2/25/15 Federal Way Branch Library Workshop Ivette

Describe Context –The youth and adults were all in the same room today.  We had 4 adults and and a total of 8 pre-teens and a one year old.  Library staff were Edna, Jennifer, Teresa and David (translator).  Sonia was there to provide bilingual storytime the last 30 mins (this time instead of the storytime starting at 6:00 - Sonia waited til 6:30 to do the storytime).  Brad, Klarissa and I were there on behalf of the class.

           

Date:2/25/15

Name: Ivette Bayo Urban

List things that happened today:

Sarah and Willa were not going to be joining us today as both had other personal items to tend to.  

The library was planning the full two hours.  First hour as demonstrate e-readers and the final hour as exploring time and 1:1.

In the news:

Today was our last day at the Federal Way Regional Branch.
For March we will be at Casa Latina.

List Action Items from workshop:

• Sarah updating the March Flyers
• Once she does Ivette to print and bring to Casa
• Brad to upload them to latinatech website

  Things to look up, check out and explore:

•  Prepare for Latina Tech to be at Women Who Rock  
• Coordinate Month of April activities at Douglass-Truth
  

Describe an important an evocative social interaction that happened today:

One of the youth, who attends middle school, reached out to me to ask about some math homework.  I felt this was an amazing thing because even though I had only interacted with her briefly in the previous two weeks, she recalled me saying I had taught math.  I felt this was one of those unanticipated wonders that can happen when you get people from different backgrounds together conviviendo.

Describe successes.

At the end of our time Edna did an oral assessment.  Her question was on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 being least comfortable/knowledgeable and 5 being the most) - how would you rate what you knew about the library before these workshops.  On average  (including the students, youth and adults in the room) the pre workshops rating was like 2.  She then asked the question again now that we have gone through the LatinaTech workshops at Federal Way branch and all the people rated they had increased in knowledge of information resources the library offers.  I would say on average they went up 2 points in feeling they had a better idea of what libraries and libraries could assist with. 

A few things to note.  The UW students that present today were not in the MLIS program.  Two of the women attended all 4 workshops at the federal way library.  One woman attended 3 of the 4 workshops at federal way and serves as our Casa Latina mentor/leader.  The other woman was new but had participated in the women's advisory at the start of this project.  

I feel additionally that I feel the program was successful because outreach was more than bi-directional.  Students engaging with community and libraries, libraries engaging with community partner and UW, UW engaging with youth/pre-teens.  The space was full of talking, laughing, questions, trouble shooting, movement, food and in a word comfort.  I feel that very quickly we all felt welcomed and at home at the federal way library with the resources, space and people. 

Describe a failure.  What fell through the cracks?

Failure to follow up with the women from Casa Latina in a consistent manner.  I had not emailed or phoned the women from Casa Latina - the forms of outreach I have been using (because of time constraints) has been promoting it on the Latina Tech facebook and the CL fb site.  While Casa Latina members have been promoting it with members.  Library also did promoting to their outreach sources. 

What surprised me the most?

How having a dying phone (that needs to be recharged) really impacts our abilities to explore in an environment that is comfortable to us. 

Reflections

“Because there is more information on any given topic that anyone can store in their head, there is added incentive for us to talk among ourselves about the media we consume…consumption has become a collective process…. None of us can know everything; each of us knows something; and we can put the pieces together if we pool our resources and combine our skills (2006a: 3-4)  
(Jenkins, H. as cited in Balsamo, 2011)".    ------> I added emphasis.

Despite the logistical challenges (and granted opportunity - thanks Pipeline for offering the vehicle) of driving to Federal Way and coordinating people - I am going to miss going there.  Edna (and all the staff, translators, and volunteers that attended the Fed Way sessions form KCLS were enthusiastic, welcoming and greeted all of us with love and humility while sharing an understanding of additional resources.  

Anne Balsamo in her book designing culture writes:

“knowledge creation happens across diverse settings including formal institutions,  and through informal social and technological practices.” (p. 154)

“A successful project of transformative research (....I would add of community/convivencia...)  involves creating the conditions whereby participants explicitly understand and commit to the goal of creating shared rules, beliefs, and norms.”

I feel that for our time at Federal Way regional branch, we were successful in creating shared rules, beliefs and norms and ensuring that everyone brought something to the table.  We made learning a collective process.  Additionally, each of the partners pooled our resources together to combine our skills to make this experience worthy of the investment.  

 

2/18/15, Federal Way Library, Freddy Mora

Location: Federal Way Public Library
Date: Feb. 18th, 2015
Time: 5: 00 PM-7:00 PM

 

Reflection:

It was nice to be back at the Federal Way Public Library. As always, the staff members were very welcoming. Edna goes out of her way to make everyone feel at home there, and I notice how this branch is a community of its own.  It was great talking to Edna and hearing more about her background. Also nice to hear she is a UW alumni, and from the I-School! She sounds like she identifies well with the work that Casa Latina is doing, and I am sure she is one who would love to keep on partnering with this project.

 Throughout the work shop, I walked around and observed how people were interacting with one another, and with the resources that were available. Edna was working with a mom and daughter in ensuring she was knowledgeable of the free resources available to her, form scholarships to academic tutoring. The mom was very excited to hear all of that, especially. It was nice to see the kids playing on the tablets and interacting with the games. They really enjoyed a counting game that had you count the ingredients you needed (mushrooms, carrots, etc.) and upon getting a math problem right, you completed the recipe. Then they headed over to story time, which they were hesitant at first, for they were having too much fun with the tablets! It was a good chill day where people got to do their thing and ask any questions they had, and have us come in and help them find an answer J

2/18/15 Federal Way Branch Library Workshop Brad

Federal Way Branch Library
February 18th, 2015

This was my first time going with the group to help out at Federal Way Library. It made me sad that I had to miss the past two weeks due to class conflicts, but thankfully school winded down. I had no idea Federal Way was so far away from UW (I'm not familiar with the surrounding Seattle area just yet), but it gave the team plenty of time to talk, laugh and get to know each other during the car ride.

