Teaching tech skills through an innovative program

Communities in Schools of Arizona (CISA) has been "mobilizing and connecting community resources with schools" since 1994. Last year CISA partnered with more than 450 businesses, individuals, and community organizations to bring cash, program goods, and services valued at $1.6 million to over 18,600 students in 83 schools in the state of Arizona.

CISA wanted to offer a technology training program to help students -- and parents -- in the Osborn School District to acquire basic computer skills that would help them succeed. To accommodate the needs of the students, CISA required that the program be in Spanish and be self-paced. NPower Arizona was engaged to help implement this project.

Challenges arose early in the planning phase when it was determined that the selected curriculum materials were in South American Spanish and potentially confusing to the target population, and again in the actual implementation when the self-paced instructional model proved unworkable for the 32 participants who -- while highly motivated and eager to learn -- had little or no previous computer experience.

Using an available Microsoft Spanish language "Technology Basics" training program as a base model, NPower Arizona developed and monitored delivery of a 16-module self-paced version that was re-translated to be more "in tune" with the local vernacular. To best meet the students' needs in terms of skills and self-confidence, NPower Arizona shifted from the self-paced delivery model to an instructor-led one that included learning projects that were most relevant to their daily lives.

These course corrections provided win/win results for CISA and for the students involved in this pilot program. Student evaluations conducted before and after the program showed that at the first session, the majority of adult students had never used a computer due either to lack of access to one or fear of using it. By the end of the 16 sessions, 18 of the original 32 participants had completed the pilot computer program with nearly perfect attendance and had achieved an average 41 point gain on a computer literacy survey. They were also able to demonstrate newly acquired technology skills as logging on to the computer, writing a document in Word, creating an invitation with Power Point and a budget with Excel, doing research on the Internet, and responding to emails in individual accounts which they each established. Fourteen of 15 respondents indicated they would "continue to take additional classes if offered." Another positive outcome was that 8 of the 15 respondents said that their newly acquired confidence and skills with the computer would allow them to help their children with their homework.

And the impact of these skills? As one adult student noted, "The class will help me every way in my daily life: to help my children with their homework, at the school, to communicate with my family who lives very far away; to get a job in the near future." Technology enabled CISA to provide assistance to students and parents, and in turn the new technology skills will enable these families to stay involved and connected with each other and the community.