Last spring, a group of volunteers pulled wire in one elementary school every Wednesday evening from 6 PM to 10 PM, returning again in the summer and early fall to wire a second elementary school. A contingent of professionals from Digital Equipment Corporation has helped out in ways ranging from setting up servers to securing donations of PCs to training teachers in the use of network technology. An executive from Sun Microsystems single-handedly and remotely managed the district s primary server for more than a year. In Lexington , a parent volunteer conceived the TechAssist Volunteer Technology Program in 1996 to work in conjunction with the Massachusetts Tech Corps. A volunteer TechAssist Coordinator at each school works with that school s technology aide to match tasks with TechAssist or Mass Tech Corps volunteers.
Many people help out directly in classrooms.
Project First has its roots in President Clinton s national service initiative. Its overriding goal is to help schools maximize their use of existing technology by providing them on-site resources. Project First members work either full time or part time in the Boston Public Schools. Many of them are either recent high school or college graduates or are still pursuing their education. They are people like Elaine Yang, a masters in engineering candidate who designs and leads technical training classes for teachers at the Paul Dever School in Dorchester.