Group Thoughts

Putting together a lab is time comsuming, it required a lot of patience, and we were often frustrated but once you get everything done, the sense of accomplishment is great. Each step took a good deal of time – especially if we made a mistake or the computer had a problem. And it was a process – we could not move on until the problem before was fixed.

Communication was hard. We were unable to complete all of our goals, particularly the installation of the printer, because we were unable to communicate with Pastor Tracy. This was not anyone’s fault, but it prevented the lab from being as good as it could be. A big challenge was that we were communicating with someone who was so far away – we could not just drop by and run things by him in our free time, we had to use much more passive forms of communication with a person who had many claims on his time.

The church was not able to get an internet connection, as it has to be decided through their annual meeting, which does not take place until after this course has ended. Because of this, we were not able to hook up the computers to the internet, but the choice to include educational software that does not require an active internet connection means that the lab can still be used for afterschool programming. The computers should be ready to get an internet connection, once that decision is made.

Things never turn out perfect. Unexpected problems always surprised us. Given our limited time, expertise, and equitment available, we had to make a lot of compromises. In an ideal world we would have our room and have the ability to fully set up the lab before going. We would also buy new equiptment that was more sure to work. A substantial portial of our time was addressing faulty hardware on a single computer. Our end result was a pretty good computer lab that should help the church start their youth program. Their are still glitches with the lab, but we have accomplished so much and our church now has a collection of computers ready to use.