What's New

 

Thanks to our "Summer Distribution" initiative, our program has been busier than ever in July and August.

If you now intend to apply, please ensure you indicate a Summer Contact Person with access to the school during the summer months.

Though we cannot guarantee to provide you with computers over the summer, we will do our best to do so.

In January 2008 we reached a milestone: distribution of our 100,000th computer since the Alberta Computers for Schools program began in 1994. To celebrate – but especially to thank those who made this possible – we held events in Edmonton on January 31 at Victoria School for the Performing and Visual Arts; and in Calgary on February 8 at Crescent Heights High School. For a selection of photos of the two events please click here.

We continue seeking ways to improve our service. For instance, in responding to requests we now clearly distinguish between a) schools, and b) “other” applicants, as follows:

a) Schools:

• Schools remain our primary clients.
• We continue to install (free of charge) Windows 2000 operating systems on computers going to schools.
• We are also authorized to install Microsoft Office Professional 2003 software on computers going to eligible K-12 and post-secondary Alberta schools.
• We continue offering our “Computers for Educators” service, aimed at assisting educators who may have been slow to integrate computer technology into their professional lives. Thus we can provide a number of computers to a school board, which then offers appropriate training to candidates that it identifies, after which successful candidates retain the computer system used during their training.
• We are increasing efforts to ensure that schools applying for computer equipment do so with the knowledge/authorization of their school jurisdiction I.T. coordinators.

b) Others (Mainly public libraries and learning-based organizations):

• “Non-school” applicants should be aware that the main issue in responding to their requests is one of software.
• We are pleased now to be able to provide these applicants with operating systems. To do so we joined the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher Program (MAR), which allows us to purchase operating system licenses and install them on computers going to applicants in the “other” category. We are able to do so at a cost of $10 per license which enables us to recover our costs.
• We have modified our application forms to better reflect the distinction between schools and “others.”

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