Computer Fixing 131

Dylan, Jason and Tiaan fixed and installed new computers at a Johannesburg primary school called HA Jack. We connected the computers to the internet and installed free educational software. We all study BSc Computer Science at the University of Pretoria.

Dylan was responsible for creating the network for all the computers.
Jason was responsible for acquiring all the necessary software.
Tiaan was responsible for setting up the software after everything was installed.
We all shared in fixing the computers.

HA Jack

Address: Jauncey Street Highlands North Ext. Johannesburg 2192 Po Box 1769 Highlands North 2037 Telephone:  (011) 887-8064 Fax: (011) 887-3351

The Project

Our goal for the project was to provide computers to a school who needed them and would be able to use them to their full potential. HA Jack has an IT teacher with the necessary skills to teach computers to the learners but was lacking the actual computers.

We helped to solve that problem by fixing the few computers that they had and by giving them new computers we got from the University. We also connected all the computers to the internet.

Planning

We planned all details of this project before we even had the computers to fix. We decided and acquired all the necessary software for the computers before hand. A few days before we needed to install the computers at HA Jack we collected them from the University. We took one of our own computers to aid in the installing of software on the new computers.

The project was definitely a big success. At the end of the week HA Jack had 30 fully working computers which were all connected to the internet. They also had educational software for children installed.

Personal Comments

Dylan

I learnt allot from this community project. I was exposed to the education system that many of South African children are apart of. We helped them with setting up a new computer lab and providing them with internet which will hopefully help them learn allot more about computers and provide better opportunities for them to learn about all aspects of life. I hope that all the work we did will be appreciated by all of the children who will be using the computers.

Jason

For me the whole experience was a lesson in appreciation of everything we have in life. We take normal things like having a computer at school for granted. It was great to help the children and give something back to the community.

Tiaan

I learnt a lot about computers while we were fixing them. I also delighted in the fact that at the same time I was helping to improve the quality of education for all the learners.

Letter of Thanks

Day 5

We finished up the formating and neatly packed the computers. We also cleaned the place up.

The headmaster was impressed with the final look because halfway through it was a complete mess but we pulled through.

Day 4

We also had two staff room computers from Waverley Girls High that we had to fix for them

We had to swap parts around to get them working it was a lot of work.

Day 3

We started with the formatting of the computers we brought and decided we would format all their computers and give them better software and tidy the place up

We ran into problems installing the operating system and we only had one working DVD-Rom so it took quite a while to format all the pc's

Day 2

In order to give them internet acces we had to route cables through the roof.

 We ended up having just enough cable to reach the router and we succesfully conected the internet.

Day 1

H.A. JACK 

We arrived at HA jack primary school with 10 computers from the varsity eager to make a difference