not there were books in the home, but as technology and the gutenberg project get going, the books they need are likely digitized.  Motivated students can access anything they want to learn on the internet.  Parents and Teachers still need to curate this content, but with enough guidance, students can learn anything.  I'd love to have these computers come with internet - even if it was slow - 3g would suffice - because the students at the lowest income schools and cities won't have internet at home. 

Anyway, that's the big dream.  I think it's helpful to dream big, even if it won't fully come to fruition, since I can continue to work towards it in my small way at my school.  Since 2005, I've rehabilitated as many computers as I could for my students.  I'm up to about 25 a year now, with the help of a few intrepid students, my uncle Brian (the linux and open source expert/guru) and the donations of parents, staff members, and students at my school.  There's no real way to measure the effects of these computers on the lives of my students, but anecdotally I can say that they help my students immeasurably.  It removes the excuse that students can't do Khan Academy at home, or flipped classrooms where they watch videos about a topic for homework and get further explanation/coaching while they apply the skills at school.

So, to make my goal SMART: Specific: I will rehab and distribute at least 25 computers by the end of this school year.  I will do it by June 15th, and collect pictures of students with their new computers to share with donors (like donorschoose).  Measurable?  Of course, if we don't get 25 it wasn't successful.  Achievable?  Yes, just need more donors.  Realistic?  I've already done 12, so I think it's doable.  Timely?  Yes, we set a time limit of June 15th.  To make this goal happen, I think there needs to be social media presence - perhaps hootsuite, so it posts to all the accounts simultaneously.  I also think there needs to be a good website, a way to easily donate, which requires 501c3 status and an amazon smile account, and somebody less busy than me to push it forward.

Anyway, I like the idea that we could push for technological equity with our students.  Many of them have devices at school but not at home, or they have broken computers at home, or computers so slow that they are maddening to use.  If we could at least level that playing field, I believe we could help close the achievement gap between the economically disadvantaged students we teach and the more financially advantaged.

Have a great day all,

Mark