What happens when a community gets its first laptop lab

Twelve refurbished laptops, one secondary school, and a group of students who had never typed on a keyboard before.

The lab began with a question from a student: 'How do people learn to build the apps we use?'

Volunteers from three companies donated refurbished machines. A local engineer wired the room. A university student ran the first eight weeks of classes on Saturdays.

By the end of the term, students were building simple websites and typing their own assignments. Two have since entered a national innovation challenge.

Technology only matters when it solves a real problem. Here, the problem was access — and access is now solved for 200 young people.