Digital literacy course helps locals navigate news and life
When important news breaks, many people rely on technology to gather critical information. After massive flooding took Kerrville, Texas by storm in early July, Marie Weinbrecht was desperate for updates on the town she and her husband once called home.
Now a part-time desk assistant at Forest Park Public Library, Weinbrecht says a six-week digital inclusion workshop at the library has given her the tools and knowledge she needed to follow developing stories like this one.
“I was able to navigate easier where the worst parts were, what happened with my house, things like that,” said Weinbrecht. “I was able to navigate better than I would have been before.”
Weinbrecht says one of the most useful lessons of the course was learning how to make digital folders. Now, she plans to use those same skills to memorialize their time in the Central Texas town.
“I’m going to create a whole file and pictures of Kerrville and all the good times we had,” said Weinbrecht, who lived in the small town along the Guadalupe River with her husband for five years. “I want him to be able to see that. I think that’s important for him right now.”
Not only has she found practical ways to apply the course’s content to her own life, but Weinbrecht also enjoys sharing this new knowledge with her husband. She has already been able to help set up his new computer using abilities she gained in the workshop.
“We bought the whole new computer, and nobody helped us get it together,” said Weinbrecht. “It’s been like the two of us trying to, you know, the blind, leading the blind. Actually I’m a lot better than he is now, and so I’m teaching him.”
Before the course, Weinbrecht often got nervous when using new technology and now says she is no longer afraid to try.
“I was always afraid I would lose data,” said Weinbrecht. “I was afraid of a lot of stuff and I’m not afraid like I was anymore. And I think teaching my husband, he feels a lot better about it.”
Weinbrecht is not the only workshop attendee who is already using their new skills to stay more informed. Kathleen Ogundipe says she has begun using the laptop participants received after completing the course to follow current events.
“I’ve actually read some news on my computer,” said Ogundipe. “And I don’t really access news too well.”
The device, provided by PCs for People, has also made life a little bit easier for Ogundipe’s role as a substitute teacher.
“It actually helped having the laptop given to us,” she said. “That was a real blessing because I was struggling with trying to get online for District 97 sub lessons that we had to do. I couldn’t download them on my desktop computer, so I brought my laptop in there.”
Workshop participant Mariana Cordova remembers taking her first computer class in 1966 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Now, after completing this course at the Forest Park Public Library, she remains an advocate for using community resources like this one as an opportunity for free, continuing education and encourages other seniors to do the same.
“In the community, at the library, all over the place, there’s so many resources out there,” she said. “Utilize those resources. Technology makes it easier to access resources. That’s the primary thing from technology, for me, access to resources.”
Cordova came into the class also hoping to gain a better understanding of video conferencing applications like Zoom as well as artificial intelligence, which she hopes to use for creative purposes.
“I know technology is the opportunity for fun,” said Cordova. “So I want to use my laptop as more than just an e-reader. I want to explore artificial intelligence. Asking artificial intelligence to create images for me. I’d like to do some online collages, some virtual collages, because physical collages can take up a lot of space.”
This 13-person workshop was the first of two that the Forest Park Public Library will host to promote ‘digital equity’ and make technology comprehensible to all residents who need it. Course instructor Xandi Wright, founder of Wright to Learn, said learner feedback from the first cohort was overall positive.
“It’s always rewarding to see learners developing their confidence,” said Wright. “But also this class is a bit unusual because part of the goal was for learners to recognize just how much there is that they could learn – and start choosing where their own priorities lie.”
A second digital equity workshop will start this September. To learn more about digital literacy resources like one-on-one tech appointments and more at Forest Park Public Library, visit www.fppl.org.
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of stories about the Forest Park Public Library’s digital inclusion efforts. The series is underwritten by a grant from the Cook County Digital Equity IMPACT Small Grants program. The grant is a shared effort between Wright to Learn, the library and Growing Community Media, publisher of the Forest Park Review.
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