This week in Denver, 280 kids and adults will be sitting down together to build servers.
A new philanthropic project from US West, the Foundation Initiative, is instructing students to teach adults about technology in the hopes that they'll all take what they've learned back to their communities.
"There's that old saying, 'If you want to learn about technology, ask a kid,'" says Jane Prancan, foundation director. "Well, that's what we're doing."
US West has put almost $2 million into the Foundation Initiative, allotting $60,000 each to 70 four-member teams. Each team, which must be cross-generational, gets four computers, a server, and a weeklong technology training session in Denver. In return, they'll take their newly acquired skills home and set up projects that will spread their savvy into their communities.
To participate, individuals have form teams, then apply to the foundation with a proposal explaining how they will use the computers and the network to help their community. Each team is comprised of two adults and two students; most students are in their teens, but some are in college. The youngest is 9.
During the weeklong session, the teams are being split into "Wires" and "Phones." Wires will learn how to configure a server and set up a computer network, and Phones will be trained in how to use the Net. Then they'll teach each other what they've learned, before re-packing their computers and heading home.
Once there, the groups will turn their new skills into worthwhile community projects: building computer labs in senior centers and low-income housing projects, linking remote schools together, or creating local resource networks in local centers.
Ryan Perez, 17, was chosen as a Phone and plans to set up both a school network and a research Web site for his classmates. Perez described teaching his adult team members basic Net skills as "frustrating," but he also said: "I'm just glad I'm here and learning this training so I can make it easier for someone else to get online."
"It's been wonderful to see how the two people in each partnership really work together - adults have been incredibly willing to learn from kids who are more sophisticated and the interplay between the two is really very positive," says Prancan. "It's a real learning community."
According to Prancan, they also worked hard to find projects that would help the disadvantaged and technology have-nots. Although Perez described his school as having generous computer labs already, many of the other participating teams have obsolete equipment or none at all.
Marion Coleman, 62, from the Yellowstone Council on Aging, said his team plans to build an Internet lab for community senior centers, enabling them to communicate with their relatives or just surf the Web for fun. His challenge this week has been getting up to speed, since he will be responsible for setting up the server once he gets home, as well as training seniors to send their very first email.
Says Coleman of the seniors: "They're scared to death. As someone said here, the greatest fear is turning on that switch to turn the computer on. And there is especially that fear with older people - just looking at this blank screen in front of you."
