Your monitor cable typically looks like this If you are connecting a (secondary) monitor to a laptop, you MAY need an adapter. Here is a guide: Most monitors come with a standard VGA connector/cable. See the image to the right. The cable is typically blue and has three rows of pins. PC's or Older Macs If you have a PC or a (very) old Mac, then chances are it has a [...]
After the first school district shut down back in April, many of our partner schools approached PCF for help. While the district had provided a large/huge infusion of Chromebooks, there were not enough to go around and in some cases, schools were reluctant to empty out their classroom inventory in fear of equipment loss or damage upon the students' return to school (some day). There was a lot of uncertainty and some schools simply did [...]
Through the generous equipment and monetary donations from Radnor Middle School, Einstein Healthcare Network, Jefferson Health, the Drumcliff Foundation, and private donors, PCF has been able to significantly increase our support to Philadelphia public schools in the 2019-2020 school year. All in all more than 600 laptops have been donated this year already to various schools including: HH Houston, FS Edmonds, J Logan, WG Harding, T Mifflin, and others. In some cases, the PCF-donated laptops [...]
PCF has been working with selected schools to provide parents and caregivers with free take-home computers. As part of the application process, parents commit to spend at least one hour a week with their student/s on the (premium) educational websites that are provided by the District. These are the same educational websites students use during school hours. Tools such as Lexia, iReady, Sumdog and so forth provide a great way for students to cacth up [...]
Besides working with schools and families directly, PCF is committed to help Community Centers, Churches, After School programs, and anyone else willing to make computers available to their communities free of charge. That includes supporting other organizations, non-profits, and programs by providing them with computers and projectors, or assist in teaching classes. PCF has partnered with various other organizations that run programs to benefit the communities we serve. Often times these organizations are able to [...]
During the 2018-19 school year, PCF donated and installed hundreds of desktop computers to various local schools including Houston, Emlen, Logan, Mifflin, and others. The bulk of them were installed into classrooms with the remainder used in computer labs, libraries, and parent resource (HSA) rooms. About 20 printers were installed in various classrooms too. The computer equipment is donated to PCF by various local businesses. We then clean it up and refurbish it (add memory [...]
This year PCF was very excited to team up with Ms McConnell, 7th grade science teacher at Mifflin Elementary. We used 3D printing to help illustrate basic science concepts. Ms McConnell and PCF had been trying to figure out something to do with her 7th grade that would not merely let the students doodle with 3D software but use it to enhance her curriculum. The students had been learning about different types of energy so [...]
Western Suburbs Chapter volunteers Ashwin and Srikar chose to spend time volunteering for PCF during their short Spring Break holiday this year. With the help of their families, they met PCF at our storage facility where we refurbished a lot of computers on the first day. The next day they returned to visit three different community centers in Philadelphia to install/drop-off the newly refurbished computers. The three programs we helped that day are: Concerned Black [...]
For the second year in a row, HealthShare Exchange (web ») employees helped PCF with a full day of volunteering. About 30 employees showed up on a hot late summer day at the beginning of the school year, rolled up their sleeves and helped refurbish, clean, and install about 120 desktop computers at Houston Elementary school on Allens Lane in Mt. Airy. In addition, PCF provided another 40+ laptops throughout the building. Just carrying them [...]
On August 20th, PCF Western suburbs co-founders Ashwin and Srikar, along with their new volunteer Divyesh G., had the opportunity to visit three Philadelphia public schools to distribute a total of 60 laptops. Over the summer, the duo contacted local area companies and organizations to solicit the computer donations. In the end, they acquired about 120 great laptops, many of them with touch screens, lots of memory and crisp displays. Ashwin and Srikar cleaned the equipment [...]
Last Friday, PCF Director Jan Deruiter joined PCF's Western Suburb Chapter members Srikar and Ashwin for the installation of a 10-unit lab in a South Philadelphia Community Center. The Community Center offers a variety of programs to serve the Bhutanese refugee (learn more ») community who have resettled in the Philadelphia area in last ten years. Among the programs offered are computer literacy classes, music, and others. PCF installed 5 desktops in a lab room [...]
Today, the PCF Western Suburbs Chapter team of Srikar and Ashwin installed their second Community Center at Better Tomorrows, a national organization that empowers communities around the country, including Coatesville, PA. The organization's social coordinator, Ms. Crystal Lowery, contacted PCF requesting a donation of ten computers along with a printer for their Center. Ashwin and Srikar successfully completed the setup by refurbishing, imaging, and installing four desktops, six laptops, and a printer. In the application, Ms. [...]
