06/01/21 Digital Literacy Taskforce Meeting

SUMMARY:

The Digital Literacy Task Force held its first meeting on June 1, 2021, and included representatives from multiple sectors interested in resolving the digital divide in the Los Angeles County region. Task force members engaged in a fruitful discussion around priority areas to focus on at future convenings. In addition, all members had the opportunity to provide feedback through discussion, chat-box, or by responding to questions via a jam board. The jam board was a very productive tool and generated more than 90 sticky note comments, suggestions or inquiries.

Here are the key themes from the discussion on digital literacy:

  1. Greatest digital literacy barriers impacting low-income households and small businesses:

  2. Access to devices

  3. Affordable broadband bandwidth

  4. Marketing

  5. Language barriers and age-appropriate outreach

  6. “Digital Literacy/Skills” connected to tasks aligned with household needs

  7. Dead zone areas

  8. Current approaches working that should be explored to take to scale countywide?

  9. Human-I-T offers free virtual beginner’s digital literacy course with wraparound interactive services via phone/social media

  10. Long Beach City CARES Act Digital Inclusion Initiative

  11. Wireless deployments by school districts

  12. SIMM programs

  13. Help desk access by transferring long-term device ownership to students/families

  14. City of Los Angeles Aging Department pilot program

  15. Ubiquitous internet access

  16. Cox Digital Academy

  17. Devices as the carrot to increase digital literacy

  18. Partnerships are needed to improve the digital literacy of Los Angeles households?

  19. Libraries and parks

  20. VISTA volunteers from the state

  21. Health care providers

  22. School districts as trusted anchor institutions

  23. Digital Inclusion/Equity training for stakeholders interested in delivering digital literacy/skills train-the-trainer

  24. Service-learning programs that earn educational credit

The suggested breakout subtopic considerations are presented given the initial feedback from task force members:

  1. Culturally responsive training and curriculum development

  2. Age appropriate

  3. Marketing/communications – targeted outreach

  4. Assessing, adoption, and scaling in a sustainable manner

The digital literacy task force will meet virtually monthly and includes education, health, nonprofit, education, business, city municipalities, and internet service providers. To learn more, visit: ladeal.org/events.

More About This

Updated: Sep 2, 2021

Digital Literacy Taskforce Objective

Assessing needs and opportunities to provide ongoing culturally relevant and age-appropriate training at scale for underserved communities.

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