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.

3/18/2015 Casa Latina Workshop Willa

Casa Latina
March 18th, 2015
4:30 - 7:30

Klarissa and I worked with the kids. The planned activity was something to do with magazines, but we did not have the proper materials so it turned into an activity on movement. One of the girls knew of an "educational" app from school, which teaches you dance moves to popular videos. It did fall apart towards the end because not everyone was interested and the kids rather liked listening to the songs over actually dancing. There were also two babies, which occupied most of my time. One of the babies likes to dance to music, which was fun to see. Also, when Klarissa asked one of the girls about how listening to All About that Base was educational, one of the girls responded that the song has a positive body message that was teaching her to love the body she's in, which was good, but also kind of snarky. :)

3/25/2015 Workshop Casa Latina Klarissa

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!

3/11/2015 Casa Latina Workshop Willa

Casa Latina
March 11th, 2015
4:30 PM - 7:30 PM


Brad and I worked with the children literacy child care this Wednesday. Because Ivette had to run the adult digital literacy, she could not be there to do her planned activity, which was taking a photo of a body part that you like, writing what you like about that body part and why, and printing that photo in black and white. We had two babies and two older children to do this activity with. It was a lot of fun. Many of us took photos of our faces because we like certain aspects of our face - our hair, our eyes, or our mouth. We also took photos of the babies and wrote things about how cute they are. Unfortunately, the photos could not be printed in black and white because of the nature of the printer. The digital cameras also were not charged and we didn't have the right cords to charge them. We ended up using the iPad and printing the photos wirelessly. In the end, some of the children gave their photos and writings to their moms.

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.

3/4/2015 Workshop Casa Latina Klarissa

Location: Casa Latina

Time: 5-630

Date: 3/4/2015

Casa Latina was very quiet today.  Two older girls and two infants. Stephanie helped me with the kids. Since we had to leave early we didn’t bring any crafts, only the ipads which were almost dead. I have been a little hectic this quarter, and did not plan very well ahead. Again, planning. How many times do I need to learn this?  Since I have very little experience with children, it’s important, because I don’t have a “bag of tricks” to fall back on yet. Still, kids are very good at entertaining themselves and they found amusement in the bag of jelly beans that Ivette brought- doing blind tastings, trying to trick each other into not being able to guess the flavors in various combinations.

Ivette, Stephanie and I left early to be able to attend a lecture by Anne Balsamo on campus, one of the founders of FemTechNet. FemTechNet’s manifesto is at the core of our mission as Ivette laid it out(rewrite this sentence). The lecture was quite interesting, but not what I had thought it would be. The title of her newest book, “Designing Culture” to me, as an anthropology student seemed as if this would be theoretical and broader- a discussion on social construction through the ways we design informational technology perhaps. And I haven’t read the book, so maybe it is about that. But the lecture was about a project to digitally archive the AIDS memorial quilt- which is interesting in itself.

There is the idea of resisting the silencing of historical narratives, queer history and the still active creation of the quilt.

She talked about technological obsolence and the quickly shifting paradigms- how long will our informational technologies be useful as holders of history, artifacts, words, ideas and knowledge? 

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

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 #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