OAAC
Since 1994

Prince Hall Elementary School

The Philadelphia Inquirer- Old PCs open new doors The computers scrounged up by a Philadelphia nonprofit group may not be the latest models, but that doesn't matter. For the children who get them for free to use at home, they're the keys to a wider world.

By Martha Woodall INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Peter Doyle showed the small group of students at the Prince Hall Elementary School in West Oak Lane the computers he'd arranged on the floor of the school's technology lab.  "You won't be able to run them without a mouse," he explained as he demonstrated how to plug one into a machine. "Ask your parents to buy one," he said, suggesting a discount office-supply store where a mouse would cost less than $20. The children had met their commitments and completed six computer-training lessons. Now, it was time for the man the children call Mr. Pete to fulfill his part of the bargain. That meant giving each child a computer to take home.

 The machines, all powered by Intel 386 or 486 processors, were considered cutting-edge years ago.  They lacked modems to connect to the Internet. They were not equipped with CD-ROM drives. And they were too old to run Windows 95.

 Still, the children were thrilled.

"The computer has really arrived," said Lueretha Smith, whose 7-year-old daughter, Rachel, received a machine. "I really wanted her to have the opportunity to be more exposed to it."Many nonprofit groups and corporations are involved in projects aimed at ensuring that all children, regardless of income level, have a chance to learn about technology. But few give away computers.   

Doyle's program recycles discarded computers to inner-city families who lack them.  "A lot of these machines are just getting old so fast, they are getting thrown out," Doyle said. "We need to get them into the hands of young kids." 

In the last 2 years, Doyle and his nonprofit Ogontz Avenue Art Co. have  scrounged used machines from companies, government agencies and individuals, and distributed 300 to city youngsters. For Doyle, a computer programmer who believes every child should have access to a computer at home, there was little cause for celebration, though.

 "We had a goal through 1997 of 1,000 computers," he said. "We hit 300, so I guess we failed." But Gwendolyn Scott, principal at Prince Hall, said Doyle's efforts to put computers in children's hands had been slowed by corporate delays and government red tape.  "I don't consider 300 children getting a computer a failure, even though I know your ambition was to get 1,000," she told Doyle. "I look at it from a very positive side: There are 300 children who have computers in their homes who would not have had any." 

Four days a week, Doyle, 47, commutes from his home in Glenside to Wilmington, where he writes computer software for Rollins Leasing Corp., a truck-leasing company. But Saturdays through Mondays, Doyle devotes his energies to a nonprofit group that encompasses mural painting and art classes, as well as computers.  

It all began in fall 1994, when Doyle read a newspaper account of the war against graffiti that was being waged by the manager of a West Oak Lane food market and his neighbors on Ogontz Avenue. They had asked the city's Anti-Graffiti Network to paint a mural, but all of the network's artists were busy with other projects.  Doyle, an artist-turned-programmer, volunteered to paint the mural. During the first few hours, he was surrounded by neighborhood children eager to help, and the Ogontz Avenue Art Co. was born. The group has painted 17 murals in Nicetown, Germantown and West Oak Lane, including a large-scale project underway at Prince Hall school.  When the weather turned cold, the program began offering art classes at a local church. It was Doyle's idea to add a graphic-design course that led to the creation of the computer program. It began in late 1995 at the Police Athletic League's (PAL) center at St. Benedict Church in Germantown with 26 aged machines -- XT's and 286s -- donated by Doyle's  boss at Rollins. Doyle decided to give the children the computers at the end of the session, because programmers at Rollins told him they had developed their taste for technology at home.  "Every [ young Rollins programmer ] said, 'My dad or my mom got me a PC, I went into my room and really banged at it,' " Doyle recalled.

 Not every child with a computer grows up to be a programmer, but Doyle says ready access to technology fosters computer literacy and can spark a child's interest.  Principal Scott learned of Doyle's program at St. Benedict and invited him to Prince Hall.  "I called Pete, and the next thing I knew, he was here explaining that his vision was that every child should have a computer in their home," Scott said.

"Oddly enough, that is what my vision is – that every child in their home have access to a computer as much of the time as possible."  

She thought Doyle's after-school program would complement Prince Hall's technology program, in which students have weekly classes in the school's technology lab. While the lab has Macintosh computers, Doyle's project gives students an opportunity to learn about Intel-based personal computers, which are more widely used than Macs are. 

"These children are in the technology age right now," Scott said. "We need to expose to them to as many new technology venues as possible." 

The program, which has been at Prince Hall for a year, has completed three sessions and is winding up a fourth. Teachers recommend students whose families do not have a computer for one of the eight spots. The children and their parents sign contracts pledging to attend class for six weeks. Upon completion, they are told they will receive a computer when one is available. If a family buys a new computer, it promises to return the donated one so it can be used by another child. If problems crop up with machines, students report them to Doyle.

 Besides Prince Hall and St. Benedict, the Ogontz Avenue Art Co. offers computer classes and arts programs at the Allegheny West Foundation, a nonprofit community-development corporation in North  Philadelphia whose primary sponsor is Tasty Baking Co. "We feel this particular program is very timely for the needs of youth in the inner city," said Ronald Hinton, president of Allegheny West.  At all sites, 90-minute classes are offered weekly by volunteers, part-timers and college interns.  Because the students use older machines, the focus is on the Windows 3.1 operating system.  "What we do is teach the standards of Windows," Doyle said. "But the real gist of our program is teaching File Manager and how the disk is ordered.  We create a homework environment so they can have their math homework in one place, their English, etc."

 Preliminary results from a follow-up study with a small sample of families indicate that more than 70 percent of the students use their computers regularly, including 40 percent for homework assignments.

 That bears out what Scott sees at her school.  "They are using the computers," she said. "They have really involved other siblings. I had one parent tell me she had to put her children on a schedule because they were fighting about whose turn it was."   For students to hand in the homework done on a computer, parents had to spring for printers.  Prince Hall students said they signed up for the program because they enjoyed computers and wanted to learn more.  "It will help with my homework," fifth grader Tierra Nesmith said during a break in a recent lesson.  "I like computers," added Jennifer Franklin, 9. "And we are going to get to take one home so we can really learn to use it."

"We have a desk waiting for it," her mother, Donna Franklin, said. "I think it is a great program and a great opportunity."  For More Information  Additional information about the Ogontz Avenue Art Co. is available at the program's Web site,  http://www.dougweb.com//ogontz.html, or at 215-886-4933.

 

©1997 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.

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