[audio logo]

Speaker: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Jerry Yamashita: We're going to be talking about digital navigation services today and about-- based on a project that we have been working on for the past a little over a year now, co-designing services and integrating into community-based organizations and how that can connect with adult education programs, ideas around that in order to help close various digital divides. And so my name is Jerry Yamashita. I'm with World Education as well as my colleagues. I'll let them introduce themselves as well.

I'm a Senior Technical Advisor. I work on a lot of digital equity-facing programs and projects and former adult Ed teacher and administrator. And so I'm really happy to be here and to-- alongside my colleagues. Jeane and Justine, I'll let you introduce yourselves.

Jeane Davis: Awesome. Can you guys hear me OK?

Jerry Yamashita: Yep.

Jeane Davis: OK, great. Hi, everyone in the room and online feel like the person behind door number 1. I am Jeane Davis, a Senior Project Coordinator with World Education. I have had the privilege of working at both the local and state level in Maryland.

I worked in a program for several years outside of Baltimore City. And so I am just really excited to share this with fellow practitioners. And Justine, how about you?

Justine Schade: Hi, everyone. I'm Justine Schade. I'm a Project Coordinator with World Education. My background is in linguistics and TESOL. So it's very near and dear to my heart to be working with adult learners and teaching them to succeed in all sorts of different ways-- really excited to be sharing with you all about digital navigation services.

Jerry Yamashita: Great. So I'll just quickly go over the agenda. We're going to cover a bunch of stuff today, but hopefully have a little bit of time also for questions and seeing how you guys-- how maybe this stuff resonates with you.

So we'll jump into the background of where we're coming from with this work and why we're bringing this out now, talking about digital inclusion and digital navigation as concepts and then specifically about the project rollout and what that all entailed and what we've learned from that. And then we'll do a segment on how we can imagine this can relate and connect to adult education so that it can be actually applied in our study. And then we'll share a bunch of resources. And we will wrap up for the day.

And we're going to do this backwards, I think. I'm going to go last. So I'm just going to do the introduction. And I think next slide, we're going to do a little bit of just kind of a introduction, get to know so if you've used this before or not. If you've used it before, you scan the code, or you can go onto your device and go to menti.com and then just put in the code there. We'd love to have participation on this and just kind of see who's in the room.

Justine Schade: I'll give everyone a second to get themselves situated into the menti, and then we'll share live results about who's with us today so you're not just looking at the slide as well. I'll give you all count down 15 seconds to get yourself to where you need to go, I guess.

Jerry Yamashita: Yeah. And I think really this helps us also to know when we're presenting this kind of stuff and--

Jeane Davis: Framing the conversation.

Jerry Yamashita: Yeah, framing the conversation, who we're talking to, and maybe how we can best support.

Justine Schade: Do we have a number? 414--

Jeane Davis: Yep. 41443996.

Justine Schade: Thank you.

Jeane Davis: You're welcome.

Justine Schade: Sorry about that.

Jeane Davis: It's all right. Jerry, can you tell us, because it's hard for Justine and I to see how many people are in the room with you-- two or three?

Jerry Yamashita: There are five.

Jeane Davis: Five? All right. Awesome. Really killing it.

Justine Schade: I see things moving as well.

Jeane Davis: [laughs] State staff, adult edu-- OK, so you have several others. So now I'm asking, of the people in the room, what is your role if you are in another role?

Jerry Yamashita: Any others in here? Yeah.

Audience 1: I'm a researcher.

Jerry Yamashita: Researcher?

Jeane Davis: Researcher?

Jeane Davis: Awesome.

Audience 2: University professor.

Jerry Yamashita: University professor? Wow.

Audience 3: I work with a curriculum company. I'm a teacher trainer [muffled voice]

Jeane Davis: Awesome.

Jerry Yamashita: OK. Awesome. Umm-- Anyone first time in here? Veterans?

Jeane Davis: First timer.

Justine Schade: First timer.

