EveryoneOn Digital Literacy Campaign Launches and an Early Beta PLA’s DigitalLearn.org Goes Live
First, the EveryoneOn digital literacy campaign launched today.
IMLS (Institute of Library and Information Services) Director blogs about the launch here. She writes:
Today, the nonprofit Connect2Compete is launching a national campaign inspired by the FCC. EveryoneOn is a public awareness effort designed to help all Americans access free digital literacy training in their libraries and community centers. Connect2Compete will also offer consumers access to programs providing discounted high-speed Internet and low-cost computers.
Hildreth also points out the EveryoneOn toolkit for partners as well as the EveryoneOn Facebook page and Twitter stream.
See Also: EveryoneOn Public Service Announcement (Video)
Second, the Public Library Association has released a beta version of their DigitalLearn.org site that will formally launch in late June.
From the Site:
The Public Library Association‘s new site, DigitalLearn.org, is an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant-funded project to create an online hub for digital literacy support and training. This site is launching in June 2013 and is intended to build upon and foster the work of libraries and community organizations as they work to increase digital literacy across the nation. DigitalLearn.org is being undertaken in partnership with ALA’s Office of Technology Policy and Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, as well as bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders including representatives from national agencies, state libraries, public libraries, community organizations, and many others. Included in DigitalLearn.org is a collection of self-directed tutorials for end-users to increase their digital literacy, and a community of practice for digital literacy trainers to share resources, tools and best practices.
What’s Available Today?
From a DigitalLearn.org Blog Post:
As of today, the site has three of the self-directed classes we are creating for end-users: Using a PC (Windows 7), Intro to Email, and Basic Search. These classes are intended to offer a resource for assisting end users with increasing their digital literacy skills. We are focusing on these classes first because we anticipate the EveryoneOn campaign will bring more people to libraries and community organizations to build digital literacy skills, and these online tutorials may be a good place to start for some users.
More classes are in the works; for now, the classes that are up on the site so far will help us to learn more about how people engage with the trainings and the site as a whole. This feedback, which includes user testing, analytics, along with a survey, will help guide us as we move forward with the project and help us to create better classes and a better website.
Stay updated via the DigitalLearn.org Twitter stream, Facebook page, and Tumblr page.
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Public Libraries
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.