I look forward to Ed Tech Day each year. Every day, technology becomes a more pervasive part of our day-to-day lives. This can create an alarming productivity and opportunity gap between children that do and do not have access to technology. Volunteering for Ed Tech Day provides a way to directly and immediately impact this disparity in our community. On a personal level, it is incredibly rewarding to work as part of a team and at the end of the day be able to see computers set up and ready to be used immediately by the next person that sits in front of it.

-Tae Park, CIO, Greatbatch

The Ed Tech Foundation is starting off the 2012 new year moving into new office and storage space. This is a huge milestone for the Foundation from our beginnings. Not that long ago in 2003 there was just a handful of people putting together the first Ed Tech Day. We did one school that year. Now we have office space and do 10-20 sites in August.

For those of us that have been around since day 1, its amazing how far we have come.

The Ed Tech Foundation now has an office where our computer imaging lab is located. We also have a storage location in the same building. This will enable us to image/build machines easier since everything is one location. Our new location is provided by Working Knowledge who also does all the wiring for our Ed Tech Day sites. We are located in the Larkin building.

We would like to thank Cooks Moving who has provided us warehouse space for all our donations for many years. They have put up with us taking over a row in their warehouse and helping us moving equipment around.

We are very excited to start this new beginning.

Growing up in the beginning of the technology age, I quickly realized how important an impact technology was going to have on society.  At the time, computers were more of a novelty than anything else, and access to them was very exclusive.  My school did not have computers.  I only had access to a computer that I saved up my paper route money and purchased.  Many of my classmates did not have computers at home.  

As the years have passed, access to technology has become much more widespread than most of us would ever have imagined.  However, access to reliable technology is still not as prevalent as you might think.  Many schools and non-profit organizations still struggle with not having enough desktops/laptops, or aging desktops/laptops, or not having reliable network infrastructure.  On the flip side, many companies and individuals have struggled with disposing of technology assets, that are still quite serviceable. Being able to see both sides of the equation, as well as having access to good technical resources that share this same vision, is why I am part of the Educational Technology Foundation of WNY.  In the end, schools and the non-profit organizations get a very tangible benefit, with greater access to technology.  Volunteers get a "feel-good' benefit from applying their knowledge and skills to help others.  I derive great satisfaction from seeing another generation of young people get access to technology, which they may not have had otherwise, and that is the core reason I am proud to be a part of this organization.

~ Dave Rhoads

This year one of the site we worked at was the Boy & Girls Club of Buffalo. They have a large administrative building and 16 satellite locations. They give kids a place to go during the summer and after school. They serve thousands of children in the WNY area.

In June the team assigned to this site did their initial site visit. We meet with 2 people from the agency. Their administrative office is the foundation of all their satellite offices. All the satellite offices connect into the main administrative office for all services. Without a highly technical administrative office the satellite offices would not be able to provide the services to their clients that they would like to. This site will be a muti-year project for Ed Tech Day. We started with the administrative offices so that a good foundation is built.

We examined their existing infrastructure to see what needed to be replaced or upgraded. They had two servers that were very old - 8+yrs old. We determined that one brand new server could replace both these machines. The current hardware could not be upgraded. They also had very limited harddrive space. Next we addressed their desktop computers. The majority of their computers were 8 yrs old. They had close to 30 computers in just the administrative offices.

After the site evaluation visit the team's work starts. We need to secure the necessary equipment and determine a game plan. First we determine exactly what needs to be done. That project plan and equipment list is then turned into the Ed Tech Foundation board for final approval. By early July all teams have turned in their project plans and equipment needs. The ETF board then determines what they have from corporate equipment donations and what they need to purchase.

for the Boys & Girls Club we determined that the ETF would purchase a server and router. The server needed to be powerful enough to handle 100 users connecting to it. The other piece they needed were a good number of desktop computers. During the warehouse cleaning the team secured 20 desktop computers.

Before Ed Tech Day the team needs to build all 20 of these computers, install the server operating system and prep the old server for migration. There is a lot of work that goes into Ed Tech Day prior to the actual day. Two team members split up the desktop computers and another took the server.

On Ed Tech Day a group of 8 people went to this site. An amazing amount of work was done on this day. Two servers were migrated to one new server. This included migrating Active Directory, users, computers, group policies, printers, files, etc. We also updated their roaming profiles from Windows XP to Windows 7. We also replaced 20 desktops in their offices. Each desktop was installed and configured for the users.

After Ed Tech Day, Sunn King picked up all the old machines and monitors at this location to be recycled.

Next year we are planning on doing at least one computer lab for this organization.

Eighth Annual Ed Tech Day Set for August 16^th

On Tuesday, August 16^th, almost 100 WNY volunteers will donate their time and computer expertise to give technical makeovers to schools and non-profits in our area.  The makeovers will include the installation of over 150 donated PCs, network equipment, cabling, servers, and other technology equipment that will dramatically improve access to current technology for the constituents of the receiving organizations.

Organized by the Ed Tech Foundation of WNY, Ed Tech Day has helped over 100 schools and non-profits that have limited resources to keep their technology current.  “One of the things that makes the event so successful is that the receiving organizations not only get the equipment they need, they also get the technical resources to have it properly installed,” said Renee Cerullo, Vice President of the Ed Tech Foundation of WNY.  Since 2003, the annual event has coordinated over $1M in service and equipment donations to the recipient sites that includes over 100,000 hours of volunteer support.

Sites benefiting from this year’s Ed Tech Day include: Annunciation School, Boys & Girls Club of Buffalo, First Presbyterian Church, Gateway Longview, Goodwill Industries of WNY, Immaculate Conceptions School of Allegheny County, Lancaster YMCA, Martin Luther King Jr Community Development Corporation, Mary Queen of Angels, Northern Chautauqua Catholic School, Notre Dame, Our Lady of Black Rock, Society of St Vincent DePaul, St. Peter's Lutheran School, Temple Beth Zion, and Vive La Casa. 

Sponsors for 2011 Ed Tech Day include: Working Knowledge; SunnKing; Time Warner Cable; Greatbatch; Cook Moving; RLComputing; Wendel; Systems Personnel Group; The Catholic Health System; Travelers Insurance; IRS; Ecology and Environment; Shatter IT; i-Evolve; University at Buffalo; CDW.

For information on sponsorship, volunteering, equipment donations, or to request services for your site, contact the Educational Technology Foundation at 716.250.4343, or email info@edtechday.org.  The Educational Technology Foundation of WNY is an all volunteer organization.