Jerry Yamashita: So I've been here every time myself. Cool. So that's great. I mean, that gives us an idea of, like, who-- looks like half staff or half admin maybe and half practitioners on the teaching side and then on the other side. So yeah, very interesting.

Justine Schade: Awesome. And we'll move forward to the next question.

Jerry Yamashita: Yeah. So your screen should switch automatically. And just taking a pulse on what is your familiarity with digital navigation services as a sort of a concept.

Justine Schade: Strong middle. Yellow takes the lead.

Jeane Davis: OK. Awesome. Well, I would say that that's probably not surprising considering the Digital Equity Act funding that's becoming available very soon and also considering so many state plans of which World Education has been checking them out and figuring out what components of it and how adult edu-- [audio out]

Justine Schade: Woop.

Jeane Davis: I was hoping to gain a little bit more understanding of how digital navigators can roll out into your programming, you're in the right spot. So, Justine, if you can just move us along. Awesome. Thank you.

So many of you are familiar with World Education and the work that we do through the edtech center or the IDEAL Consortium, but you may not know that we lead a national coalition called Digital US, which is the cool logo on the right-hand side there. Through that initiative, we work to ensure that all individuals in the US have technology, skills, and digital resilience to thrive and work in life. Through the work of Digital US We created the Digital Navigator Playbook, which the bitly link here on the screen takes you directly to that if you just are chomping at the bit to keep it and keep it open.

But Jerry's going to go into it a little bit more detail later in the presentation today. As well, all of the slides will be available. And there's going to be a plethora of resources at the end of this presentation that you'll be able to take with you. All right.

So through our work, we're looking to do the following three things. One, raise awareness of the need for digital equity initiatives. Two, help programs develop digital resilience. And then we're also helping to support the design of equitable ecosystems, which we all adult education is very much in tune with and a part of, all of this to say ultimately driving our desire to share our lessons learned with you today.

So we've briefly talked about the why and what, but what is the digital navigator? And what do they do? Ultimately, they aim to do the following five things. And you have the images on your slide, but I'll be speaking them a little bit more thoroughly.

So we want to help people access [audio out] internet, help individuals obtain devices, whatever those may be. They can be mobile phones. As we know, some of our students come into the classroom and they only have mobile devices to work with. So through digital navigation services and some of our relationships with refurbishers, which is an idea that Jerry will talk about a little bit more detail, we can have user internet-enabled devices that meet the needs of the end user.

Provide technical support or training to empower others to be able to effectively and safely-- and keyword safely there-- use Internet-enabled devices. Help others determine what applications are online content is necessary to achieve their personal workplace or educational goals. So, I think, traditionally people think of digital navigator [audio out] That, quite frankly, is just not true.

There are so many components of the digital ecosystem that digital navigators can help people achieve very much what Justine will be diving into and what our different community-based organizations have as their main mission and then how they've aligned their services to integrate those digital navigator services. And either provide digital literacy training in whatever realm they may need support or supply warm referrals to places like adult education for local services in their literacy ecosystem. So we'll talk about health, financial, family, English language, et cetera.

Digital navigators can be any person or staff member who helps others in identifying their digital gaps and empowering them to achieve their online goals. And I would say that's the key. As educators, we already know this, but so many people are like, oh, I'll show you how to do that.

But if you don't give somebody the tools to unlock the door themselves, then they have to keep returning and keep trying to figure it out for themselves. But we're providing a service in which enables them to do it on their own in the future. So through this flexible model, community members are supported to ensure technology access and success in accomplishing their goals online, whether for education, career, economic advancement, family and community engagement, or other pursuits.

So with all this in mind, World Education has had the pleasure of partnering with AT&T to integrate digital navigation services into four connected learning centers across the country. And I have a map up here for you so you can see there are several sites already in California. A definition, and you'll hear the word CLC. That's just our short-term alphabet soup for Connected Learning Centers.

But what the CLC does is on the screen for you, they have essentially four goals which align with what a digital navigator does. And some of the sites provide-- they provided ACP sign up and some actually provided devices to families who had the need for them. But the CLC is this initiative that AT&T had, and then World Education due to our successes has been, I want to say, privileged or not necessarily gifted.

