Ed Tech Day 2011

In 2009, I participated in Ed Tech Day, an annual charity event in Western New York that aims to put technology into classrooms. I wrote this blog post about my experience and concluded it by urging others to take part in future Ed Tech Days. Two years later, and I finally got around to taking my own advice.

This year's Ed Tech Day took place on August 16th and installed more than 110 repurposed computers in 12 locations throughout Western New York. I helped set up a training lab and several workstations at GoodWill Industries. The equipment will be used by staff members and community members as they prepare for employment. Their need for this technology and the gratitude we received on site made it well worth the day spent plugging in cables and running system updates, and Goodwill's Director of Human Services, Dan Colpoys even bought us donuts and pizza - a much appreciated gesture!

Below is a slideshow of pictures that document the day's activities, and you can also re-live some of the event through the #edtechday hashtag. For more information on the fantastic events hosted by The Educational Technology Foundation of WNY, visit their website. And while you're there, sign up for next year's Ed Tech Day. I'll see you there!

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Ed Tech Day 2009

I don't normally pay much attention to commericals, however about a month ago one caught my eye. It was for something called Ed Tech Day, and judging by it's straight-forward message and simple production quality, I assumed it was something local.

Edtechday.org explains that the event is sponsored by the Educational Technology Foundation of WNY, and is designed to "help educators and community volunteers enrich the lives of children by improving access to modern computer technology. " Basically, a bunch of tech nerds get to wander around technology-starved schools piecing together a variety of donated technologies. I spend much of my free time doing this in the basement with no real purpose or cause, so Ed Tech Day was right up my alley.

Ed Tech Day was this past Tuesday, the 18th. My assignment was Northern Chautauqua Catholic School in Dunkirk. The worse part of the event was the hour and a half drive from my house for the 8am start, but I got to meet some cool folks and picked up a few new tech tricks as well, so the bleary-eyed drive was worth it.

Of the 8 of us volunteering, I was the only one without a professional IT background, but I was still comfortable doing most of the day's chores. It was mostly cleaning up exisiting computers - virus scans, defragging, Windows updates, etc - although I also had the pleasure of unboxing and configuring a brand new Promethean Board. Again, nothing too difficult, so anyone reading this should consider volunteering next year.

The part I'm amazed at is the complete lack of local awareness for such an incredible cause. After seeing the commerical, I sent a tweet out asking if any of my fellow WNYers knew of the event, and didn't receive a single response. Regardless, Ed Tech Day seems to be growing in scope and scale. Here's a portion of a follow-up email I received from foundation president, Elizabeth Schanbacher:

The Educational Technology Foundation of WNY would like to thank all of you who braved the heat today to upgrade 18 sites in three different counties for
the 6th annual Ed Tech Day. Over 120 people volunteered to install 7 servers,
deploy 80 computers, install and upgrade 10 wireless networks as well as
complete a myriad of other tasks to ensure access and equity of technology for our community.

I'm proud to have been one of those 120 people, and I'm looking forward to
doing it again next year. Who's with me?

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