Besides teaching kids about computers, you should teach how to be responsible with disposing of computer equipment. Staples seems to have a very good program for this!
http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/ecoeasy/techrecycling.pdf
Time Magazine Article about E-Waste
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1870485,00.html
An excellent article describing the statistics of e-waste in the US, what it is doing to people in China and what you can do about it.
Computing for Good (C4G) at Georgia Tech
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/news/features/technology-activism-computing-for-good
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~vempala/c4g.html
A program and course at Georgia Tech that looks to use computer science for social change. From the course Web page:
How can computing help make the world a better place? Why is providing connectivity important? How best to do so? How can computers help a nation heal? Can we avoid wars and track diseases in time to avoid epidemics? We explore problems faced by developing countries and underserved populations from a computer science perspective.
Top 10 Reasons to Major in Computing
http://computingcareers.acm.org/?page_id=4
The ACM has a very nice list of reasons why someone should major in computing!
Google pledges to fund charitable projects suggested by Google users
http://www.project10tothe100.com/index.html
Google is asking its users to submit ideas for ways to improve people’s lives. Google will choose what it feels are the 100 best ideas and then allow its users to vote on which of them should be funded.
The categories are:
Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don’t fit into any category at all.
