<p>My son and some of his friends formed a computer club last year. They have an advisor and were approved by the administration but never really did anything. He said they didn’t know quite what to do. Frankly, I think they just like to play computer games and thought computer club would look good on the college apps. I suggested that they do something with senior citizens or perhaps get old computers from the school district and fix them up to give away. What do computer clubs at other schools do?</p>
<p>Have them visit this site and consider doing something like the [Digital</a> Clubhouse Network](<a href=“http://www.digiclub.org%5DDigital”>www.digiclub.org). There was a wing of this group set up at my son’s school a few years ago to recruit skilled kids to assist with the [local</a> clubhouse](<a href=“Dewa505: Situs Judi Slot Online Gacor Terbaik dan Terpercaya di Indonesia”>www.digiclub.org/sv/) effort.</p>
<p>The Digital Clubhouse Network model is being extended around the country… and you don’t have to have an “official digital clubhouse” to learn their methods and do something similar! Students familiar with computer tools work with storytellers (currently the focus is on WW II veterans ([Stories</a> of Service](<a href=“http://www.stories-of-service.org%5DStories”>www.stories-of-service.org)), but there are several other related projects with other groups) to produce 5-minute digital videos of their stories, using their voices and stock images or video clips or mementos they provide. They can be moving or funny, and contribute to a permanent history of people’s lives in challenging situations or times. My son was the CA coordinator of this project (and webmaster) and involved for 5 years. It was one of the most meaningful and growth activities of his HS career.</p>
<p>It’s fun, and the kids get to use and apply their copious computer skills in service to others, who truly appreciate their service. It’s kind of a mind-blowing thing to watch the kids grow up before your eyes as they see the results of what they’re doing and start to take more real leadership. This isn’t computer games: this is service. I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>consider working together on the training material and entering the internet contests for the USA Computing Olympiad. <a href=“http://www.usaco.org%5B/url%5D”>www.usaco.org</a></p>
<p>Look into the American Computer Science League (ACSL) which runs computer programming contests throughtout the school year: <a href=“http://www.acsl.org%5B/url%5D”>www.acsl.org</a>. Also, I am aware of one computer club where the students sought used computers and related equipment from the community and they would work on them to make them usable for students who had no computers at home.</p>
<p>I would like to see the kids at our HS (electronics class probably) build a computer. I supposed they could use an old recycled case, but I would expect them to purchase new components to put in the box. Most of us buy a computer, plug it in, and away we go. Even most of the knowledgeable folks only understand, RAM, hadrdrives and gigabytes as concepts. I want them to put the pieces together and make it work!</p>
<p>Thanks for all these great ideas. I’ll pass them on to my son.</p>