Donation to Turner Elementary
Technology transfer has long been a topic of special interest to the
U.S. Department of Commerce, but the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the
Commerce agency that produces the national and international economic
accounts of the United States, put a new twist on the term on August 8
when it donated fifty refurbished desktop computers to the school. The
transfer was the first of its kind by BEA under President
Clinton’s Executive Order 12999, encouraging the use of excess
federal equipment and volunteer services in connecting classrooms to
the internet. The donated machines, no longer capable of efficiently
running the sophisticated software that BEA relies on in its own
research, now provides the majority of Turner classrooms with direct
Internet access.
BEA Director Steve Landefeld, Deputy Director Rosemary Marcuss and
Chief Information Officer Alan Lorish (GITSB Champion for IT
Learning), were on hand to celebrate completion of the sometimes
complex process necessary to bring the transfer about. "The pride
I felt in seeing all of us working together for such a worthwhile
cause is definitely a highpoint in my career", said Landefeld.
The newly completed facility provides Turner and its 700 students,
drawn primarily from the surrounding Douglass, Congress Heights, and
Shipley Terrace neighborhoods, a long sought increase in processing
power and Internet research capability. From the looks on faces at the
end of the day, this BEA initiative also provided the type of
technology transfer that all involved felt was deserving of a personal
stamp of approval.
Contact: Brian Callahan
Phone 202-606-9906
Related Resources
Computers for Learning--If
you need computers for your school, register here. Federal agencies
use this site to where to donated their used computers.
October 2, 1998 - "This is such a great thing for our kids," said Principal
Marcia Parker as she watched a steady stream of computer hardware
flowing through the front door of Turner Elementary in Southeast
Washington, DC. "Particularly our sixth graders are going to have
a whole new world of research to explore on the internet."
Transportation, installation and setup of the new machines was carried
out by a crew of some two dozen volunteers from Commerce's Bureau of
Economic Analysis. Their efforts capped off a summer-long rewiring and
retrofitting effort carried out by BEA staff.