This workshop had a dis-proportionally large amount of children compared to adults, which was  a first for me. Fortunately I enjoy working with the children, so I appreciated this opportunity to just play educational games and laugh with the boys for a few hours.

We started playing iPad games with some of the boys, and they enjoyed the interactive word game we brought. I was impressed when they said they wanted to play on the setting with the most difficult words! I believe challenges like this are the best way to learn new things, even if they can be frustrating at times. Some of the words were difficult for even me!

I have to say this was by far my most enjoyable workshop to participate in. Playing with "Where's Waldo?" books and sitting in on (Spanish!) story time made me feel like a kid again, and the children's laughter was contagious the whole time. Here's to a productive last workshop with Federal Way!

2/18/15 Federal Way Branch Library Workshop Sarah

Federal Way Branch Library
February 18th, 2015
3:30 to 8:00pm

We had a group of about six kids and two adults. At the beginning, we were all kind of milling around. Since this sort of makes me nervous, I started suggesting to other volunteers that they take out this technology or that, or show this or that, which I hope wasn't too bossy. Sometimes it's hard to know what role to take in a project where there is a communal/decentralized structure.

I used the laptop from KCLS to work with an adult student on MS Word, while the other adult student was using tablets with the kids. After kids went to story time, the other adult came over. The lack of ability to download anything to the training laptop was difficult, but my laptop didn't recognize the mouse, which was more difficult. I'll be sure to bring a couple of laptops from Casa Latina next week, just in case they want to work on MS Word more. I'll also try to figure out how to change the language settings on MS Word.

I made a flyer with their input. Then I asked one of the women, who'd been working with me the longest, to make a flyer. She did it seamlessly. She took careful notes and was a quick study. Her daughter warned her that their version of Word at home was different, so hopefully she'll be able to translate the skills she learned to her computer at home.

Next week is our last week in Federal Way. These two women have been attending consistently. I will be interested to hear from them what worked for them and what didn't. It will be good feedback for our process at Douglass-Truth and Lake City.

2/11/2015 Federal Way Branch Library Workshop Willa

Federal Way Branch Library

February 11^th, 2015

3:30 PM – 8:00 PM

            I brought my car to UW in order to make sure that we had enough room for all of the participants who needed a ride to KCLS. Ivette drove the U-car because though Klarissa and I both completed the certification, we were too nervous to drive the car. Not only was the car new and something I had no experience driving, I was also nervous about having children in the car and added confusion from the number of people in the car as well. We left a little late, but we were able to make it to the library on time. We only had one girl and one baby in the early literacy program. I chose to stay and help with the kids during the tour of the library because I want to make Valentine’s cards for my family and do some crafts. After the tour was over and the children’s story time started, I moved my crafts project into the adult digital literacy space. I made paper cranes for all of the participants while Ivette gave the lesson. I’m not sure that I fully engaged with the discussion, but I did notice some distinct differences between Ivette and Sarah’s teaching styles. Ivette, I think, was much more discursive and had the women teach each other more than Ivette teaching them. I think that is was much more open in terms of a class. Ivette’s style let it be an open forum where people could discuss and Ivette was just the discussion leader. Sarah’s teaching style seems to be much more structured. Sarah still has the women contribute, but Sarah is definitely moving with a purpose of teaching x or y. There was also a lengthy discussion in the car on the way back to Seattle about a man who had come into the room towards the end of the class. I was not in the room so I do not have much to say about the matter, but it seemed to me by way of the discussion that it was a very disrupting force.

2/11/2015 Federal Way Branch Library Workshop Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 2/11/2015

Today, there were only two children, one older kid and an infant. Another kid, middle-school age, was doing homework in the back of the adult room. We had planned to make Valentine’s cards, and started to make a few after some negotiation with our one attendee, who wanted to read.

Again we had to move into the adult room at 6, time for storytime. There were a few kids in the children’s section of the library who gathered for storytime, which is good because I had felt bad that the librarian had shown up and there were no kids with us who would sit through storytime. The infant was not feeling well and fussy, the other was reading on her own. Since there was not much for Willa and I to do, we made cards in the back of the adult room. 

At the end there was an interesting scenario, as we were packing to leave. A gentleman walked into the room, towards the back without saying anything, grabbed coffee, then asked what the event was as he left the room. I heightened my awareness when he walked in, but thought little of it until Ivette engaged a conversation in the car on this with all of us and asked me what my thoughts were. Mostly since he hadn't said anything when he entered, I was watching him, trying to figure out what he wanted. But I was on guard, as this was a man entering into a space filled with women and children. 

We want this to be a space welcoming to everyone, so this is an interesting thing to think about, how we judge those who enter as belonging or not. 

2/4/2015 Federal Way Library Workshop Klarissa

Location: Federal Way Public Library

Time: 5-7

Date: 2/4/2015

Today was the first day at our partner libraries instead of at Casa Latina. It was a bit longer drive to Federal Way than we thought but we got there only a few minutes late. There were a couple older children, and three under-ones, though one would not tolerate being away from mom. Is there a way to be less scary to kids? I’m starting to feel like I must be scary.

