Summer holidays are great, but sometimes all that time off can be a little boring. To alleviate the boredom, students and teachers might want to consider a tech-based summer project. Such a project can be a fun, independent way to learn some new skills, as well as to give something back to the community. Some ideas are presented below. I’ve shared these ideas with my students, and around half a dozen have shown interested in trying one out. Your ability to complete the task may depend on how easy it is to buy second hand equipment where you live (very easy in Hong Kong), or whether you have the money/interest to buy new components.

• Buy and prep a secondhand laptop to donate on holiday (lots of people around the world don’t have access to computers)
• Build a Hackintosh computer out of cheap, second hand components.
• Root a old Android phone.
• Learn to program for the web.
• Work at a charity fixing old computers.
• Build a website (online shop? Minecraft cheat site?)
• Give computer lessons to those less skilled/fortunate than yourselves.
• Contribute to an open source project.
• Make a movie

On the non-tech side, those of you who want to help others whilst on overseas holiday might want to look at this site: http://www.stuffyourrucksack.com.

Let me know if you are a students or teacher interested in doing such a project, and I’ll try and help you get started.

Credits: thumbnail image by Nick-K (Nikos Koutoulas) on Flickr