e-rate

In "The Digital Divide: Bridging the Technology Gap," the notion of e-rate is discussed. Mr. Miller brought up the e-rate program that "pays for internet access for schools and libraries." I thought that this was a very interesting concept and had never really thouht about it. I never thought about how my high school was funded for our internet use or computer technology. I think that the concept of a program to ensure that schools and universities have interenet access and pay for it is a wonderful idea. The hearing that this was discussed at was back in 1999. In today's society a lot of concern is still going on about the accessiblity of the internet to the people. A solution for a program that ensures that everyone in the United States had internet access would be a wonderful fund. This would be an extremely hard task though. Now I've been thinking about all of the computers that people have in their homes that are of no use to them, because they have newer updated ones. Yet people don't get rid of them, because of the value that was once paid. With technology advances, do you ever think that there could be some way to re-use older computers by changing something in them for better use in today's society? And if so, could those computers be used to help the accessibility of the internet to those people who don't have it currently? Rather than schools or libraries getting a computer that was donated and outdated, they could receive an older model with new applications for the students to gain practice on. Just a random thought.