Moving Along with Spanish-speaking Computer Classes

I’m still in brainstorm zone, trying to set up computer workshops for the Spanish-speaking community. I’ve left voice mails and emails with a handful of people, and nada. No responses. I’ll persevere, and will catch up with my field experience supervisor for a boost in morale and maybe some background history on previous attempts.

In the meantime, I found some successful Spanish-centered programs that have already launched. The people at Web Junction already pulled together excellent information about why and how other libraries have initiated similar programs.

Here’s an excerpt:

With large and growing Spanish-speaking populations and computer access a central delivery mechanism, libraries across the country are beginning to offer computer training in Spanish to their patrons. WebJunction recently collected information from a dozen Spanish-language programs from across the country.

I’ll read through the site to see what’s there. Also liked the information displayed on the home page, specifically about taking the first step:

Once the need has been established, a thorough planning process really helps keep things on track. At the PLA Conference in Seattle in February 2004, Hector Marino of the Des Plaines (IL) Public Library offered a session on “Successful Computer Classes for Multicultural Communities.” He emphasized the importance of planning in developing a sustainable program, including establishing clear objectives, determining available resources, and specifying expected results.

Maria Mucino of the Mesa (AZ) Public Library says, “I have followed some basic steps: 1) community outreach and coalition building; 2) community needs and assets assessment; 3) programming and resources building, and finally 4) public awareness and public relations. These four steps have been the rule to a successful programming.”

I have yet to find the right person to help with coalition building and community outreach, but hopefully we’ll connect some dots this summer.

GCF Learn Free – some preliminary thoughts

I spent a few hours yesterday looking at www.gcflearnfree.org and will try to look around a little more later this week.

What a great resource for people with low information literacy. The site is very current, with tutorials for Windows Vista and other more recent releases. They also offer virtual classes that people can take, although I didn’t look too closely at how those work.

I thought the site was well-organized, and very user-friendly. One of the pros may also be a con: the computer tutorials were somewhat static, although they do use videos to add a personal feel to the lessons. I was expecting to find learning objects that were interactive, using software like Adobe Captivate to simulate and demonstrate computer lessons. Maybe it’s a funding issue.

I taught a class at CHPL this morning in Web Basics, and encouraged students to visit the site. People often ask for good books, but I think this may be a better resource than a Dummies or Idiot’s Guide book.

Today’s class was very small (3 people), which may be due to summer scheduling, or because we slightly changed the curriculum. But the people in the class were lovely, and were grateful. We talked about the difference between a browser, a search engine and spent quite a bit of time discussing the differences between Macs, Microsoft, IE7 and Firefox. We also spent time opening new tabs in the different browsers, and altered the size of the windows so we could look at both IE7 and Firefox simultaneously. I only meant to do that as an instructional tool, but manipulating the borders turned out to be a hit and we spent some time tweaking them.

Tomorrow, I’ll meet with my predecessor and go over some of the administrative details of the workshop series.

Field Experience: Day One

This blog seemed like a good home for my field experience journal – I started inbetweencitizen in 2007 when I took a class called Digital Citizenship, taught by Professor Stuart Shulman at the University of Pittsburgh. It was an online class offered through WISE and it was largely responsible for my interests in service-learning.

From June 1 to August 31, 2008, I’ll help coordinate the Community Workshop Series. Sometime this summer, a new CALA position will be filled and that person will take over as coordinator for the 2008-2009 school year. Meanwhile, I’ll use the summer months to try and advance some ideas we’ve been working on.

1. Develop online tutorials/learning objects for patrons with low information
   literacy. Review literature and other examples of
   learning objects aimed at similar populations.
2. Improve ways of marketing the CWS to library patrons. Look at existing
   marketing plans from previous students and talk to librarians at participating
   libraries.
3. Improve ways of highlighting the CWS to SILS students and increase
   participation.
4. Identify ways that the CWS can reach Spanish-speaking patrons. Look at
   existing plans from previous students and will speak with outreach and advocacy
   centers in Carrboro. Possible pilot study in Carrboro.
5. Update the CWS Web site to reflect current offerings.

In terms of the online learning objects, my supervisor pointed me towards a great resource already in place: GCFLearnFree.org. I’ll take a few hours today to go over what’s offered, so that I can give library patrons a good idea of the content. I’ve been learning new software, a good reminder what it feels like to be a beginner — and the online tutorials can help things stick.

From their Web site: “GCFLearnFree.org, formerly GCF Global Learning, is funded by the GCF Community Foundation, which is operated by Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina, Inc. We launched the website in 1999 and quickly began to share our free curriculum with learns all over the world.”

It’s always better to learn face-to-face, but online tutorials are great supplements and from what I’ve seen so far, the GCFLearnFree tutorials are up-to-date and really well done. One of our public libraries will close for renovations beginning in the fall, and these tutorials may be a good backup for patrons while the library is out of commission.