We have expanded our partnership, and we will be servicing all 52 to make sure that they have intentional digital navigation services into their current service model. So you have to think this could be a boys and girls club. This could be a workforce development agency. This can be any CBO that essentially AT&T has custom fitted a computer lab, but rather than just providing them devices and just say, OK, now you have the internet. Go on and prosper.

We know that just simply doesn't work. So Justine will be sharing the specifics of each site and why the digital navigation services have been invaluable to their communities. And then Jerry will be sharing resources and describing how this is applicable in an adult education setting.

Justine Schade: Thanks, Jeane. So, as Jeane has already introduced a bit, this project really supports the co-design of digital navigation services at four community-based organizations-- CBOs for more alphabet soup-- in cities throughout the United States. Right now, the four growing to the 52 of El Centro, CRCD, CitySquare and Jefferson East.

Through really intentional conversations starting last January, we've really been able to explore and integrate digital navigator services into each CBO to ensure that community members are supported, they can obtain technology access, and success in accomplishing their goals online, whether that's for education, career, economic advancement, family and community engagement, or for other pursuits. And we consult with these sites and provide technical assistance and build their digital navigation services strategies.

This is included weekly, sometimes monthly check ins, and weekly community of practice gatherings. Jerry will talk more about that later as well. But we're going to dive in and look a little bit more closely at each site as well.

So El Centro is our small but mighty guy. El Centro helps Hispanics and Northeast Mississippi residents integrate into the local community there. They provide services, including after-school tutoring, adult English classes, and workshops on a variety of topics relevant to the community. El Centro really works to meet with the needs of their community through bilingual opportunities and partnership with other local organizations to offer these services.

Again, they are small but mighty. They have a very small city population, less than 40,000 people. And despite this, they have a community that really values their work. And as a result, community members have stepped up to support the incredible work of them.

Eugenio is a recent immigrant from Venezuela who connected with the program director, Ms. Leti, to support workshops and offer them exclusively in Spanish for adults in the community. And with Eugenio's support, they've been able to host biweekly workshops from computer to internet basics. And with Eugenio leading that effort, Ms. Leti has had more time to connect with local partners to provide additional workshops, including a first time home buyers seminar that included a HUD certificate for anyone who participated, which supports their first time loan applications. We're very proud of them.

The next site is in California. The Coalition for Responsible Community Development, or CRCD is a place-based community development corporation. And they're based in South Los Angeles with a really unique focus on young people, mostly ages 14 to 26. So a little bit of adult education in there.

And they partner with residents, businesses, other CBOs, civic leaders, and local community colleges to improve the quality of life in South Central LA. And their mission is really to sustain and coordinate and improve local planning and community services that address the needs of the low income and working class residents and small businesses in that area. As an organization, CRCD is much larger and has other services at their site, including a weekly food distribution. I couldn't think of the word food.

When Claudia, the YouthSource Center Manager and Intake Specialist, was tasked with leading the CLC efforts, she really saw an opportunity to connect with community members that were already on site and get them to come into the CLC So by offering tamales and coffee, participants who were already waiting in line at the food distribution were able to come into the CLC, get basic computer and internet training, and build their skills while also receiving other services that CRCD provides. One of the takers of the tamales in training has expressed that before coming into the CLC, she did not know how to turn on or off a computer, didn't know what to do. She can now comfortably navigate and use a mouse and feel comfortable and confident typing on a keyboard, which is a big win for us and her obviously.

Our next site is CitySquare, which fights the causes and effects of poverty through service, advocacy, and friendship. They offer a comprehensive array of social services that address four key areas related to the persistence of poverty, hunger, health, housing, and hope. And through their program, they provide support to more than 50,000 people in Dallas and Paris, Texas.

As a CLC, they really leverage their location and proximity to PNC Bank to support their "neighbors," as they call them, with digital and financial literacy. PNC Bank has a mobile van that they park in the parking lot of CitySquare and help people sign up for accounts and do basic digital literacy and, not digital, financial literacy support. They come in for monthly classes and offer financial literacy topics like budgeting, account services, and more.

