To date, the company has sold its services to schools like the Bronx's Kipp Academy, Washington Irving High School, and schools in the Los Angeles' Archdiocese. EChalk provides a platform for students, parents and teachers in the K-12 space to communicate with one another. And although instructors may think there's an inherent drawback in being on cue all the time, execs at eChalk say behavior problems are much less likely when a teacher can contact a parent on point rather than tapping their shoe waiting for a free phone. Last October eChalk began developing its ASP offerings on a bootstrap of half a million dollars in financing from a list of private investors. Many schools can barely afford paper and computers are more than a luxury.
Teachers find that kids who use cut and paste structure their work better and more logically.
Computers at home also break through the social isolation of being at home alone. So far, Computers for Youth has equipped Kipp Academy classrooms and its children's homes with computers and has worked with Microsoft to donate Windows98 and Office 2000 licenses for the computers. CFY also plans to staff a tech help desk for students with vocational high school students from neighboring schools. The company currently runs the help desk and in July expects to pay minimum wage to the students. Typically, the company spends at least three and a half hours training kids to use their computers.