Tech-Masters | Philadelphia Children's Foundation

“Tech-master” Program at Logan

“Tech-master” Program at Logan

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, [...]

October 26th, 2017|Categories: Classroom Computers, Tech-Masters, Technology Classes|Tags: Logan Elem.|

PCF Receives Phila. Dept of Commerce Grant

PCF Receives Phila. Dept of Commerce Grant

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 [...]

October 6th, 2017|Categories: In the News, PCF News, Tech-Masters, Technology Classes|

Refurbishing Lessons at Houston

Refurbishing Lessons at Houston

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 [...]

January 8th, 2017|Categories: Classroom Computers, Tech-Masters, Technology Classes|Tags: Houston Elementary|

Pilot: Emlen 5th Graders Refurbish (& Install) Their Own Computers

Pilot: Emlen 5th Graders Refurbish (& Install) Their Own Computers

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 [...]

December 17th, 2016|Categories: Classroom Computers, Tech-Masters, Technology Classes|Tags: Emlen Elementary|

PCF’s New State-of-the-Art Refurbishing Process

PCF’s New State-of-the-Art Refurbishing Process

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 [...]

November 24th, 2016|Categories: Classroom Computers, PCF News, Publicly Accessible Mini-Labs, Take Home Computers, Tech-Masters|