This week, the PCF Western Suburbs crew installed their first Community Center Lab in Coatesville, Pa. Ashwin and Srikar, who head up the PCF Western Suburbs chapter, identified the Program to support and solicited the equipment donations that were used (in part) to support the program. Additional support was provided by PCF. The recipient program is called the "Coatesville Kids to College" program, which is headed up by Mr. Keith Wilburn and is housed in [...]
During the 2017-2018 school year, PCF greatly enhanced our 3D Printing offering. In order to do so, we purchased a new printer that allows us to print more objects at the same time and it is much faster. We provided classes during and after school at Edmonds, Logan, Emlen and Mifflin. Since printing still takes a long time, the objects are printed at our office after they are created. So students may finish something one [...]
During the 20117-18 school year, a great deal of effort was spent ensuring that the teachers in the schools we work with have all the computer equipment they need...or that they have room for, in some cases. The District has done a great job providing schools with additional computers and ChromeBooks but the need remains great. So PCF has worked hard to try and fill the gap. In many cases. the hardest part for us [...]
Two weeks or so ago, Friends' Central School in Wynnewood donated a van-load full of iMacs and Projectors to PCF. This week, the projectors were distributed to some very happy schools including Emlen, Logan, Dobson, Mifflin, Steel, Houston, and Edmonds. To save each school's tech person the hassle, PCF changed the settings on the projectors as they will not be ceiling mounted. It is a little quirky changing the settings when the screen is projected upside [...]
Today we spent some time in Ms. Salter's classroom at Mifflin Elementary School in East Falls. She requested 10 laptops to use for Google Classroom assignments, typing practice, creating papers, and doing research for projects. Since we do not have a Tech-Master program up and running at Mifflin, Ms. Salter offered her 4th graders to help refurbish the ten laptops PCF donated to her classroom. The students learned to boot the laptops from an external [...]
Today we picked up a donation of iMacs and Projectors from Friends' Central School in the Overbrook area of Philadelphia. We are extremely excited to accept this donation as both the iMacs and the Projectors are very desirable and hard to come by! The iMacs will be distributed to classrooms that require desktop computers with Wi-Fi capability (our normal machines need to be hardwired). And we will use some of these Macs as take-home computers [...]
PCF is delighted to implement our "Tech-Master" program (a.k.a. "It Support Team" or "Geek Squad" program) at Logan. Logan has utilized PCF's Classroom Computers for a few years now and the goal is to teach a small group of 3rd and 4th graders how to install and update PCF's computers as needed. PCF has always utilized students whenever possible but this class' goal is to make these young students responsible for our equipment. In the process, [...]
PCF started to teach our "Website Creation" class to Emlen Elementary students. About 14 students are part of the "Computer Club" After School Program. The website creation program is expected to last at least 6 weeks. The classes are made possible in part by our StartupPHL grant and PCF is fortunate to be supported by Emlen's computer teacher Ms. Vera Hromadka. PCF's Director Deruiter has run a Philadelphia Web business, MostlyWeb, Inc., since 1996 and is [...]
The Philadelphia Children's Foundation has received a $30,000 Grant from the Philadelphia Department of Commerce. The grant was part of the StartupPHL initiative, which uses public money to match investment in Philadelphia’s innovation ecosystem. PCF received the grant to fund two efforts: 1) our "Tech-Masters" (a.k.a. "IT Support Teams") program which creates and nurtures small IT Support teams inside schools to install and maintain our donated equipment, and 2) computer literacy teaching (to larger cohorts of students in [...]
On Tuesday September 19, The Philadelphia Children's Foundation, Health Partners Plans, and the Health Partners Foundation presented The Laboratory Charter School with 60 refurbished Laptop Computers. The computers will be used by the teachers and their students. Established in 1997, 'Lab Charter' has three locations in Philadelphia: 2 in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia and another in Poplar (below Fishtown). Laboratory Charter School provides a progressive, multi-lingual, and culturally diverse educational environment. PCF's long time [...]
When we contacted Steel about updating our classroom computers at their school, we learned that they needed some help in their computer lab. The first two rows of Macs needed to be hardwired. SDP had been asked but as the beginning of the school year is crunchtime, no guarantees were made as to when they'd be able to do the work. Later that day, PCF purchased some cable 'channels' (to run wires on the floor) [...]
Five Below has been incredibly supportive of PCF by organizing two separate customer donation drives at various Philadelphia area locations. Altogether, these drives have amounted to several thousand dollars in toys and much needed supplies. Earlier this year, the Easter drive was a huge success which enabled several schools to create incentive programs aimed at improving behavior among students. Most recently, Justin Strycharz and regional manager Craig Ridgell once again organized a customer donation drive, this [...]
