Wrapping up the project

So, the service learning project is coming to an end and I have to say, it was a very interesting experience. We added another person to our group that was designing the database for St. Chris. We actually experienced a few more difficulties then expected in order to create a database that can handle rather complicated queries over a variety of fields. A lot of what we worked together on to design still needs to be implemented into Microsoft Access, but one of our members has already agreed to continue on with the database once her exams are over at the end of the month, so we will not be leaving them with an incomplete database.

I think one of the big challenges was that we were not too experienced with Microsoft Access (which is what the St. Chris people prefer), so it took a lot of time to figure out how things work. I would say that that took up most of our time in regards to this project. Also, since it is the end of the school year, we relied a lot (but not strictly) on correspondence between group members to get things done, and by passing around ideas and talking about parts we got stuck on.

We were talking about the digital divide in class recently, and Danny had mentioned we can find statistics based on neighbourhoods online, so I decided to check it out. I was a a bit surprised that the income level of the area surrounding St. Chris (around Kensington Market/Chinatown) was so low. Most likely below the poverty line. It seems that the total household income is most likely to fall in the range of $10,000-$19,000 a year [1]. I can see now why the BangTheDrum program is so important for a area such as this. With such a low family income, St. Chris is offering these families a chance to learn about computers, which is most likely something they can not afford on their own.

Also, in talking to another student who is tutoring students at this location, I realized how much I take for granted my knowledge of basic programs such as Microsoft Word, which was one program being taught to these students. I have grown up in a neighbourhood where families don't think twice about access to simple programs such as Word, and learned about them early on in school. It has become second nature to most of us, but hearing about people who don't now how to use or have never used these programs makes me appreciate what I have a whole lot more.

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[1] http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/2006/pdf4/cpa78.pdf