Computers Help Make Connection Students Get New Skills, Disabled Get A New Chance

The Social Security Administration on Monday awarded 72 of its surplus computers to Rogers and Riverside high schools.

Students at the two schools will upgrade the hardware and software, then use the machines to teach computer skills to disabled recipients of Social Security benefits.

Deputy Social Security Administrator William Halter told a gathering at Rogers that the presentation is the first for the federal agency, which will dispose of 35,000 personal computers this year.

The agency plans to recycle all 90,000 of its PCs over the next three years, he said, as it broadens the services available to beneficiaries over the Internet.

About 500 of those machines will be distributed to Washington schools this year, Halter said.

He said the program Rogers and Riverside are launching dovetails with legislation passed at the end of 1999 that encourages Social Security disability clients to rejoin the work force by preserving their health care coverage.

The program will be a win-win-win for Social Security, the students and the disabled, he said.

Lou August, executive director of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Wilderness Technology Alliance, said the program could become a national model for developing student high-tech skills.

“They have a capacity to learn greater than any adult in this room,” he said, adding that today’s economy values the ability to absorb new information more than a job applicant’s present knowledge.

And, August said, students want to know that what they are studying is relevant.

“Marketability is the measure of relevance,” he said.

The alliance, with the financial support of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Paul Allen Foundation, trains students in wilderness skills, then guides their application to technology products.

August said 16 teachers from around Washington took the alliance’s course this summer.

One, Rogers’ Chris Sande, said the program will move students beyond passively receiving information from computers to working with the machines to develop professional skills.

The students will clean the machines, modify the hard drives and install software, he said.

Rogers senior Roman Patterson likened the instruction to learning how to change the oil on an automobile. Lots of people drive, he said, but few know how to fix their vehicles.

Galen Hansen, vocational director and computer coordinator for the Riverside School District, said he has worked several years to develop the curriculum that will be used in the program.

“It’s a new way of learning, but it’s learning that all kids can do,” he said.

Hansen said students will be able to test for the A+ certification that is the computer industry standard.

He said Social Security will provide the names of those who would be eligible for computer training to Educational Service District 101, which will set up a facility where the students and disabled will meet.

Officials are still working out that part of the program, Hansen said.

Cynthia Mantese would be an eager participant.

She said she has had memory problems since an automobile accident four years ago.

Goodwill Industries helped her recover her self-sufficiency by giving her computer training, she said.

“The computer brought out skills I never knew I had,” said Mantese, who hopes to continue her training under the new program.

The disabled would receive refurbished computers provided by private corporations.