Volunteering

Volunteer Welcome Letter from Liza Loop Dear Potential HCLE Volunteer,

Thanks for checking out the volunteer opportunities!

Please tell me a little about yourself and what kinds of work you like to do. Volunteers are paid in satisfaction with their contribution so I always try to match the assignment with the person.

Take a look at our wiki: [|www.hcle.org] is the home page. Scroll down to find links to other notes about the project.

Once we have discovered where you fit in we ask that you commit to working a minimum of 60 hours for us over the next 6 months. When that has been completed we will all reevaluate and decide whether or not you would like to make another commitment. We can arrange for you to work intensively on a project for a shorter time or to spread out your activity to as little as 2 1/2 hours a week. You can work under the guidance of a staff person, join a project team or strike out on your own. There are so many jobs that need to be done that we are sure to find something that 1) enhances your skills, career or resume, 2) is satisfying for you, 3) is a valuable contribution to HCLE. Here are some project ideas: You may think of some other project you'd like to take on once your explore our site. Have you ever worked with wikis before? If you decide this project is where you'd like to put your volunteer efforts, please join our wiki (HCLE.org) and create a volunteer page for yourself so you can share what you write about yourself and what you think would be fun to do for us. Just email me if you need any help. You'll have to "join" the wiki before you can edit it. I'll watch for your join request.
 * Search the web to see whether items from our catalog are available to read on someone elses web site.
 * Help HCLE with cataloging and indexing its own collection so that items are available to visitors world wide and can be easily included in online exhibits. (We are choosing an exhibit platform, building a MySQL database and considering implementing CiviCRM to manage contacts, memberships, events and fund raising).
 * Research the early use of computers in schools (before 1990) you went to or located near where you live. Gather and scan materials used. Enter them into our data base. Interview teachers, students, parents, administrators and others who were involved. Find out the joys and sorrows they experienced.
 * Design an exhibit that tells how computing was introduced into education during the period from 1960 to 1990. The exhibit should also include a short section about the current status of computing in formal education in your geographic area. I can help you do this but you would lead the project and do all of the local and related on-line research.
 * Do some budgeting and bookkeeping for HCLE.
 * Help keep track of volunteers.
 * Research copyright status of items, properly annotate copyrighted items and obtain permission to republish where necessary.
 * Join a museum implementation team. These teams require programming or web design expertise and include: Database, Catalog Interface, Virtual Museum Design, and Constituency Management System (CiviCRM).

Perhaps you'd like to have a phone conversation (or Skype or Google Hangout) with me to talk about these and other possibilities. Let me know. Thanks again for contacting us. Cheers,

Liza Loop

We are focusing on encouraging folks to volunteer in several different areas:

1) Contribute your own learning story 2) Research an ed. tech pioneer and write an essay about what you find 3) Join the Data Base Team working on designing, implementing and updating the Catalog which is the core of HCLE 4) Join the Museum Team working on the design and implementation of the Web Site that will serve as HCLE's Virtual Museum 5) Join the Financial Development Team that raises money to support HCLE

A few notes about each area:

1) Stories: You can work on your story individually or contact us to be contacted by an interviewer, an editor or a colleague. Each story should answer at least the following questions -- > > You can read about other volunteers on their individual pages which are indexed starting on "volunteer pages"
 * Did anyone teach you computing or did you have to discover it for yourself?
 * Who taught you and were they friends, school teachers, job-related folks, parents, some combination?
 * Did you learn at home, at work, at school, at a club or group?
 * What resources did you use? Books, magazines, TV, other club members, courses and classes (at school, correspondence)?
 * What did you learn in what order? Radio electronics followed by?? logic theory?? followed by building a kit computer?? then machine language?? assembly?? BASIC?? ...
 * Did you use computers to learn about anything else?

2) Research an EdTech pioneer

3) Database Team

4)

5)

The easiest way to volunteer is to participate in a HCLE MeetUp. Each one is different, and many involve the key work of working directly with the artifacts which need to be sorted, cataloged, and properly stored. It is basic and vital work.

Check out the Images page to see what you might be working with.

Related pages: volunteer pages|Volunteer Pages