Taking Technology to Takoradi

In the 21st century, technology governs almost everything we do, watch, hear, work with, or otherwise experience. A solid grounding in technology is as essential to a student's education as math, science, or the humanities because the language of the modern economy is composed of ones and zeros. Technology education programs in secondary schools struggle to keep students up to speed. Some kids absorb the information seemingly through osmosis. Others—like me—sit back and watch, hindered by the conviction that we're not “tech people.”

Enter Global Technology Academy (www.globalta.org), founded in 1998 at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. Garfield is an inner-city school that serves approximately 1,600 students from all income levels and from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Students in the technology academy bring refurbished computers to schools and orphanages in developing areas of the world and teach young people in these areas the skills they need to advance in an increasingly information-based global marketplace. Through 19 trips to date, teams of 5–15 students have taken computers and knowledge to 12 countries on four continents. They have visited such countries as Mozambique, Nepal, Gambia, Ethiopia, and Guatemala, setting up computer labs in places where students often have never seen or touched a keyboard.