I thought the kids might make masks today out of paper plates, and they seemed excited about the idea, but did not get very far, though they did color up some pretty plates. They got distracted and wanted to run around, I guess they do sit all day at school. Although we were not the best planned at getting snacks, and then getting everything moved out of the room, which was otherwise reserved at 6, it did go okay. The story time was wonderful, I sat through it with one of the little ones. The older kids did not want to sit still, and ran off but I was happy to see that they had found another corner of the library to read on their own.

I am always in awe of how kids can make friends so easily, or at least find a way to have fun with people they’ve never met. 

DATE Casa Latina Workshop Sarah

So I facilitated two workshops this week, one that went very smoothly and one that went somewhat un-smoothly. I've been thinking about these few workshops as the dress rehearsals for the workshops that will start in earnest in January. I think that by reflecting on the un-smooth workshop, a lot can be learned from that experience that I can channel into future workshops.

I would say the main takeaways are this:

• Start out with a print agenda and discuss it with the students. Make changes to it based on group feedback. Formalize it a bit -- make it a real 'activity'
• Spend some time explaining the student-led nature of the workshops.
• Dealing with language issues: Make a glossary of tech words in Spanish (I'm really going to do this...); don't be afraid to ask people to repeat themselves or explain terms they've used; practice some of the classroom spiels ahead of time (I love practicing a foreign language, i.e. talking to myself, when I ride my bike! I get the weirdest looks!) 
• Create a "box of tricks" (i.e. alternative activities to do if the class is a lower level or a higher level than expected)
• Triple-check technology to make sure it works
• When working with true beginners, it's really great to have helpers
• Always eat (Hungry workshop facilitators are the worst)

I think the workshop on Wednesday went so well because we have a good level of group cohesion and we have a student-volunteer who helps facilitate. I think the intro to the philosophy and rationale of the classes led by Ivette a couple weeks before really put people in a active-participant mindset. We also had a happy surprise -- a new student who was both knowledgeable about cell phones as well as a great peer teacher of how to use cell phones. (I also ate two tacos at Rancho Bravo as well as half a chocolate bar before going to Casa Latina! My blood sugar was in a good place.)

After the workshop on Wednesday, Silvia was looking for someone to teach a workshop on Facebook on Friday. I thought, "why not?" and said I'd give it a shot.

The idea behind this workshop was that the adult students would be able to find Casa Latina and MSF and "like" them on Facebook. Veronique mentioned that most of them use Facebook on their phones. I actually didn't have hardly any time between Wed. night and Fri. night to think about a lesson plan. I tried to download the handouts from the Dropbox of previous workshops, but my computer told me the files were corrupted. I had a vague idea in my head that we would have a discussion about privacy -- I found a Spanish language comic strip featuring a young woman talking about how she was going to post and tag pictures of her and her friends at the nudist beach on Facebook -- it seemed funny at 11pm on Thursday night.  Then I would demonstrate on the overhead how to adjust your privacy settings on Facebook. Then we'd look up the different pages and people who wanted to could "like" them. I also copied and pasted the slides from Wednesday that had embedded hyperlinks to youtube videos about how to download apps in the GooglePlay store.

It turned out the students were much less familiar with technology that I had expected. (I wished I had a box of tricks!) I believe they were also from two different "groups," so there didn't seem to be a high level of group cohesion. I don't know that they all felt that Facebook was relevant to them, and I didn't want to encourage anyone to use Facebook who isn't that interested in it or who didn't have a lot of knowledge about how to protect their privacy online.  I myself have very mixed attitudes about Facebook. (There was also a young child and two elderly people in the room, so I suddenly had second thoughts about the comic strip about the nudist beach and had to skip it!) I also turned out that my embedded hyperlinks weren't working (triple-check technology!). This workshop also allowed students to receive "points." As was mentioned at the Women's Advisory Meeting, points are a double-edged sword because people may be more interested in the points than the topics.

I also believe that facilitators should not set up accounts or install things for adult students. Adult students need to make independent decisions about what does and doesn't go on their phones. This may mean the process of signing up for things doesn't happen right in the class, but I think that's okay. No one is going to suffer for lack of a Facebook page.

Anyway, enough dwelling on things that didn't work well. The workshop was okay (people got some nice chatting in and they got their points!). A few women seemed interested in attending the technology workshops, so hopefully we'll meet them again. I got my nice list of takeaways, or life's lessons learned.

DATE Casa Latina Workshop Klarissa

I wasn't able to be at the first workshop, so I was excited to be a part of the second one, last night. Since it was the end of the quarter, I was rushing to get my final projects done and did not prepare too much before last night. So at least I didn't have too much time to think about being nervous. Thankfully Xochitl and Jen had some wonderful plans set up for the children, and I was helping them out. I did feel nervous for a minute once we got to Casa Latina, especially before Xochitl and Jen arrived, as it's been a while since I've watched children that can walk or talk! There was not too many kids, and as Jen mentioned, a few of them were much more interested in crafts and free-play. Structured time is good, but so is the chance to be creative, so thanks to Jen and Xochitl for being adaptable to the children's needs. I can tell they're going to be great children's librarians :) 

DATE Casa Latina Workshop Sarah

Okay - I thought I would have more time to write this reflection, but when I opened up Canvas, I saw that the end-of-quarter Pipeline survey was due. I hope that was required, because it took up most of my homework time on my lunch break :)!

So I'm feeling some nervousness going into the workshop tomorrow. There is some positive nerves: the type that'll keep me alert and on my toes. The negative nerves: around not being super tech-savvy and around my Spanish skills being rusty.... I have to remind myself that it's okay to not come across as the infallible expert at the head of the class.

