My company didn't require me to take vacation time. I didn't actually ask them if they would comp it, I just did it on my own. My company is great as these things go and does a lot to give back. They host regular blood drives for the corporate park they reside in, do outreach with a local ARC chapter, and a number of other things. So don't think they forced that one on me!

Sorry to be reading this post so late, I had a hard time keeping up with it all today at work (busy day.) This is the first post I'm reading from someone who clearly knows what the school I'm talking about is like.

You didn't answer my question but that's A-ok because you get it! These kids don't have pencils or paper, they come to school in 20 degree weather in a t-shirt because their parents don't dress them properly in the morning before they send them out. Some of them don't eat other than the free meals they get in school, and come in on Monday mornings ravenous.

I buy snack food in bulk for her classroom (healthy stuff, not junk food), reams of paper so she can print their homework, basic classroom supplies, notebooks for the kids whose parents either can't or don't provide them when the school year starts. These schools need A LOT.

Donors Choose is great, and she has already been successful with a proposal on there for furniture to make a reading area in her classroom. When I went in to give the computer lesson I got to see the kids happily reading on beanbag chairs and floor cushions over there. I think she'll be putting up another for some additional books in the near future.

Thanks to all who contributed (and maybe make it this far down in the comments.) I couldn't keep up with you all since I was at work, but I will read over these tonight and into the weekend and try to extract the most useful bits. I appreciate your input.

Man I wish those were my problems. None of the classrooms in this school have a computer at all. The lab, while a decent lab, is closed and has been all year because there's no one to run it.

Agreed, in this particular case the principal is expressly interested in whatever help I can provide. But yeah, I think that goes in with the whole lump of "great, more hardware, who the heck administers it" issues. I do see some discussion at a higher level with the district in my future to talk about this sort of thing though.

I submitted as AskSlashdot, so I'm not sure why it's under news. I'm not sold on the idea that our district should spend its money putting a computer in every classroom either (I'm not asking them too though.) I agree wholeheartedly with the folks here who say that the school's really need dedicated teachers. Unforunately, I can't provide teachers so I'm trying to help with something closer to my area of expertise. As for the machines and kids goofing off instead of doing work: I locked down a lot of things on the machines I brought in so that the kids can only use them for educational games. And I was amazed at how much fun these kids had with TuxMath.

Agreed, and I did take time to go into the classroom and teach the kids how to use some of the programs on the machines. It was a great experience and one I plan on doing again. I'm not trying to teach the kids "computers" really. I'm trying to provide additional resources to the schools. Based on the feedback so far I am going to see if the school would be receptive to me coming in and giving some sort of computer training to the staff, because that does seem to be a necessary step if any of this is to be successful. (although I'm not sure what specific topics would be most beneficial.)

I know it doesn't scale :) I'm the first to recognize that, and that's why I'm asking for advice! That said, I didn't donate junk. I replaced countless parts with new ones, and locked down a lot on the machines so that the kids couldn't use them as goof-off distractions. It was a time consuming and moderately expensive undertaking. But yeah, I have no delusions that what I did can scale at all.

I am in the US, and the school does have a computer lab. At the moment though this school has no one to run the lab (although they are looking, as far as I know this one isn't a funding issue.) Since they have no one to run the lab, it spends every day locked.

I completely agree, and that's why I went in and gave a lesson to this particular classroom. Some of the educational games in Edubuntu tie up pretty well with the state standards at various levels, but working them into a lesson can be tricky. In this particular school, educating the teachers on the use of these machines would be very important. They have a computer lab, but it hasn't been run by anyone with a computer background in ages. They really don't have anyone on staff with basic admin skills (which I see as one of the biggest challenges in general, much bigger than acquiring hardware.)

Reading these I should clarify a few things: I know this is a big problem. I don't think it's worth it for the district to spend large amounts of money of computer equipment for a lot of the reasons that people here mention. So for the folks out here generally presenting that idea, I agree with you, but that doesn't mean the computers don't help. I can't give the district teachers, or money for teachers. The truth as I see it when it comes to technology is that there are a lot of resources going to waste that could be made available to these school for much less than they might pay if they go it alone. Another big problem that some folks have mentioned is administration of the boxes, and appropriate use / education of the teachers. This is the type of question that prompted me to ask slashdot! I know that there's a big difference one person having some computers in her classroom which I can realistically administer myself when needed, and donating machines to an entire school or beyond. It's a big problem, slashdot readers are a big audience and I'm hoping that someone has ideas.