Final Course Reflection - Brad

Brad Holland

Final Reflection

            The rise of information technology must be accompanied by a push for ­­evaluation on its uses and accompanying societal consequences. As an educator and peer participating in the Community Technology Literacy & You project, I must regularly stop and reflect on community informatics topics including digital divides and identity within communities. Over the course of the last ten weeks, these are the two topics that I found myself reflecting upon most. Likewise, I was consciously aware of them during classroom discussion and community service learning.  

            In a society that is rapidly becoming more dependent on technology, there exists a digital divide between people with tech-prowess and those without. This division has an important role in determining the economic and social position of people in developed nations such as America, where most white-collar jobs require rudimentary computing skills. The digital divide is strikingly similar to the cycle of poverty. People who are digitally literate can use information technology as a tool to gain further knowledge, advancing themselves economically, intellectually, and technologically further ahead of the digitally illiterate. The digital divide is apparent to me during my daily life when I interact with people of different generations. Older generations that did not grow up using information technology have a much more difficult time understanding the potential of technologies such as the internet, mobile computing, and social networks. People like my parents often ask me questions that I simply Google to provide an answer. My first reaction when encountering a problem is to look it up online, whereas they usually ask their immediate peers for information. To take it one step further, my parents’ parents would most likely would have scoffed at the idea of an internet search, because their generation is even less digitally literate and cannot comprehend the scope of online information. I feel it is important for the digitally literate to help teach and encourage those who lack similar skills; digital literacy opens up a whole new world of information and opportunity.

            This course’s focus on identity made me think about how I perceive myself within the mix of thousands of individuals that I interact with on a daily basis. There exist countless forces in the world that try and sculpt or mold our characteristics using outward social pressures. It requires immense strength to be an individual and think freely. How we perceive ourselves affects how we interact with others. This became important during our workshop sessions, because we as volunteers were not present to simply instruct from a top-down hierarchy. The bi-directional learning goals of this course required us to perceive ourselves as community members on the same plane as the women in our workshops. This train of thought is radically different from my other university courses, and is especially liberating when I began to consider the inclusiveness of our efforts.

            Our workshop sessions were not the only inclusive community in this course. Thanks to a welcoming classroom environment, my classmates, instructor and I felt comfortable discussing personal matters as they relate to our cohesiveness as a group. I can confidently say that I am comfortable with my identity among these people, which allows for more wholesome and meaningful interaction. There are countless things we can learn from each other if we allow our individuality to flourish and use technology to support the communication process. This course is certainly a step in the right direction, but we have much more work to do.

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

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 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?

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 #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 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. 

2/4/15 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.

1/7/15 Workshop Casa Latina Sarah White

On 1/7, Esteban presented on antivirus software and file-sharing/backup software (Dropbox) to the adult literacy group. Freddy and I were available to offer help and support.

I also found out that our order of tablets arrived! I'm wondering if we will be able to use any of the tablets on 1-14? I'm also wondering if I could borrow one next week to play around with and get used to the interface?

Each student had their particular interests and challenges related to the topic. Making the second half of the class productive seemed to require 1-to-1 support or 1-to-2 support. The difficulty I had in the MSF lesson was also that students required a great deal of individualized support. When thinking about writing the lesson plans for Capstone to be used by future volunteers, I'm wondering about ways to write them such that one volunteer could work more easily with up to 10 students (this is sort of an arbitrary goal, but it seems reasonable). I'm still playing around with different ideas. I'm thinking of the possibility of a model that looks a bit like fearless cards - step-by-step instructions for different tasks that students could pull out and use with the help of a friend? And perhaps trying to "formalize" pair work a bit? This actually seems "weirder" in a small, friendly class. In a slightly larger class it doesn't feel awkward to assign pairs.

A lot is happening in other classes that is related. Next week I'll be working on an outline of my deliverables for Capstone. The first draft will be due the 18th, and the final due the 25th. At some point between the 18th and the 25th, it'd be good to run the document past Ivette. I admit that I kind of feel about Capstone documents the way that I used to feel about grant reporting: we run around like crazy to make it work in the real world, and then make it look on paper however it needs to look on paper to appease the Masters of Bureaucracy. That being said, I don't want to completely brush off the process because I would like a minimum of headaches come Spring.

I am also participating in a TASCHA research seminar for the Myanmar Information Laboratory. I've been tasked with a "Lit Review" of sorts: finding digital & info literacy curricula from similar contexts with a focus on smart phones and making a series of recommendations for librarian-training workshops. I think some of what I learn will inform the lesson plans I write up for my Capstone.