I am also trying to keep in mind that the objective of the class is for the participants to be comfortable and confident figuring out their phones during the session and in the future, not "depositing" bits of information about the phones into their heads. I'm sure Ivette will kick me under the table if I revert to the banking model of education :). 

DATE Thanksgiving technology Klarissa

In the spirit of the past weekend, I'll start by saying I'm thankful to be a part of this great project!

I didn't get to attend the last workshop, but it sounds like it went wonderfully and I'm excited to be a part of the next one. Over the weekend, as my husband and I were spending time with family, I had an aha! moment that I'd like to share, which was mostly seeing familiar situations in a different light. 

After hellos, hugs and how are you?s with the family when we arrived at the Thanksgiving dinner, it was time, as usual for one of my husband's aunts or uncles to approach him with an IT issue. This time, his aunt was trying to save photos on her new tablet so she could share them with her grandson who is stationed in another country. I observed, and interjected a bit, as they discussed what she wanted and decided she didn't need to mess with an SD card, she could use Facebook and he showed her how to download the app, take selfies and send photos from her camera app to Facebook. Like I said, this isn't an unusual situation, as a computer programmer, the family usually will have something they've "been waiting to ask him about." But after this class, I saw this situation slightly differently, maybe more analytically. I think this interaction was a good example of some of the discussions we've had of about technology and different ways it could be used. He could have just showed her how to use the SD card, but it turns out that would not really what she wanted to do. Maybe she just thought that she needed to use it because it was there, or because that's how things used to work, but since she was asking about storing things in the cloud and sharing photos with her grandson- and she had already started to learn Facebook to communicate with him, we showed her how to post photos to Facebook instead. She was happy, and trying to get the right light for a selfie for a little bit after, too. 

I thought this was a touching moment, as well, seeing how technology could bring us together, even social media which can create more distance in some ways. It was not only bringing his aunt and her grandson closer but it brought my husband and his aunt closer together, too. It was a more meaningful interaction than the usual small talk. 

I'm excited to be at the next workshop to share in learning and conversation!

DATE Casa Latina Tiffany

Regarding the Children's Literacy Group - I have to say I am impressed with their flexibility and their perspective in understanding how to adapt their lesson to the group they had.  From an instructional stand point, they were able to model read aloud and interaction for the adult that came, they served the needs of one child that was able to participate in the story time and craft and while they may not know this, the success for those who did come will be passed on to others, meaning more people will come and see next time.  I would consider that a success!

Regarding Tess's post about technology - I would agree that it is important to know the expectations of the class before making purchases.  While tablets can be quite inexpensive, stop motion animation software, for example, will often will not work on Android tablets.  Windows based tablets might be a better investment for supporting work and academic needs of the women.  "Starting where we are" regarding technology, would mean teaching Google docs in addition to Office since they are used in so many settings and are common to everyone and free!

Regarding the Adult Literacy Class - Discussion before application was the perfect way to start instruction and validate the interests and concerns of the women.  I'm sure they felt that and I hope everyone can continue modeling that type of interaction so people feel involved in decisions and willing to speak up instead of feeling unable to participate.

DATE Reflection on the Intersection between class topics and tech devices Sarah

The discussion with the women at the workshop last night revealed the women have many diverse interests. We discussed the possibility of presenting information about navigating the directory on a hard drive -- in order to be able to save documents, photos, etc. and open them later. (This lesson, of course, wouldn't be possible or worthwhile with a tablet.) Excel and PowerPoint were also brought up. These were just a few of the interests that were brought up, for sure, but it has clarified that the "Tech research team" (I believe that's Tiffany!) and the Adult Digital Literacy Team (I believe that's me!) should discuss. The tech that we buy has a direct influence on what topics we will teach. We will not be able to plan our list of topics without knowing what tech we are using. I am, I am sorry to say, not up to speed on tablet specs, but I know Tiffany is.

Questions to consider:

Do we want MS Office? (In either app or full version) Do we want a product that comes with it, or do we have money to buy it separately?
Do we want a hard drive? (Internal or external). Or to purchase cloud storage? Or thumbdrives?

This is important, because if we don't want these things, there is no point to teach powerpoint, word, excel, and saving or retrieving from storage. We should just teach google docs, FaceBook album-ing and other forms of free, web-based storage.

Ports: Do we want to be able to demonstrate on the projector screen? We would need either an HDMI port on the device, or a USB port and then purchase an adapter. Perhaps a VGI adapter as well.

Do we want keyboards?

Do we want a windows operating system? Or android? Or iOS?

These last two questions start to get at the idea if we're looking at a more workplace-oriented computer literacy or a lifestyle-related computer literacy. I'm not sure if that distinction makes a ton of sense -- in my mind, I do a lot of typing and archiving-of-documents and using MS Office at work. Windows is, in my experience, the default OS for the workplace. If we don't have a full operating system, it's a matter of sharing cool apps and trying them out.

We should also think about planning time. I had never made business cards, and it took me an hour to go through the steps and feel like I could present them the clearest and quickest way (in Spanish!). If the person planning lessons has to go through a novel task and write out step for 2 or 3 OS, planning time doubles or triples.

We might want to think about what OS teachers are comfortable with too. If we're talking about navigating a Windows hard drive, I don't have to do any research -- I've done it a million times. If we're talking about saving and sharing in GoogleDrive or Mac OS, I'd have to research and practice. I know I'm not the only person who will be teaching, though, so it's not so much about what I'm comfortable with, but what the average person is comfortable with.

