The
Education Connection Project
Low-Cost Home Technology
Filtered Home Internet Access
Approach: The competition to sell you an Internet account is fierce and schools and community centers can take advantage of that fact. Ask them to offer accounts at a reduced cost to the schools NOW in exchange for possible paying customers later. In Delaware, the WHYY Education Connection Project is using DCANet because of their cost, reliability, filtering and their dedication to the principles of this project.
Partners: State of Delaware Infrastructure Projects, DCANet Incorporated, Americorps Computer Recycling KickStart Project of Delaware, The School District of Philadelphia's Techcorps Urban Technology Project, Corporation for National Service's Computer Re-Use Collaborative, Goodwill Industries.
Internet Access Activities: As in the previous years, the project purchased filtered home Internet access from DCANet as a discount, In addition DCANet agreed to offer the same discounted rate of $12.50 per month to any family that chose to purchase their computer at the end of the year. For unexplained reasons, only 14 of the 80 families who purchased computers last year, also purchased DCANet Internet access. This year, we will be sending out surveys to study if more people will be purchasing Internet access this year than last year.
Ultimately, the way to provide Internet access at the lowest cost is to show 3 things
This year, the plan will be the same as in previous years, but as always, the goal will be to convince its partners that we should be able to lower the costs of Internet access by showing the benefits above. Last year, the cost of Internet access was $150 per person per year. This year, the project hopes to lower that cost to $125 per person per year. It is the goal of the project to eventually bring this cost down to $75 per person per year.
Questions: If some of your participants do not have phone lines, you will need to have funding in order to provide them with phone lines or they will not be able to participate in this project. Do all of your participants have phone lines?
Timeline Filtered Internet Access |
Before June |
Arrange partnership with filtered Internet Provider |
June |
Order Internet accounts for all staff |
July/August |
Get class lists from teachers to Internet Provider to setup accounts Arrange for phone lines for students without them |
Page last updated on 08/13/00
Send comments to the Education Connection Project Director, Jay Cohen
