College and Community Volunteers Come Together to Bridge the Digital Divide

Photographs and Text by Sue Kropp
JULY 17, 2000 — Early last year, a group of concerned townspeople – including members of Oberlin College's faculty and staff – joined forces to form the Oberlin Community Technology Committee (OCTC). The group hopes to address the nation's growing digital divide by providing free computer education and online access to all Oberlin residents at the community's new computer center. The center opened last week, with a computer day camp for children.


Gary Kornblith, Oberlin College professor of history and former director of the Oberlin Center for Technologically Enhanced Teaching (OCTET), prepares students to transfer the pictures they've drawn on paper to the computer screen, using a software package called Kidpix Deluxe.

"The children have been working with Broderbund's Kidpix Deluxe software," says Barbara Sawhill, director of the language laboratory at the College's Paul and Edith Cooper International Learning Center and a volunteer at the community computer center. "They're learning how to transfer the drawings they've created on paper to the computer screen, and how to animate and add sound to their artwork."

Volunteers helped the day campers master new skills. "Every time we started a project with the children, they would discover different aspects of the software," says Sawhill.

"Once they made that discovery, their imaginations took over, and they were able to explore and create new things."


Jim Altieri, a fifth-year, double degree student from Carmel, New York, and Simon Kornblith help two students maneuver their artwork onto the computer screen.


Paul Pitcher '00 talks a student through the procedure that will add the finishing touches to her computer artwork.

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