I know that the actually technology landscape is varied, so I don't want to oversimplify. But, in a beginning class, I don't want to overcomplicate either.

Do we want to save a little money in the budget to purchase apps?

If we are working in an app-based environment, and there is an awesome app for, say, keeping track of your agenda that costs .99, would we want to be able to purchase it for the class?

Tiffany - Reflection #4: Integrated Instruction/Assessment

24 hours after students receive instruction they forget 80% of what they "learned".  Last summer I attended the Library Instruction West conference in Portland where I focused on classes that presented low-tech ways of teaching information literacy.  A note from Emily at Casa Latina indicated that almost half of their original lab is not operating at the moment.  I was reminded that many times "hands on" literacy learning does not have to involve technology to be effective. By far my favorite class at the conference was on "Teaching Information Literacy through Drawing" presented by the University of Hawaii.  Librarians David Brier and Vickery Lebbin used large sheets of paper, scented markers and collaborative groups to discuss, draw and share ideas based on questions fundamental to information literacy:  "What worries you most about using the internet?", "How does Google help you search?", "How do you get help with finding information?".  The drawings were a way for people to discuss topics while collaborating, then share with the class.  (Also a great pre or post assessment tool that is unintimidating.)  While the presenters have not yet published their paper on their techniques and research, they previously published a peer reviewed article on using short stories to spur discussion of similar topics.  (Which I added to the "Readings" folder). This particular technique makes sense in a constructivist learning/assessment atmosphere.  (I also posted an article on a constructivist approach to teaching information literacy, also sometimes called a "flipped" classroom - another great experience at the Library Instruction West event.)  I would love to see instruction and integrated assessment at Casa Latina that will make the classes more than instructional - they will be memorable!

DATE Reflection #3: On the value of information Tiffany

This week I attended the ASIS&T (Association of Information Science and Technology) conference in Seattle.  I listened to speakers that shared ways of interpreting information objects like health care surveys, domestic violence reports, and media releases on news items.  During an exercise on discourse analysis, the concept of interpretive context, bias and language was discussed as we reviewed reports on a shooting in urban Canada.  Tables of seated information professionals read over articles circling words, taking notes and sharing their views of how differently information could be shared.   As I listened carefully to their interpretations I was reminded of our readings in which the idea of value is placed on information.  These people were easily able to question the validity of the various media interpretations of the shooting, yet nobody explored the possibility that their own views might not be superior to those of information shared by primary sources or secondary news sources.  

In our own work, Ivette asked us what kind of information we might "need" from the women we are working with.  It occurred to me after rattling off a list of information that might be useful in later grant reporting and analysis, that it would be really interesting to know what the women might "need" to know about their involvement with the program from beginning to end.  In all of our work, I think it's important to remember that education, experience, context, membership in a certain culture, ethnicity etc. does not make our interpretation of information any more valid than that of others. 

DATE Reflection #2 Klarissa

This next week is scary to me, it's the week we have to get ready, and then the week after it's time for our first workshop. On the other hand, the model we have, collaborative and conversational, means that we don't have to have a perfect presentation, we just need to be able to listen. At the Mujeres sin Fronteras meeting we went to a month ago, we did an exercise in active listening which I feel is a large part of what we're doing. 

Right now I'm also struggling a little bit with the cold, gloomy weather and the darkness. So, I know everyone has been putting a lot of work into planning this and getting ready, and we're going to be fine. I'm actually excited as our group and our plan have taken shape. 

DATE Reflection #3: Creating Answers Domonique

More than providing a tablet and a class for the women and children of Casa to learn introductory computer skills, I hope that we are providing an outlet. A connection to the world, a connection to networks, and a gateway to new opportunities. When discussing tablets my biggest push is that we are able to purchase something that will allow folks to be content creators. Something that will allow folks to tell and share the stories of their communities, their stories, high's, low's, and whatever else they feel like sharing. 

I hope that through connection they find and share truth both beautiful and ugly. I hope they find dreamers, collaborators, shoulders to lean on, footsteps to follow and new paths to travel. 

Domonique

DATE Reflection #2 Tess

We are currently in the Latino literature section of my Multicultural Resources for Youth class, and one discussion topic that was generated made me think of something that could correlate with this class: the reluctance of those from certain backgrounds to use the libraries. More specifically, a question was posed by our instructor about how immigration laws may affect an undocumented person using the library or other information resources/institutions. The discussion churned out one very important open-ended question: how can we, as information professionals, use outreach to these communities as a means to foster interest?

As information professionals in the library system, it is a huge part of our job to serve the demographics of the communities that surround us. In the context of people who are reluctant to use libraries (either due to bad associations with institution-like entities or fear of negative consequences), there are two ways that I feel could help put them at some semblance of ease: 1) make sure they can see themselves in the staff and the collection, and 2) bring the library resources to them (via book mobiles, "in the field" programming, etc.). Ultimately, I feel that establishing a rapport with our patrons is vital to meeting goals of community engagement and providing a comfortable user experience. If we can create a more welcoming space, perhaps we can more easily demystify libraries for those who may have a hard time trusting organizational entities.

DATE Reflection #2 TIffany

As I read this week, some things jump out at me as I think about my past experience with teaching bilingual learners in my own community.  The article on Critical Constructivism highlighted the "value of knowledge traditionally dismissed by academics".  I thought about a very objectivist approach to education adopted by our local schools in which English is demanded in all activities.  They do not value the second language of our students and believe it gets in the way of their progress.  How can this be when most of the world speaks more than one language?  Both the language used at school and the language used at home are important to the whole person.

