LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, PART 5: TOWARDS DIGITAL INCLUSION

The Community Technology Empowerment Project (CTEP) and growing numbers of nonprofit organizations are working alongside libraries to overcome the digital divide by offering computer classes and computer labs. They realize that many people are looking for jobs and finding that the process requires computer skills they don't have and computers and internet access they can't afford. Community technology centers can be found in libraries, nonprofits, workforce centers, schools, neighborhood centers, parks, churches, synagogues and mosques.


As part of a panel discussion, several representatives from these organizations talked about the services they provide:

• Project for Pride in Living offers 30 minute one-on-one sessions, classes about specific jobs, employment help, informational classes such as explaining Facebook. They even send social workers out with laptops their clients can use.


• The Pillsbury Foundation has an employment-oriented computer center.


• Nexus Community Partners, which has an office on the East Side of St. Paul and created the Beehive website to help people find services they need, has started offering computer classes.

The Technology Literacy Collaborative is a new initiative that includes representatives from all these groups, including libraries. Their web page is under construction, but they plan to offer information on best practices and curricula for teaching technology literacy. They are working on a database of all community technology centers on the Twin Cities to replace this one, which is a bit out of date.

Handouts for this panel should be appearing in the FYI basket soon.



--Andrea

LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, PART 4: FAST, CHEAP AND OUT OF CONTROL

Any library can host a technology workshop for youth, you don't have to be a technology expert or have a lot of money. Lots of great free software is available. Don't put pressure on your self to understand something "perfectly" before you teach it. The presenters recommend a collaborative approach where teacher and student learn together. Some people need to be constantly reassured, while others prefer to do things themselves.

Hennepin County Library has trained teen volunteers so that they are now able to teach the classes. Other teens feel comfortable coming up to them and asking questions, while younger kids look up to them.

The main program they teach is Scratch which is a fun and easy animation program. We learned to use it in 30 minutes. Here is my project.



Other recommended free software for workshops:

• Sam animation--stop motion animation


• Artrage (not technically free, but can have an endless free trial with some features disabled)--drawing


• Audacity--audio editing


• Picasa--photo albums


• Gimp--photo editing


• Pivot--stick figure animation


• Kodu--video game creation

Optional equipment:

• Drawing tablet


• Digital camera


• Tripod


• Microphone

Handouts for the pressentation are available here.



--Andrea @central