6/10/2015 Workshop Lake City Branch Library Willa

Lake City Branch Library
June 10th, 2015
5:00 - 7:30

This week I was the lead with the adult digital literacy group at Lake City. We were working with a small group at first of only two participants. However, towards the end two more women joined. I had planned a session of working on phones especially on applications. The theme was resources for adults and youth. Since it was finals week and I was finishing other finals, I had limited time to construct a formal lesson plan like the ones we will use in reporting for the grant. Instead, I experimented with different applications and how to find them on my own phone.

Here is the rough outline I created:

Library Calendar of Events (kid and adults)
Homework Help (for kids)
Summer of Learning (activities for kids: in english)
Utilizando el catalogo (para adultos)
Literacy, ESL, citizenship (para adultos)

Applications:
Alguien tiene usted su telefono en ingles? Quieres in español?
App store for Apple esta en ingles
Lo mismo para la tienda de android?

How to Explore (como explorar en apps)
hay muchas categorias como en "educación" hay:  aprendiendo ingles, gramática, matemáticas, como responder a bullying (niños)
ejemplo: Mango
otra categoria es "kids/ niños" y tienes millons de apps. sobre juguetes, números (matemáticas), alfabetismo, ortografia,
ejemplo: 3rd grade Splash Math (an app we have on the kids iPads)

Also, instead of creating a powerpoint presentation, I decide to connect my phone directly to the projector so that I could demonstrate the above outline as well as respond more easily to questions.

At the beginning of the workshop, I displayed the above outline so that the participants would have a good idea of what I intended to teach and what I prepared.

We managed to cover some of the stuff in my outline - we went through how to explore applications and I did let them know that there were categories and lots of different types of applications. However, most of the workshop was devoted to asking questions. We talked about the differences between the King County Library System and the Seattle Public library system. We also talked about the Seattle Public Library's Facebook page in Spanish and how to find it (actually kind of difficult cause you have to put in the whole name to get the right one). We also discussed mobile hotspots and googleamericalatinablog.blogspot.com, which has articles about technology in Spanish that Ana found.

5/22/15

Today we had a technology workshop at Casa Latina. Unfortunately due to sickness and schedule conflicts, our group was missing Ivette, Klarissa, and Willa. We had to prepare ourselves to run a smooth workshop with only three people from the class (myself, Kaylah, and Sarah). Sylvia stepped up to help us out, especially for the first 30 minutes before Sarah arrived to begin the instruction. Kaylah was working with the kids, so I was the only non-fluent Spanish speaker in the whole room for nearly 45 minutes. This definitely challenged me, and I spoke more Spanish today than any other workshop day so far.
Due to my lack of confidence speaking Spanish, it can sometimes be intimidating sitting among the women while everyone converse in Spanish. I know that everyone is very patient with me, especially when I have to take time mid-sentence to remember the correct word I want to use. Immersion is the most effective way to pick up a language, however! I'm a little bit nervous about my presentation next Friday. I haven't had to speak for an extended period of time before, let alone teaching people about a subject in Spanish. I think it will be okay.

5/8/15 Workshop Casa Latina

Today's two hour segment was split up in an unusual way. For the first hour, we had the women participate in a technology workshop like normal, but the second hour was dedicated to a Mother's Day celebration that Casa put on. Therefore we only had half of the usual time slot to work with the women. Although brief, the workshop went fairly well. Unfortunately it seemed like the participants were looking forward to the fiesta, so the attention of the group was not as focused as it has been in the past.
As for the fiesta, it was heartwarming to see the children go up in the front of the room and share why they appreciate their mothers. Although some seemed nervous or bashful, their speeches were genuine. I was surprised to find myself in charge of carving up the roast chickens that they purchased for the meal. I would not consider myself a cook by any sense of the word, but I don't think I messed them up too badly. Food is food, right?
The meal gave us some good time to chat with one another, and I appreciated being able to talk with Sarah more than we usually get to.

4/1/15 Casa Latina Workshop Willa

Casa Latina
April 1st, 2015
4:00 - 8:00 PM

I worked both with the women and the children. I started with working with the women. I'm not sure I contributed very much though I did help connect to the Internet on a couple of the tablets. Half way through I switched to helping with the children because a couple of them wanted to make origami. After I helped with the origami making, I helped Brad and Klarissa supervise the kids looking at the children's book section.