Also I read about a woman working in Haiti who was more interested in the specific goal of helping women learn to make money by teaching them to use computers.  "We do not use computers for fun..." she said, as if that meant her classes were of great importance.  I think fun can be just as important as finding a job, or getting health information or learning to use e-mail.  I think having fun can foster the very best kind of learning.

Finally, the article on Critical Constructivism helped me to put my finger on one of the most important parts of gathering information from participants. "Respect for subjugated knowledge can lead to expected responses rather than authentic responses."  What this means to me is that if people have the impression that certain answers are the "right" answers because those individuals have a higher level of educational experience, they may be afraid to be themselves and communicate in a way that is not real for them.  "Real" is always the best kind of information - no matter who gives the information - no matter what language - whether it is a stay at home Mom or a business woman - a girl or a teacher.

DATE Reflection TIffany

As I prepared for our second class I was hesitant to make an entry to the “Professional Journal” knowing I had not been able to physically volunteer or interact with group members.  Bray’s article on collaborative inquiry helped me evaluate my role as a project participant.  Viewing collaborative inquiry as a “cycle of reflection and action based on lived experience” became important when I understood Mezirow’s observation of reflection as “cognitive action”.  The background reading, research foundation, grant outline, classroom introduction and volunteer preparation have made the beginning of the class a good laboratory for the implementation of cognitive action that will inform further discussion, reflection and action within our groups.  I can honestly say that I enjoy the cognitive action piece of preparing for a project; and reflecting on experiences during project implementation will be more productive because of our preparation.

In simpler terms, because I live in a small town East of the mountains, I can’t really participate with the group.  But I learned that thinking about our studies and communicating with the group about plans and activities means that I can participate as I find connections and meaning through our readings.

DATE Adult digital literacy lesson plans Sarah

For my "work" this week, I spent some time looking over the lesson plans that Casa Latina used for past computer classes, especially the ones that are related to the topics Ivette proposed and the topics brought up at the advisory meeting. Many lesson plans involved a what do you know/want to know/what have you learned format. They also stress peer to peer learning. "Problem posing" appeared through exploration questions and discussions. The Powerpoints are sort of horrendous yellow text-y things, but I kind of hate PowerPoints for this type of teaching anyway, which I think works best if it's discussion and activity-based.

I'm such a careful lesson planner that open ended "what do you want to know" lesson plans scare me a bit, especially when it's on a topic that I don't have much experience teaching with a group I don't know well. (If you've taught a lesson a bunch of times or you're comfortable with a class, it's definitely easier to have really open-ended lesson plans.) Walking into an unfamiliar situation, I'm a bit more comfortable with a "choose your own adventure" lesson plan, i.e. "I have 4 different activities we can do -- please rank them by what's most interesting/relevant to you -- we'll start out with your number 1 and get to as many of the others as time allows."

The *one* time I taught a digital literacy workshop, I worked around this by breaking the class into 2 sessions. At the first session, we spent a fair amount of time on the "what people use technology for/how do I want to use technology?/what do I want to learn?" piece. Then for the rest of the first class everyone was stuck with my lesson activities, which were mostly basic skills around being comfortable with the hardware/interface. But the SECOND session was based 100% on the topics they said they wanted/needed to learn.

BTW - the topics they chose for the second digital literacy workshop were COMPLETELY different from what I would have expected, and they used the tools in a completely different way than I would have expected. For background: A local church group had given some desktop computers to different refugee families (from Burma). They installed them in their home, and made sure they were connected to their apartment complex's wi-fi. Then the church group asked me if I would organize some type of workshop around digital literacy for the adult refugees. The adult learners wanted to learn about using something like GoogleMaps and using a weather website. When we practiced using Google Maps, students were fascinated with the street view. Their relatives and friends had been "resettled" all over the U.S. They were interested in seeing their friends/family's apartments in street view and in seeing how the weather was in their friends'/family's city. They were also interested in seeing and showing the places that they used to live and talking to the other people in the class about their overall resettlement journey. They also talked about how challenging the cold weather could be in different places in the U.S., and what a difficult adjustment this was. I never thought of using Google Maps and weather websites as a way to connect with people who are far away, or as a way to share your story and challenges with new acquaintances from your country!

Reflection Domonique

As we get deeper into this project I begin to realize and fully understand that it is much bigger than just technology. While I have always known that, even here on campus I am constantly reminded of the struggles one faces here in Seattle. While I feel technology can add a lot to society and can help individuals in more ways that one, I also understand it is not the end all be all. It is important to me that my part is done correctly as well as other parts of this project. More than just doing a good thing, I hope everyone involved understands that we must give tools, and resources for our handwork to continue even when we are gone. 

Domonique

Reflection Klarissa

I did not post a reflection last week- I’m sorry! Punishment will be severe and forthcoming, suggestions being taken.

