Solutions: Inclusion - Digital Literacy

Facilitate Digital Literacy Training in Partnership With Communication Organizations for Vulnerable Populations

GOAL: Overcome the skills barrier to broadband adoption.

DESCRIPTION: Create a partnership between libraries, schools, senior centers, broadband providers, and other community organizations to offer basic digital or leverage training resources currently available.

These training resources consist of computer labs where in-person training can be hosted and training courses are already being provided.

Additionally, the training programs can leverage free content widely available online for deriving curriculum or new learners that are able to handle self-paced training.  Training facilities can also be used to support local community technology advances.  For example, as more and more services become automated, the training program can be used to update residents on technological changes that impact them.

ACTIONS:

Reach out to neighborhood influencers including churches, community centers, schools, libraries, after-school programs, and other neighborhood community organizations’ leadership to garner support for the program.

Identify and/or outfit a suitable training facility with a sufficient number of computers, software, and broadband connectivity. It is important to ensure that the facility has hours of operation that are conducive for the target audience.

Identify training instructors. There are three potential sources for instructors: volunteers, hired instructors; and local instructors from existing programs. Once identified, instructors must be provided adequate resources and training in order to effectively train others.

Training should include online safety and cybersecurity measures in order to protect children and sensitive information.

Facilitate and support outreach and awareness efforts. It is very important to understand the target population because failure to reach them with appropriate messaging about the training may result in minimal interest and low attendance at the training sessions.

RESPONSIBLE PARTIES:

Non-profit organizations; Libraries and schools; Community and senior centers; Private-sector technology companies, (e.g., web developers, device repair, etc.)

RESOURCES:

The Drive digital learning hub provides ready access to a variety of digital literacy training programs: http://driveyourlearning.org/.

Online portal to digital literacy training: digitalliteracy.gov.

Harbor, Inc. launches digital training: http://bit.ly/2daIuG1.