Tech Tinkers 2021-22 marks the beginning of a new era of sorts. With the continuing impact of Covid-19 on operations, we need to be flexible, as well as adaptable in finding solutions to ensure our continued effectiveness through more difficult situations.
Looking onto 2021-22, there are a few main points that immediately come to mind.
Zero Waste Center
Looking back in the past years of Tech Tinkers, one of the main issues we faced was increasing the number of electronics donations within the school. A lack of e-waste inflow despite its continued precense In the past, the green bin had been our primary method of collecting electronics donations within the school. However, this method has proven to be inefficient. Many students don’t know the green bin exists, let alone its purpose. Hence, with the opening of the Zero Waste Center on campus, a new chapter of sorts is marked. The Zero Waste Center essentially operates as a hub for any donations to the school. Whether it be used technology, or old items to pass on secondhand.
Clearly, this is an upgrade over previous years. Even those who may not have been looking to donate electronics could see the Tech Tinkers shelf in the Zero Waste Center. Someone going to donate to Tech Tinkers may find another cause they would be also willing to donate to. As a hub, the Zero Waste Center clearly unifies the EI vision as one.
So, Tech Tinkers has a place at the Zero Waste Center. Well, that leads to the question: How will Tech Tinkers differentiate itself from other significant EI’s also looking for e-waste, like Repair Kopitiam or the Upcyclers? This segues nicely into another focus of our: publicity.
Getting on the map
Another focus of Tech Tinkers 2021-22 would be making sure we don’t fade into the background. The use of mentor presentations and more active participation in service events, such as e-waste day or earth day presents a good opportunity to not only increase donations but also educate the student population on the prevalence of e-waste today and what Tech Tinkers does. Ultimately, Tech Tinkers should not be used as a justification of buying that iPhone 13 or being careless with technology. As a result, we would like to diversify Tech Tinkers’ action while maintaining a focus on refurbishing technology. Examples of this could be working on educative articles online, or using events to cultivate consciousness of one’s impact as a digital user.
Aside from students and the inflow of technology, we will also strive to connect better to our service partners. This includes GCs and Local Services as well as EIs. Through the use of an updated log designed by Jack Caroll, it is feasible to use the log as a base for other services to request technology they may need. We hope that by communicating our mission and methods to other services, getting technology out the door will be more seamless than ever before.
Due to Covid-19, these solutions are even more attractive as they can be remotely done in the event where service sessions cannot be held in school. Media is one of the focuses of EIs in 2021-22, and Tech Tinkers is more than capable of contributing
Vision
When looking forward, if three factors had to be chosen to prioritise, they would be:
- Connecting to the student population
- Revamping the current workshop processes
- Connecting to other services
Focusing on inflow of tech (connecting to the community), efficiency of the workshop (revamping the current day to day system), and the outflow of tech (connecting to other services) gives us some light at the end of the tunnel. We may be able to prioritises operations as well as communications. Problems of a cluttered workshop and messy organisation system cannot simply be kicked down the road. Only with a targeted system can we be most effective, and only with a recognised vision can we gain forward momentum.
Author: Jonathan Song (G11), Communications Officer