The brainchild of then 13-year-old Anders Jones, TFT is a three-year-old organisation created and run by teens who have a desire to affect change in schools through technology.

Said Anders Jones: "March of 2001, I was in Kingston with my father (Mark Jones) and I had a chance conversation with a JUTA driver, Carl Diaz. He told me about the schools that his two sons went to (Mountain View Primary) and how there were 850 kids and one computer. At that point I was going to school with 850 kids and 150 computers and that difference just did not seem right to me."

SOFTWARE

"That night we went to our hotel and we (father and son) talked about ...well we have a computer in our basement that we can give and maybe that might make a difference," Jones continued. "As it turned out a year later we came back with 12 computers, 15 people, and 70 pieces of software. In the meantime a lab had been built at the Mountain View Primary School."

From there the idea of Teens For Technology skyrocketed and the 'Jamaica Hundred Schools Programme' was born.

On Thursday, Excelsior High School was the happy recipient of this new thrust and the school population turned out to witness the handing-over ceremony.

SKILLS

Robin Holmes, information technology (IT) teacher at the institution, expressed thanks for the additional computers, which she said would go a far way in furnishing the students with the necessary skills for their CXC exams.

"The fact that you have more resources changes your time management and you can give more to the kids too. It makes a difference," said Mrs. Holmes.

In the same manner, Rondine Hemmings, a ninth grade IT student at the institution, had nothing but high hopes for the additional computers.

"On Thursdays a lot of students have computer classes so these new computers will help us to be more organised," she said. "It will also help in my education because I really like computers. It is incredible."

TFT is poised to provide computers for 13 Jamaican schools, both at the primary and high school level, each month until June of this year. The group has completed donations to 45 schools and plans to complete donations to another 450 schools in the next two years.

Technology students to get scholarships

Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter

Top technology students may soon be able to vie for two-week technology scholarships to be offered in the United States under the Teens For Technology (TFT) programme which is currently providing a number of local schools with fully-equipped computers and labs.

Members of the group of American and Jamaican teen-agers working with the programme, which was started by Anders Jones from Dexter Elementary School in Boston, Massachusetts, met with Oliver Clarke, chairman and managing director of The Gleaner Company Ltd. yesterday, to discuss ways in which they could use The Gleaner's several products to further their mission. They were also given a tour of the company's North Street, Kingston offices and its facilities.

"We are a high school-based group in the U.S. and in many schools there, there are excellent technology summer programmes that go for sometimes two weeks and we would like to select on a pilot basis about five top students from Jamaica for these programmes," said Mark Jones, father of Anders.

Just this Thursday they made donations to the St. Theresa Preparatory and Exlcelsior High schools.

"The computers... we are happy that we have them because now our students no longer have to share," said Sonia Morris, past president and now advisor to the Parent-Teachers' Association at the school.

Some 18,000 children are now learning technology skills on TFT computers. The programme is now recognised as a technology donation model that works and potentially has widespread applicability in developing countries.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040320/lead/lead5.html