1/21/2015 Casa Latina Workshop Brad Holland

Location: Casa Latina
Date: 1/21/2015
Time: 5:00 PM

Today the women in the adult digital literacy workshop worked on making personal business cards. There were not many attendees (I believe only 5) so Ivette, Sarah and I were able to offer more personal help when needed. Having one-on-one conversations with some of the women stretched my brain and seriously tested the limits of my knowledge of Spanish. Fortunately, they are all very considerate and understanding of the language barrier, and for that I am immensely grateful.

While I may not be the most competent person in Spanish communication, my tech support skills paid off today when one woman needed her computer to be cleaned up. She had some adware and pesky browser modifications that hindered web searching, which made her technology experience more challenging than it needed to be. Given about 15 minutes, I cleaned everything up so that she could move on and get back to learning the technology literacy skills.

I believe this is a prime example of how everybody has something to offer when volunteering is concerned. I enjoy being able to use my skills for the benefit of others, and in situations like this one I understand that I should not feel unhelpful to the project just because I do not speak Spanish very well. I feel that I am finally getting my feet wet as a member of this project, and I am excited to see where the next few weeks take me.

1/21/15 Casa Latina Workshop Sarah

Location: Casa Latina

Date: 1/21/2014

Time: 5 to 7

Overview: 

I'll admit I was quite tired on Wednesday, and happy that Ivette was leading the workshop and that the attendance wasn't very high.  I'll have a double cappuccino before we head to Federal Way!

Students got quite experimental looking on Google for business card templates, and waded into area we didn't know much about. Two students successfully designed business cards. A third already had a design she liked. A fourth got bogged down in google searches for just the right picture, layout, etc. Who hasn't gone down that path? It makes me think of Berkowitz and Eisenberg's Big 6 skills for solving information problems: 

1. Task Definition: Define the information problem; Identify information needed
2. Information Seeking Strategies: Determine all possible sources; Select the best sources
3. Location and Access: Locate sources (intellectually and physically); Find information within sources
4. Use of Information: Engage (e.g., read, hear, view, touch); Extract relevant information
5. Synthesis: Organize from multiple sources; Present the information
6. Evaluation: Judge the product (effectiveness), Judge the process (efficiency)
See: http://big6.com/pages/about/big6-skills-overview.php

Perhaps she was having trouble transitioning into step 5. In any project, I always have trouble starting step 5. Synthesis hurts my brain. If this comes up in a workshop again, I'll be more proactive with helping to start the Synthesizing!

Reflections on the project:
Ivette and I have synchronously been sharing thoughts, but I think it was confirmed at our meeting. As she's been moving into a more "coordinating" role, I began to wonder if I couldn't better serve the project by focusing on teaching during Spring quarter, rather than writing up the lessons. I'll admit that teaching makes me inordinately anxious, even after all these years. Please excuse any lapses in decorum as I deal with my stage fright.

I'm also starting my lit review for Capstone, and I'm happy that Ivette gave me lots of leads, and we have the annotated bibliography for class as well.

Ivette's comment about her exchange with a fellow Ph.D. student made me think about the relationships between "front-line" service providers, administrators, and academics/researchers. There's definitely attitudes and narratives in each tribe both about themselves and each other. When I worked at the Literacy Volunteers, we talked amongst ourselves about "being in the trenches" as a badge of pride. So to my fellow service-learners: here's to the trenches!

1/14/2015 Casa Latina Workshop Willa

Casa Latina

January 14^th, 2014

4:30 PM – 7:15 PM

            Ivette, Brad, Klarissa, and I left for Casa Latina after class. The theme for this week’s workshop was accessing and using emails. This week I worked with the adult digital literacy class. I also worked on setting up the tablets with Brad. I set up the two iPads. When I finished, a man walked in that needed help accessing his email account. I worked one on one with him. The first step was making sure that his computer was connected to the Internet and that it would connect automatically. This way he wouldn’t need to reconnect to the Casa Latina’s network again. Next we worked on figuring out his email password. He had forgotten it. Luckily, when he set up his email, he put in his cell phone number for password recovery. Then we accessed his Skype and Facebook. We made sure that his password is the same for all of these services so that it would be less likely to be forgotten. Then I had him reaccess all of the things we discussed by himself. I hope that by doing this he would be able to access them without help. I was also able to set his Gmail account to Spanish language so that it would make using his email easier.

            It was great to work with him because when we started he did not seem to be able to even open his web browser. He also did not speak much English, but after I showed him Google Translate that would pronounce the words for him, he seemed really thrilled about using that feature in the future.