The quarter goes by so fast, but I am excited by how much progress we have done on this endeavor! I really enjoyed discussion yesterday around the definition of “digital literacy” and the meanings behind different definitions. One of the classes I am taking this quarter is “Indigenous Worldviews” and I am realizing how much is behind such a simple seeming concept of defining a term. There is a host of assumptions about what is important, what is normal, how the world is and how we should be in it. I was particularly struck by Lisa’s comment about “knowing quality sources of information.” [This is not a personal critique, Lisa, you are wonderful!] The idea of quality sources is kind of hammered into us, at least I feel in my experience. Scholarly articles, reputable websites, no Wikipedia. As I mentioned in class, though, scholarly articles are not without bias. It might be blasphemy to say, but even natural science, quantitative, empirical studies are not neutral. I think “quality sources” are more in line with, sources which are based on and will uphold the Western worldview. Why is traditional or community knowledge, or something written by somebody without a degree less legitimate? Why are feelings less legitimate than statistics? Why are we encouraged to cite everything, using official/ published data? (at least I often feel the need to include citations for every fact)

In anthropology, we have the term “authoritative knowledge,” a concept maybe not created by, but developed and explained by one of my sheroes, Brigitte Jordan. It basically comes down to the “knowledge that counts,” facts that matter. She describes it in one article as “considered legitimate, consequential, official, worthy of discussion, and appropriate for justifying particular actions by people engaged in accomplishing the tasks at hand.” (Jordan, 1997). In defining digital literacy, we are deciding what kind of knowledge “counts.”  I’m not sure there’s a way around this, it may be inescapable. We are definitely deciding what is “legitimate, consequential, official, and worthy of discussion” when we define digital literacy, discuss it and create our lesson plans, though we are including the women we are serving in this discussion. Out of theory and in reality, it does matter what is consequential and worthy of discussion tothem. And most certainly, we are using our definitions of digital literacy to “justify particular actions” – this whole project is based on convincing the city of Seattle that they should fund workshops for Latinas on digital literacy. In doing so, we must rely on what is considered legitimate- in our grant application and evaluations which are statistics, data, studies, surveys and definitions.

Jordan, Brigitte. 1997. “Authoritative Knowledge and Its Construction.” In Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Davis-Floyd, Robbie and Carolyn Sargent, Eds., University of California, Berkley. 

2-11-15 Federal Way, KCLS, Sarah White

Federal Way Branch Library

February 11^th, 2015

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Overview:

We only had two participants in the library tour. One participant told me, though, (paraphrasing) that it was very informative and that she never knew the library had so much to offer. I think that even though only two people received the information firsthand, if they share it with their social networks the information will be spread to more people.

For the second hour, Ivette led a discussion of staying in touch on the computer, which four people participated in. There was a lively discussion that ranged from "how young is too young to give your child a cell phone?" to "making calls with wi-fi that don't use data." Participants gave and received advice, viewpoints and opinions. The group interaction was great to see. An hour is a short amount of time, so there wasn't time to get hands-on with the tech, but I think everyone thought about it critically. 

Ivette can relate to many of the worries the women have as mothers, and I think that created a feeling of unity. We spoke of the many ways that we are different in terms of ethnicity, gender, and other in-group/out-group affiliations. But as a woman who has chosen not to have children, I notice that I am alienated from many other women my age or older who identify first and foremost as mothers, and who may have a hard time understanding why someone would not choose that identity.

One student brought up that she wanted to learn more about Word. Perhaps we can give her time to practice it next time, and I'll also show her the GCF aprende libre tutorials. She was also concerned about what her children were looking up online. While adding web-filtering to certain user accounts on the computer seemed difficult, I did show her how to look at the browser's history.

1/28/2015_Ivette,_Casa Latina_Workshop

Location:     Casa Latina                 

Describe Context – 

           

Date: 1/28/15

Name: Ivette Bayo Urban

List things that happened today:

The students and I headed to Casa Latina and arrived there a little after 5:00.  
We had other volunteers, Sandra, Elan and Liz with us.  
Emily was working on the report she needed to submit to the City of Seattle.  

Sarah already had the room set up and we had a few women already there, ready to start.  The topic was craiglist. 

Freddy joined the class also.

In the news:

Next week we go to Federal Way Library and take it mobile.

List Action Items from workshop:

Sarah led the craiglist and the women were using the tablets.  
Pick up tablets and see if Emily can charge them charged for next week.

  Things to look up, check out and explore:

• Make sure we have everything logistically ready for carpooling next week.  
• Confirm drivers

Describe an important an evocative social interaction that happened today:

Describe a success.

Everyone was engaged, whether with the adults, the children and even Emily working on the grant adminsitration.  I was thankful to be able to touch base with her and get her the information she needed for the report, even if it was later than what she needed, given her schedule.  Next time we will plan ahead to make it work in a more timely fashion - but for today we got it to work. 

Describe a failure.  What fell through the cracks?

I felt horrible that one of the women was upset that there had been an email lost.  She had spent a lot of time working on it and in the blink of an eye, when Freddy was helping her it was gone.  I wish I would have dealt with the challenge better, but the computer she was using was not one that I was familiar with I felt she was disappointed that we did not have the answers as to where her email went and how it was deleted.

What surprised me the most?

I was not in one place very long.  I didn't feel like I was part of any group since I spent my energies going between the children, the adults and emily for the reports.  What this confirmed it that there are a lot of moving pieces and that I need to set a time to process and delegate so I can BE in the moment. 

Reflections

I did take the opportunity to work discuss the challenges of working with technology and reminded the participants in the room to use the four agreements since, the intent Freddy had in helping her was with good intention, even if the outcome for her was not.  I have been there, deleted something, spent so mcuh time and energy to have it go in the wind and have my hard work disappear.  It is not a good feeling, but I think with these experiences, I learn that the only constant is that things CAN go wrong, and sometimes they do.  But life has shown me that we cannot change what happens to us, but we can control how we react to it.  

2/4/15, Federal Way Library, Freddy Mora

Location: Federal Way Public Library
Date: Feb. 4th, 2015
Time: 5: 00 PM-7:00 PM

Reflection:

It was interesting to check out another Seattle Public Library (or in this case, a Federal One). I have only been to the downtown and University District Locations. Every staff member was welcoming. The place was quite large, and very well maintained and organized.