And then, beyond finances, they are working really hard to incorporate that digital literacy component. One of their neighbors, she's in her late 70s. She lives alone in Dallas without anyone to help her, especially with her digital needs.

She's attended multiple workshops. And she's been coming in for their open office hours and has completed a few self-paced courses to get certificates. And because she has no one to assist her, she really enjoys coming into the CLC to practice and learn. Since she started coming, she's actually been able to learn how to send an email, attach or upload and then attach attachments to it, which has led her to her first success of sending an independent email to her housing case manager.

And finally, we have our last site. Jefferson East, which represents five distinct neighborhoods along the East Jefferson corridor in Detroit, Michigan. This is a multifaceted organization with a focus on small businesses.

To do this, before we ever came into the picture, they developed a community tech worker or CTW-- more alphabet soup-- program that connects those CTWs with small business owners to support their digital needs. This could include helping them build an online storefront and website or just get set up on square for digital transactions. But the critical component that they found with their CTW program was hiring local residents. And they found that when they were doing that, community members had greater confidence and believed that the CTWs could support them.

So when we came in, with the building blocks of their CTW program, they were able to find an amazing digital navigator, Danny, a former CTW at Jefferson East. And with her experience already supporting small businesses in the community and being from the community herself, it's been a really smooth transition for her to build supports that the community wants and needs. This has included making a Google Classroom as a learning hub to provide resources to members of the community. Some of those are resources that you'll see Jerry recommend in a little bit and others that she sourced based on requests from the community, including coding and graphic design.

They also know that digital inclusion and digital navigation is about more than just skills. It's about access as well. And so in the last 365 days, they've provided more than 300 devices to their community, Bill Jefferson East.

We're going to talk a little bit about the themes and insights that we found through all of this work with these four sites as we're going into this next chapter with 52. And we really found that integration and sustainability are at the core of the work that we do. And we've seen what an impact integration and planning for longevity make.

So there's a few strategies that we see for this. First, host agencies need to establish in a shared-- operative word, shared-- understanding of the mission, value, and impact of the CLC, its purpose, possibilities for the community, and how each entity works to achieve the goal of digital resiliency. This is the first step in creating opportunities for success at each site. Digital navigation services are really vital in implementing and sustaining the digital transformation of these host sites and the communities that they serve.

Second, we found that sites that operate using federal or state funding should obtain really clear guidance on what innovative or creative abilities the CLC integration can bring in to their more extensive programming and how braided funding can come into play for increasing impact. This includes, but is not limited to the ability to buy devices either for staff or community members, like laptops and headsets, training staff on how to use CLC programs or get training to find resources, providing community-wide resources, and more. And finally, during the co-design phase of how a CLC will exist within an organization, the digital navigator role should really be clearly defined to inform decision makers of staffing needs.

It's really easy to be like, oh, I just need one person. But really understanding what hiring and onboarding current staff would look like, whether it's going to be a part time or a full-time role that fills the position, and how many individuals will be expected to support the CLC is really critical. And all of this is so critical because with what we do in CLCs, they're really high-tech hubs that offer an unprecedented opportunity to connect high-need communities to technology, training, and resources.

Community members don't always feel welcome in community spaces like this. The community really needs to be invited in to the CLC to recognize that it's a space that exists that isn't just a place with computers, but can become the heart of the program. So with that clear mission and guidance and role, communities can trust in the value of a CLC and the longevity of their support.

Next is that ongoing management and clear staff roles are really essential, and project lead should have decision making power. It seems obvious, but it isn't always. And to this end, we've been working with agencies to demistify what the CLC can be or mean and encourage them to claim ownership because it's so critical in the work that this is. It's not always possible or easy for smaller organizations, but a really methodical integration of CLCs into existing program can support clarity and ownership in the absence of a point person, like integration into an existing role.

