At IU Southeast, students have high-speed computers in almost every room on campus for them to use for their daily computer needs. With every turn of the head, there sits a computer or a computer lab for students to connect to the Internet.
Technology is constantly changing and improving on a daily basis, which means computers become out-of-date in a short period of time.
The Information Technology Department has the job of annually replacing 400 to 500 computers a year when they become out of date for students’ use.
Lawrence Mand, vice chancellor for IT and community engagement, said the computers that are out of date have not been upgraded and are four to five years old.
“The computers have no use on campus and are out of age to be sold in bookstores,” Mand said.
Since the computers have no use to the students on campus, the IT department made the decision to donate the computers.
“They have to be non-profit to be considered for the donation,” Mand said, referring to the organizations that the IT department donates the computers to.
Mand said the computers’ drives are cleaned and put back to their original software from the time that they were sold.
One of the groups that receive the donated computers is the IUS education department. A group of education majors travel with Magdalena Heroiza-Estevez, associate professor of education, to Ecuador to work with a rural town’s school every summer for the past nine years.
For four of the past five years, Heroiza-Estevez has taken her students to the small town of Bolivar Chiriboga. She has taken IU Southeast’s out-of-date computers to the rural school.
“With this year’s donation, the school will have enough computers to complete the computer lab,” Heroiza-Estevez said.
The community built the room for the computer lab when computers started to be donated.
“Its making a huge impact,” Heroiza-Estevez said.
The teaching in the computer lab comes from a sergeant in the local army, who is an engineer and comes once a week to teach the students. Heroiza-Estevez said the school hopes to have a full-time teacher to teach the students how to use the computers without too much longer to wait.
“Technology is part of life,” Heroiza-Estevez said. “It changes perspective, comes natural to children now, and with the parents it brings pride.”
“[The] most rewarding thing is not to see the children happy with the computer, but to see them using it in a normal way,” Heroiza-Estevez said.
Mand said if the computers were not donated they would have to be destroyed.
Nick Ray, director of the Department of Support and Communications, said the computers won’t run the newer software that would make the computers useful to the university.
“If the computers still had value to the university or students, then they would be sold in the bookstore,” Ray said.
Mand said the IT department receives letters from the students they donate the computers to in Ecuador thanking them for the computers.
Mand also said donating the computers to the rural school in Ecuador has no cost to IU Southeast because the computers have to be disposed of anyway.
IU Southeast avoids disposal fees and has the satisfaction of helping out children in need, he said.
Heroiza-Estevez said though the computers are out of date in the United States, the students in Ecuador are able use them for basic programs.
Last year, the students learned how to use Microsoft Excel and Heroiza-Estevez said they hope to learn how to use graphics on the computer.
Heroiza-Estevez said they will soon be connected to the rest of the world, and they will have Internet access.
Heroiza-Estevez said the people in the small community see IUS students and faculty as special guests and are excited when we come to their town.
“They said thank you for acknowledging we exist,” she said.
Heroiza-Estevez also said the community doesn’t expect anything from them, but they feel committed to the community and have decided to help out the children of the rural school.
By JUSTIN RAY
Staff Writer
jusray@ius.edu