Last week I had the pleasure of talking with Carissa Swenson, the Owner and Technology Specialist of TechTECS, a technology training, education, consulting and support company based out of North Dakota. She and I connected indirectly through the recent Minnesota Telecom Alliance Conference.
Carissa recently started a business to promote broadband adoption through digital literacy training. Here is a list of current training topics:
- iPads for Directors
- Digital Citizenship
- Cloud Productivity Tools
I suspect that list is growing as new topics come up and as she posts more online. I know we discussed topics such as cyber bullying and child safety. (I mention those topics because of another post I’m working on.)
Carissa has worked with/through local providers. I think it’s a great way to get local investment and local involvement. Her approach is a train-the-trainer model. The goal being to increase local capacity for future training and support for ongoing digital literacy. I’ll borrow from her site to explain her process…
Broadband adoption is the focus of many rural telecommunication companies. Fiber-to-the-home initiatives are expensive so you want to make sure your rural customers are utilizing the high speed connections. The connections are there but why would they adopt broadband if they don’t really know how it can help them? Your future customers need someone to show them how a broadband connection can help to improve their lives. TechTECS has developed a program to help telecommunications companies educate their communities on the many benefits of broadband.
Before starting out on her own, Carissa worked for a state program that provided training to teachers with the expectation that they would become the local experts and trainers to support and increase local digital literacy. I loved the program idea. The idea was to bring in the teachers, pay they for their time (key point!), train them on the digital literacy issues and ask them to pay back with 12 hours of training back in their community.
The innovation comes from the opportunity to get funding for schools. So they got creative with a great way to expand opportunity beyond the school.
Sounded like some programs worth mentioning as Minnesota communities tackle broadband adoption and digital literacy.
