Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones
My thought?   E-waste.<p>This is how I got my first computers;  obsolete and broken computers cast off by people wealthier than I was.  [1] It&#x27;s great, because you get to learn how to fix the computer as well as whatever it is you learn on the computer.   I imagine my life experience is super different from those you are helping, but I can tell you that early experience fixing obsolete computers has vastly helped my career.<p>It <i>is</i> a lot more labor intensive, because you have to have someone to teach the kids how to fix the damn things, (for me, my dad and a copy of minasi&#x27;s &quot;upgrading and repairing PCs&quot;)  but once you have that skillset locally?  it&#x27;s probably sustainable, because the rich will always be throwing out last years gadgets.<p>In some ways it will be way easier for you than for me; when I grew up in the &#x27;80s and &#x27;90s, there wasn&#x27;t a lot of standardization, so with my &#x27;catch as catch can&#x27; hardware acquisition strategy, I&#x27;d have to completely change my software stack every time I got new hardware.   These days?  Most educational software runs in a browser (I use and heartily endorse Khan Academy for the parts of learning that can&#x27;t be done from a book alone)   and so you can have a diverse fleet of hardware and even operating systems, and as long as you have enough local skill to bring the things up to the point where they can run a browser, you should be good to go.<p>The big problem with this plan is power;   Nicer gear from the aughts ought to run a browser just fine, but it will chew up a lot more power.   If you have to pay for unsubsidized electricity, more modern gear might make more sense.<p>[1]There was also this really juicy (for me) sense of acquiring &quot;means of production&quot;  -  I <i>owned</i> these computers that others had cast off as worthless or broken, and I turned them into a useful resource for myself.    I think that if you could work something out so that the kid in question gets to keep the computer they fix... that might be extra gratifying.  I know it was for me.