I really liked that the space is big enough for both the children and the adults. I like having both groups in the same space. It seemed easier for us to help back and forth with both the adults and the children. I also think that it did not disturb the learning process for the adults too.

Reflections from Class

Looking back on this quarter and my experiences working with Casa Latina, the two themes that stuck out to me is digital divide and women leadership. Digital divide is something I have always had an interest in. I even thought of incorporating it into my CHI Competition submission, for the theme this year was "Appropriating Technologies for New Cultures". The project asked us to “showcase your best abilities of "maker cultures" to build new connections and to make less-voiced cultures be better heard.” Although it isn’t entirely related to the Casa Latina work we were doing, a reading that I did for this class highlighted some aspects of the competition.

Author Alysa Hullett of “Why more women in leadership will mean few women in poverty” emphasizes how the spreading of resources among underrepresented communities is important for giving a voice to communities and organizations such as Casa Latina. She states how people have “failed to speak up about wage theft in the past due to fear and a ‘lack of power’.” Some things can be improved though by informing workers of their labor rights in the United States, and letting them know that claims can be filed. This is just one example how resources can be a game player in giving the voice necessary for change.

From here you think about the “digital divide” notion in America, and wonder how this plays a role in being a barrier to that voice that is needed. How prominent is this digital divide within various communities in America, not just Casa Latina? This class has left me wondering about other identities that face a digital divide. What about people with disabilities, or those within the LGBTQ community? What about someone who is a minority and a citizen versus someone who is a minority and a non-resident, or undocumented?

There is also the questions I have about women leadership in America. The same author, Alysa Hullett, brought up some interesting statistics about women leadership and women poverty in America. She also popped some questions in my head, such as who is responsible for this poverty? Who can change this? Are they groups, or are they individuals? Surely there are some solutions (which would take time to implement), but what solutions or action steps would be right ones?

It was great to looking around and seeing the women leadership happening in Casa Latina. It was also great seeing the true meaning of “community” and “family” take place right in front of you. I remember at one workshop, one of the women’s husband ended up joining us and that was awesome! I didn’t expect a husband to want to be a part of the workshop, and for him to be interested and a part of the conversation was great. It reminded me of a conversation I had with a couple of the women on a different day. We were talking about how it would be great if some of the men joined us. It is much more about the women at the workshop, it is also about their allies, their supporters, their family, and their friends. Together, change can happen. Together we can holistically look at what is going on around us and understand what can be done to change current situations. I would be interested to see how support networks vary from community to community, and what happens if there is no personal support network available.

Walking away from this I am left with so many questions. It was a great experience overall, and the stories that were shared allowed me to understand the articles we were reading even more, and see the power that exists in available resources and support networks.

3/11/15
Casa Latina
Sarah White

Reflections on class:

I was reminded that the women at Casa Latina are a community that wants to get together, hear about each other's lives, visit, and take ownership of the classes and their success.

It made me wonder about the nature of programming in public libraries, which can be "one shot" lectures. I wondered if it doesn't make more sense for ongoing classes (even if they aren't always 100% focused) because so much of learning is about relationships. In an age where discrete facts are easy to get at, and you can learn how to do anything by googling it, classes become about creating relationships that sustain a person's motivation towards personal inquiry.

It also reminded me to build into lessons at Casa time for collaborative work.

Reflections on the project:

Looking forward to meeting with the public librarians and planning the schedule for April. I'm hoping we can make Douglass Truth welcoming!

Casa Latina 3/11/15 Sarah White

Casa Latina
3/4/15
Adult Digital literacy workshop

Since this was the first day back at Casa Latina (and the weather was good!) we only had a couple of attendees. We had a good discussion about the upcoming month at Douglass Truth. One of the attendees was interested in Skype, and was able to download it her her phone.

I began to wonder about students in the service learning class who assist. I seems as though there isn't a good role for them to fill that brings them into classroom interactions. I am wondering if -- for the Spring semester -- they wouldn't like to participate in a more formal way (as their language abilities allow). Perhaps they could research the class topic ahead of time and make a brief handout for the presenters and other assistants (i.e. a bulleted list-type overview of different tech related to the topic). Or perhaps they could design some slides with screenshots. There are a lot of possibilities, really just any way to participate in the planning/teaching in some way so they feel more engaged with the topic. Since we'll have a topic list ahead of time, they could sign up for the topics they want to research/present/help with at the beginning of class time.

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 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.