I found this via VICE's Motherboard. https://www.alliedmedia.org/dctp/eii - mainly focused on community Internet access, but also some digital literacy stuff.
If anyone else replies, I am in a small town and people are responding to me with "oh, you are a web designer! We could use your help!"
I am not a web designer. But I am a content creator and can serve as a content manager and I am willing to foster some development here. The town has high speed internet and an excellent library. But Facebook seems to be the big thing here. And there is lots of room for growth.
While it might be possible to see some small improvements with digital literacy initiatives and "up-skilling", educators will tell you that there's a much deeper, larger problem that is the root cause of all of this.
Literacy is paramount, NOT digital literacy, I mean the ability to read, write, and perform basic mathematics. Public schools in America are floundering when it comes to basic education. Students leave school without the most fundamental skills required to do anything other than menial labor, let alone author insipid React components.
That's a giant scary problem that is accelerating, and there will be a very ugly comeuppance in the USA for neglecting education.
I am not looking to save all of America. I am just looking for actionable advice pertinent to addressing some things in my tiny corner of the world.
I am speaking with literate, competent people. I recently spoke with a guy who is wealthy and a co-owner of a local successful business that has been around a long time. He is a local mover and shaker. He told me he does not own a computer at all.
Meanwhile, the website for his company has one of the best local websites I have tripped across, his business card lists his email address and he carries a very nice smartphone. I imagine he can get online with his smartphone, yet he apparently does not consider that to be a computer for purposes of viewing my websites.
He didn't want my email. He wanted me to text message him my phone number. He is a very intelligent man with a lot going on, but he straight up told me "I am [x age], I am not going to learn this stuff." I know people about that same age on Hacker News who program, etc.
Unemployment is high in this town. I would like to start hooking people up with earning opportunities that already exist on the internet. I am facing a lot of challenges in trying to connect to people. But I think there is a huge opportunity here for making some headway against some of the local problems via spreading the word that the internet is not just a place to watch YouTube videos and hang out on Facebook. There is a lot more going on in cyberspace than that and you can have a lot more going on in your life for the price of a (free) library card and a little digital literacy.
I find it frustrating that every question I have posted so far on Hacker News related to this desire of mine has been generally met with so little real support, for example the utter lack of reply here:
I think you have a very valid and important concern for digital literacy among the general population for the purpose of business and opportunity.
However, it happens to lie next to another concern with a much larger scope and severity: the failure of the American educational system in general. Compared to this, a few Luddites and facebook-only websurfers isn't such a big deal.
Honestly if you know how to troubleshoot and use google, you’re 90% of the way to a successful IT career. It’s remarkable how hard it is to find people who know how to solve problems in the general case, rather than know how to use some specific technology.
Yes, being able to "[solve] problems in the general case" is the ultimate positive outcome of a proper education and it has little to do with whether or not the student has been exposed to computer science in their K12 curriculum.
Comments
Anyone know of any programs, tools, best practices, whatever for trying to improve this in areas that are being left behind?
I found this via VICE's Motherboard. https://www.alliedmedia.org/dctp/eii - mainly focused on community Internet access, but also some digital literacy stuff.
Thanks.
If anyone else replies, I am in a small town and people are responding to me with "oh, you are a web designer! We could use your help!"
I am not a web designer. But I am a content creator and can serve as a content manager and I am willing to foster some development here. The town has high speed internet and an excellent library. But Facebook seems to be the big thing here. And there is lots of room for growth.
While it might be possible to see some small improvements with digital literacy initiatives and "up-skilling", educators will tell you that there's a much deeper, larger problem that is the root cause of all of this.
Literacy is paramount, NOT digital literacy, I mean the ability to read, write, and perform basic mathematics. Public schools in America are floundering when it comes to basic education. Students leave school without the most fundamental skills required to do anything other than menial labor, let alone author insipid React components.
That's a giant scary problem that is accelerating, and there will be a very ugly comeuppance in the USA for neglecting education.
I am not looking to save all of America. I am just looking for actionable advice pertinent to addressing some things in my tiny corner of the world.
I am speaking with literate, competent people. I recently spoke with a guy who is wealthy and a co-owner of a local successful business that has been around a long time. He is a local mover and shaker. He told me he does not own a computer at all.
Meanwhile, the website for his company has one of the best local websites I have tripped across, his business card lists his email address and he carries a very nice smartphone. I imagine he can get online with his smartphone, yet he apparently does not consider that to be a computer for purposes of viewing my websites.
He didn't want my email. He wanted me to text message him my phone number. He is a very intelligent man with a lot going on, but he straight up told me "I am [x age], I am not going to learn this stuff." I know people about that same age on Hacker News who program, etc.
Unemployment is high in this town. I would like to start hooking people up with earning opportunities that already exist on the internet. I am facing a lot of challenges in trying to connect to people. But I think there is a huge opportunity here for making some headway against some of the local problems via spreading the word that the internet is not just a place to watch YouTube videos and hang out on Facebook. There is a lot more going on in cyberspace than that and you can have a lot more going on in your life for the price of a (free) library card and a little digital literacy.
I find it frustrating that every question I have posted so far on Hacker News related to this desire of mine has been generally met with so little real support, for example the utter lack of reply here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15729897
I think you have a very valid and important concern for digital literacy among the general population for the purpose of business and opportunity.
However, it happens to lie next to another concern with a much larger scope and severity: the failure of the American educational system in general. Compared to this, a few Luddites and facebook-only websurfers isn't such a big deal.
Honestly if you know how to troubleshoot and use google, you’re 90% of the way to a successful IT career. It’s remarkable how hard it is to find people who know how to solve problems in the general case, rather than know how to use some specific technology.
Yes, being able to "[solve] problems in the general case" is the ultimate positive outcome of a proper education and it has little to do with whether or not the student has been exposed to computer science in their K12 curriculum.