Pastor Brawner, who runs the Haven Paniel church in North Philadelphia where we installed a 10-unit lab, also runs a support center for HIV positive youth in Southwest Philadelphia. The mission of Haven Youth Center is to provide educational, social, and recreational services to HIV positive youth to support healthy, age-appropriate development and transition into adulthood. Haven provides HIV positive youth with a recreational facility to decrease social isolation, improve self-concept/self-esteem, enhance communication skills, and [...]
This publicly accessible computer lab at the Haven Paniel Methodist Church in North Philadelphia was referred to us by the Brewerytown Community Center (where we recently installed a lab). Pastor Brawner also runs a Youth Center in Southwest Philadelphia where we installed a 3-unit lab and a printer. Haven Peniel United Methodist Church has a rich 139 year history of serving economically disadvantaged people in Philadelphia in part by bringing needed resources to the community. [...]
PMHCC (The Philadelphia Mental Health Care Corporation) has donated computer equipment to PCF in the past. Even though it had been a year and a half or so, all of us remembered how cold it was during the last pickup. It must have been traumatic because even though it was the middle of July, we all came better prepared: more people, more carts, a bigger truck, and razor blades to remove the asset tag stickers [...]
Justin Strycharz (l) and Craig Ridgell In the early Spring, PCF received a call from Justin Strycharz at Five Below asking if we would like to participate in their annual Easter Drive. PCF would be the recipient of goods purchased and donated by Five Below customers during checkout at regional stores. We replied that we'd love to participate figuring we would receive a few boxes of goods that we would divvy up among [...]
PCF installed a 15-unit computer lab at the Brewerytown Sharswood NAC/CDC, located at 30th & Master Street in the Brewerytown section of Philadelphia. The facility serves a community of over 8,000 of which 51% live below the government poverty level line; the rate of unemployment is higher than any other zip code (19121) in the city of Philadelphia; the school drop out rate is high with a high rate of recidivism in this service area. [...]
PCF received a request from the Village for some laptop computers. When we learned that the laptops were needed for programming and web development courses being taught over the summer, we jumped at the opportunity. The Village is an amazing place and a great resource and PCF was delighted they were teaching computer courses over the summer. All in all 10 laptops (donated by the Radnor School district) were set up on the third floor [...]
PCF received a generous equipment donation of about 120 CPU's and monitors from a company that wishes to remain anonymous. We are accustomed to receiving equipment donations in parking lots and loading docs at corporate parks, school grounds on the mainline, or downtown. But this was the first time we ventured out to the airport to pick up the goods curbside ! The logistics were a little tricky as you can't leave your car or [...]
The Radnor School District, which includes Wayne Elementary, has been incredibly supportive of PCF over the years. They have donated hundreds of laptops, thousands of books, some laptop carts and a variety of other equipment such as projectors, monitors, etc. Thanks to their generosity, hundreds of Philadelphia students are benefitting from better stocked libraries in their schools, laptop carts filled laptops, and equipment in their classrooms. Their laptops have also found their way into community [...]
Thanks to St. Peter's Church in Society Hill, and congregant Ms. Woods in particular (pictured above), PCF was able to offer assistance to a refugee family in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia. The family fled their native country of Congo and relocated to the United States with their four children, all of whom are serious students enrolled in various schools and programs. In the process we learned just how many agencies, support organizations, and volunteer [...]
A King of Prussia based company, which prefers to stay anonymous, donated 10 additional iPads to PCF (they donated iPads int he past). Last year, many of the same firm's employees spent a day at the warehouse organizing, refurbishing computers, and sorting library books. PCF purchased the chargers and USB cables and wiped them so get them ready for use. After consulting with the regional school district coordinator, we chose to give these 10 units [...]
The Radnor School District has been incredibly supportive of PCF over the years donating hundreds of laptops and hundreds (thousands?) of books. Their donations have helped all the schools we work with and have made a real difference. Libraries at Emlen, Steel, Logan and Houston have all been supplemented by their donations. And all the schools we work with plus many of the take home laptop computers were donated by Radnor. On this most recent [...]
PCF has been busy distributing and installing Laser Printers to schools and community centers in need. In many schools, teachers only have access to the printer in their school's main office, which means they have to leave their classroom and walk several flights of stairs just to print a document. For the Community Centers, it allows their users to print their resumes, applications and other documents. PCF came into a large donation of 40 HP Laser [...]
PCF donated two palettes of books (and some furniture) to Logan Elementary. These books were donated by multiple sources including the Radnor School district, Wells Fargo and others. The books were sorted by PCF volunteers according to subject and reading level during the last two volunteering events at the warehouse. Logan had provided us with the subjects to use for our sorting. Students are always thrilled when called upon to help (and get out of [...]