There also needs to be buy in from higher-level staff and program leadership as the services provided in these CLCs might be one of many roles that a digital navigator or support team member is doing. So actionable data can show the impact of a resource like a CLC within a community, inform future CLC programming or other service areas, and support that buy in. That could look like using the CRM tool to track the use of a CLC or gathering learner spotlights where they describe the impact it's had in their lives. You heard a few of those today. And we really see that by showing the value, the buy in increases, which builds the capacity in investment in a CLC.

And finally, volunteer interactions and that participation. Volunteer staff is not always available to help you do what you need to do, whether it's proximity or time. We've experienced that ourselves, especially in our small site El Centro to support that training at CLCs. So mitigating this barrier through trainer partnerships or other means can support workshop implementation. This could include supporting the training of digital navigators to facilitate the workshops themselves, establishing relationships with other volunteer sources like community members Eugenio, or established groups like AmeriCorps.

We've really worked to build the capacity at CLC sites through our collaborative approach to the work and other creative strategies as well, including a community of practice. And we really see that when you have a community of practice and more sites come online, it really encourages cross-pollination of services and support between those CLC sites. So much can be done in this work.

And the sites that we've showcased are not traditional, trained adult educators. They are project managers. They are volunteers from the community, and they often have other obligations. We have seen how you don't have to be an expert to successfully support digital inclusion in your community. Intentionally weaving in components of digital inclusion into your program delivery that are relevant to who you serve can really help individuals achieve their workforce and educational goals.

I've done enough talking today. I'm going to pass it over to Jerry, who's going to go deeper into how this model works or can work in adult education, and he's going to share some resources, too. Take it away, Jerry.

Jerry Yamashita: All right. Thanks, Justine. And I didn't build this in the slide, but I was thinking about this as we hear all of this information about the CDOs that we've been supporting. And I wonder online and in the room what are you hearing or what have you heard that maybe you're connecting to your practice or adult Ed in general? Is this resonating at all? I'm just very curious as to how folks are hearing this.

Audience 3: Well, one of the things that is really critical that it seems to be hard to bring together is the idea of having the access and internet for all that's free, because even if it's low cost, it still doesn't mean that it's going to be good and it's going to be fast and reliable. And so that's something that really is a stumbling block or an obstacle, which I don't know, I'm trying to see who's got the solution for that other than government making sure everybody has free access.

Jerry Yamashita: And with-- of course, with the ACP, I mean, in a wind-down period right now and looking like it might be over, hopefully not, but that's not helping. And even with the ACP, those plans that folks are getting that aren't going to be more affordable, that's not necessarily fast service. So that's a huge concern.

And so I think that's one of the things that we can talk about, like as far as partnerships go, which we'll get into a little bit. But great point. What was there anything else? Anything online?

Jeane Davis: Oh, I just added the link to everyone on, if people in the room weren't familiar with it. Obviously, what Jerry said, we want-- we at World Education are advocating for the continuation of ACP, but it's a wait-and-see situation. But everyone on will have the most up-to-date information around where low-cost internet access sites are in based on zip code.

Jerry Yamashita: So I guess we'll start with this. I think one of the things that I see pulling from the information that we've gathered and the insights that we've gained from this work so far, that partnerships are really key, like that-- I don't think there would be a lot of the same success with a lot of these places without them having a network. And so I wonder if that's something that we can expand on in our field, because I feel like a lot of times kind of schools work alone or they're self sufficient or self kind of powered.

And so working with external folks, like libraries or device refurbishers developing that volunteer network and workforce development-- I know we already do a lot of workforce development partnerships. But I think that this is a huge opportunity for us, especially as the Digital Equity Act funding and stuff is going to be coming down. Everyone's kind of tuned into that. And I'm really looking forward to the presentation tomorrow about that for education.

And I know that different states do it so different ways, but I think what we're looking at now is that with the DEA plans and everyone's mentioned digital navigation in their plan to address the digital divide, how are we supporting that or getting into that opportunity? Is adult Ed at the table on that? So that's one of the things that really resonated for me. To provide these services also leveraging existing staff-- we can't always create a new position. [laughs] That's not viable necessarily, but I think we can leverage some folks that might be already doing this kind of work.

