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Showing posts from June, 2019

CST 361S - Final Week

When I first started this class, truthfully I did not know what to expect or how I was going to use my skills in some meaningful way. I was already well aware of how great of a tool technology is in our lives, and I felt as if my experiences providing tech support both personally (I'm the family's IT person) and professionally were helpful, but I found it difficult to think about how it would help out my local community. Working with Computers 2 SD Kids changed my perspectives on how I view technology, and it has inspired me to be more mindful about recycling technology responsibly and how important it is that everyone has access to technology and knows how to use it. Growing up in a family full of technologically inclined people and learning how to use computers from an early age, I had somewhat forgotten that technology is both a luxury and a privilege - not everyone knows how useful computers are, and most unfortunately not all students grow up learning to use computers or

CST 361S - Week 7

Service Project This week, I spent 4.5 hours at my service site for my last shift, wrapping up my project by refurbishing and testing the last round of laptops, along with following up on the revisions I made to the SOP(standard operating procedure). In total, I spent 30.5 hours volunteering at my service site with 25 out of those 30.5 hours on site, and the rest doing offsite work. It was a bittersweet feeling walking out of the warehouse knowing it might be a long time before I go volunteer again due to traveling and other upcoming events this summer taking up most of my weekends, but I had a great experience working with all the volunteers and learning about the importance of reusing technology and how important it is to lessen the gap created by the Digital Divide. Gamers, Quests, and Changing the World Although I am not as hardcore of a gamer as I used to be back when I was younger, I found myself relating more to this week's TED talk than any other discussion video so

CSG 361S - Week 6

Service Project This week, I spent 4 hours at the warehouse, refurbishing and testing donated laptops from a school in the San Diego Unified School District. The most interesting thing about this week's experience was the amount of volunteers that came in - there were several new volunteers who were former USMC (Marine Corps) and were currently students in a "cybersecurity program sponsored by Microsoft". I thought it was neat that people from different backgrounds than myself, yet with similar skill sets, were contributing to the same cause. Most importantly, it showed me how increasing accessibility to technology is an important issue in the United States and the rest of the world.  Internet Service This week's video really resonated with me because it directly related to my service project - Computers 2 SD Kids also promotes a low cost, high speed Internet service program through Cox called Connect2Compete, attendees of the computer skills classes are eligibl

CST 361S - Week 5

Service Project This week, I spent about 4.5 hours refurbishing and testing computers as usual. To date, I've completed about 20 hours on site, and this upcoming week I have some offsite work planned by revising and marking up a copy of the standard test procedure. However, I did learn more about the demographic that Computers 2 SD Kids mainly serves, and the types of people that donate computers.  Over the course of a couple of hours, I saw people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds ages, and genders stop by the warehouse to donate computers or equipment. Additionally, the amount of equipment donated ranged from one computer to a truck full of desktops, monitors, and other assorted hardware such as CD players and old cables (these are often sorted out from usable computer hardware and recycled with the rest of the e-waste collected). It was interesting as I had never seen as many people before compared to the last few weekends most likely due to the fact it has been raining a