The Philadelphia Children's Foundation is looking to fill a part time position as soon as possible. Philadelphia Children’s Foundation Elementary School Technology Program Development and Instruction Position Description Background PCF is a non-profit organization of people who passionately believe that tomorrow’s leaders need computer skills today. Many inner-city households have no or no working computer, and their children often go to schools in the same boat: many classrooms have few or no working computers to assist in [...]
PCF donated and installed a computer for third grader Rayna in the Bustleton section of Philadelphia. Rayna is an honor student who needed a computer in order to be able to keep up with her classmates. most of whom have computers and internet access at home. Her school is relying more and more on students having access to a computer at home in order to do their homework (and submit it online). PCF helped the [...]
In our effort to make schools more self sufficient, we created our "IT Support Teams" program which teaches 4th and 5th graders how to do parts of the refurbishing and performing the updating of machines themselves. Last year, PCF spent a lot of time coming up with a process that makes this possible (thanks to DAO Technologies as described here). The intent is for these young students to do the bulk of the updating and [...]
PCF spent the day at Emlen Elementary in East Mt. Airy to launch a new way for us to support schools with classroom computers. PCF's "IT Support Team" program refurbishes and installs computers on-site with the help of the school's own students. These students learned a lot while PCF benefitted from their labor. And together we made 4 teachers very happy campers with computers in their classrooms. Earlier this year DAO Technologies donated a lot of their time and devised a great new [...]
Right next to Cramp Elementary school, whom we supplied with classroom computers in the past, is the Schmidt Recreation Center. The Center helps students after school with homework and other programs. When we contacted Cramp about updating their computers, they asked if PCF would be willing to help the Rec Center with computers. After reading their application, this was a no brainer ! In part, it read: Schmidt Playground is located next to Cramp School [...]
PCF Recently updated all 50-some-odd computers at Logan Elementary. Logan was the first school we updated using PCF's new "imaging" method. Since we installed the computers at Logan last year, Adobe discontinued Flash for the version of Linux we had been using and Google replaced Chrome with another browser (Chromium). As a result, some websites used by students did not work anymore. In the past, it would have taken several volunteers about a week to [...]
We could have used a few different titles for this post such as "How To Save Yourself 60+ Minutes Per Machine", or "Fast and Error-Free Refurbishing" or "How DAO Technologies Saved PCF !" among others. PCF has been incredibly fortunate to have received support from DAO Technologies this Fall. DAO devised a very practical, state-of-the-art way to refurbish computers or to update those already installed: Rather than configure each machine individually, we now create a [...]
The Radnor School District has been a great partner of PCF over time, supplying us with laptops, computers, carts, and books. Many Philadelphia schools have benefited from their generosity. When their librarian Catherine contacted us about another donation of books, it sounded like we'd be picking up a few boxes. When we got there, however, it looked like we would not be able to fit them all. As you can tell by the photos, it [...]
A long article about PCF, written by Sue Ann Rybak, was published in The Chestnut Hill Local today. Sue accompanied PCF's Jan Deruiter at a recent 3D printing class at Emlen Elementary in East Mt. Airy. Thank you Sue for your in depth article and raising awareness of the urgent need in our public schools and the work PCF does for our public neighborhood schools. View the article on the Chestnut Hill Local website. If [...]
Today, we put the finishing touches on a 20-unit laptop cart at Houston Elementary. The second grade teacher, Ms. Renfer, is getting assistance from the district's regional Technology Integration Specialist on how to best integrate technology into her curriculum. The Philadelphia Children's Foundation believes that the earlier students are exposed to technology, the better. So when an ambitious second grade teacher reached out, we were determined to try and help. The most important piece was [...]
After finishing up our 3D printing classes at Henry two weeks ago, we have started a new course at Emlen and expect to start another at Logan soon. Both these classes will run until the end of the school year. PCF owns an old 3d printer that was donated to us. We bring the printer to class with us so kids can see how it works. During the week following class, PCF touches up the [...]
ABCya! is one of the most popular educational games websites among students in the various schools we work with. It offers students of all ages/grades educational games to teach them math, reading, and so on while having fun. A few weeks ago, we learned that the company had raised its Flash requirements to the latest version offered by Adobe. But unfortunately, that latest version of Flash no longer works on older computers, including the ones [...]
PCF wrapped up the 3D printing course at Henry in West Mt. Airy last week. For the last few months, we have worked with their students on using web based 3D programs. The 3D printer is a novelty and sending students home with the plastic trinkets they created is a great motivator. In the process of creating the various objects, students learn computer skills that also apply to many other types of graphics programs such [...]