The presentation that Edna and the interpreter gave was very informative. The women seemed to enjoy it. I even learned some new things myself, like how you can request a book to be transferred to a different branch for you! I liked looking around the rooms and seeing how eager the women were to learn. Sarah gave a great presentation, and allowed for time to have the women interact with tables and follow alongside with her. I was curious to know from what areas the other women (who didn’t drive down with us) were from. What topics were they hoping to have covered? Are they interested in future workshops?

 

2/4/2015 Federal Way Library Branch Workshop Willa

Federal Way Branch Library (KCLS)

February 4^th, 2015

3:30 PM – 7:00 PM

            Before Ivette, Klarissa, and I headed to Federal Way, we stopped by Casa Latina in order to pick up Sarah and to pick up some of the materials for the program. From there we left for Federal Way. We hit rush hour traffic, which was annoying and kind of stressful because we were starting to run short on time. The GPS said that we would be a couple minutes late and we had to call Edna at one point in order to let them know that we wouldn’t be on time. In the car, we discussed the plan for the day and talked about Klarissa’s essay briefly.

            When we reached the library, Edna had already gotten started on introducing the online library catalog. She had an interpreter with her because she doesn’t speak Spanish. The children were in the room next door. There were too many babies for just Ivette and Klarissa to take care of so I started helping out. However, the young baby I was taking care of could not stop crying without her mother. I decided that it would be better if the baby stayed with her mother and I would help out by entertaining the baby so the mother could concentrate on the lesson. It worked with moderate success. As time went on the baby could sit on my lap without crying, but she liked knowing where her mother was.

            Ivette and I left early around 6:30 PM so that we could go to a poetry reading by Sherman Alexie at Town Hall.

Evaluating the Accessibility of our Online Presence

One goal of this project is to help expose more underrepresented groups to the world of information technology. If our online presence is not easily accessible by people with visual impairments, issues with motor functionality, and other attributes that require special methods to get information from the web, then we are failing these overarching goals of accessibility.

A common tool used for internet-accessibility is a screen reader. These programs scan the HTML and CSS of web pages and read their content aloud for the user to hear. One of the most important aspects of web accessibility is building pages that can essentially 'play well' with these accessibility tools.

Several online services have the ability to access a website's accessibility: The website accessibility evaluation tool (or WAVE for short), and AChecker. Freddy and I used these to evaluate the three main websites we use for this project. Their results and commentary are as follows:

LatinaTech.org

Our website has a few errors in terms of accessibility. For users that need screen readers, alt-text for elements is necessary to describe pictures. None of the images on our website have alt-text, however, this is a fairly easy fix and will not take long to remedy.

The other main issue with latinatech.org is the contrast ratio of some text elements on the background. The design language of this website (links are orange + underlined) does not follow the 1:4.5 ratio of background to text color on some elements (mostly external links). To fix this, we would need to pick a different color to make all of the links on our page. This will take a bit longer than fixing the image alt-texts, but  it will be beneficial for users that have poor eyesight.

Casa-Latina.org

Many of the issues that LatinaTech.org had hold true for this website as well. None of the images have alt-text, which makes understanding the content difficult for users that cannot view images (or understand their significance).

The administrators of casa-latina.org can remedy this by modifying the HTML markup that makes up the site. This is not difficult for any web-savvy person to accomplish as long as they have access to the source code (which we do not)html tab
.

LatinaTech.blogspot.com

I am actually impressed with how few accessibility errors our blog has. Freddy’s accessibility reports only pointed out two different kinds of errors: The HTML document language is not specified, and the alt-texts for the little ‘edit’ pencil icons are not written. For any non-administrative user, they will never encounter these icons, so we need not take action here. I can fiddle with the HTML backend of our blog and try to fix the language header soon. Hopefully this will help users with visual impairments and screen-readers.


Tools used:
http://wave.webaim.org/

http://achecker.ca/checker/index.php

2/4/15 Federal Way Library Sarah

Federal Way Public Library
Feb. 4th, 2015
5: 00 PM  - 7:00 PM

Overview:
The Federal Way branch library was a nice and busy building. Edna gave a very informative overview of library programs at the Federal Way branch. I thought it would be distracting to have an interpreter, but I think it went very well.

The women from Federal Way who attended were an interesting group. The three women in front who seemed like they were used to a formal educational environment - they had notebooks for notes, asked many questions, etc. A different woman seemed very interested in activities for her children, so I imagine that was a motivating factor for her participation.

I had planned some group discussion activities with the idea that the women from Casa and the women from Federal Way could get to talking with each other, but they were reticent to form groups with each other. (I even asked twice....) One woman from Casa was quite distracted by her teething baby, so I understand she wasn't able to fully concentrate on discussion! Another woman from Casa had a laptop with crashing Windows (blue screen; auto restart; blue screen; auto restart) so she was worried and distracted as well. Since my Windows crashed recently, I sympathize! I wanted to spend more time with her to help her troubleshoot, but the group was...well, not big, but big enough...that I couldn't get sucked into open-ended computer troubleshooting land.  Another participant wanted to use her laptop, but couldn't find a good place to plug it in. Since we only used the technology a very short time, I just suggested she use a tablet. I'll bring my power cable next time.

I was surprised that the discussion about finding info only brought up Google. I had thought participants would bring up finding jobs, or information about American institutions/agencies. The discussion evolved in a fairly interesting direction, though. Participants had good insights into the problem of credibility -- one women said, "our kids believe everything they read on the internet. What can we say?" So we discussed evaluating credibility: figuring out the author and their intent, whether they're presenting their opinion, or facts they've researched.