So being creative about that, is that something that maybe folks in IT or parent educators or support staff-- are these roles that they might already be doing but not necessarily recognized for and kind of upskilling them, bringing them into digital inclusion work formally? Because I think like a lot of folks can help other folks with Google Workspace or whatever. But do they really understand the ecosystem and getting into that about like, what's the problem here?

The problem is the digital divide, right. And without that overarching concept, we're just kind of teaching skills here and there and not really understanding the bigger picture, I think. So, I think, that's another connection that we can make.

Jeane Davis: Also, Jerry, just thinking about ways that other states have done this is when I was in Maryland, one of our state staff people took on a role of like a technology integration specialist. And so they provided guidance from the state level around how to make considerations for technology in addition to the basic things that we know about. I [audio out] came from that some of our local programs began to do-- and don't want to call it a bridge because bridge has so many connotations to it.

But when students are oriented to the adult education program, there was almost like, some of our local programs would develop a bridge tech specialist that would make sure the students could access email and successfully store their passwords and knew how to navigate Zoom and basically take that onus away from the adult education instructor. So that way, they could focus on learning when it's learning time rather than being technical support [audio out] and creating a practical approach to it. And that ultimately is digital navigation service provision. Sorry to cut you off, Jerry.

Jerry Yamashita: And you cut out a little bit. I think we-- I think we might have got the point. Does that make sense for folks? [laughs] So I think for me, one of the big opportunities, I think, again, this has been on my mind since-- in a previous role, I was working in instructional technology. And I've built digital navigation programs or a program and also alongside that built a CTE program that was training digital navigators. So that pathway led to an internship.

And then I was projecting that there would be future opportunity. This was before I really realized what the DEA plans were going to actually propose. And so now that I see that it's a major initiative, like digital navigator is like, where are they going to come from?

Is this an opportunity that we can jump on and not only leverage them for the CTE programs to get them into the field, this emerging market, this workforce? It's going to happen, but also that they can-- while they're there, maybe they're working with students as well, peer-to-peer digital navigation while they're training to support their fellow students. So these are the things that I think that we can think outside the box on. And I think career technical education is actually really, really, really good place for us to put our imagination toward.

Again, I think, that that's the big opportunity. So I don't know the ins and outs of how the funding might come down to the schools. And maybe there's more insight. I see Dr. Zachary in the chat also that maybe there's opportunities that we aren't necessarily realizing yet, but how we can really leverage this opportunity to not only support our students and getting them training and maybe career opportunity, but also supporting their fellow students at the same time.

The funding piece, I think, is always a question. I've talked about this before. And I always got the-- these questions like, well, we don't have the money for this or how do we fund this? How do we fund this? I was not a budget person. I just was like the idea person and the practitioner doing that work.

And so I didn't really have the answers for that. But I think that the funding is always variable. And I think that-- I think what we really want to do is just get leadership on board with these concepts that this is a need not only for our students, but for our students to move into this role that's emerging. So I kind of see it twofold, and they can work together.

So I think, again, just partnerships working with existing staff, if you don't have the capacity for new staff in that space, and then really, really like looking at career technical education as the opportunity there. Let's go to the next slide. So let's take a look at a couple models that I've found were innovative, I think, as they relate to adult Ed, so that puts this into context a little bit.

For state-level folks, you're probably familiar with TCALL and Texas PD support and support for Dalton. And they have developed a call center for both students and for staff statewide. And so they have these folks staff there that they take calls. They can give technical assistance.

They can provide resource recommendations and PD. They're open seven days a week, different times that are all listed there. And they offer curriculum, LMS, work on GED site, and all of that. And put that in the-- put that in the chat here for those folks if you guys want to check out the website, but it's txdistanceedhelp.com.

And on their website, you can see you can call or join on Zoom, check out their services. But I think that this is really an interesting way to help both students and staff with-- they don't call it digital navigation, but it really kind of is in a specialized way, at least for the educators. I think for the students, they're getting general support in the common things like, I'm having trouble with my zoom, I'm having trouble with my LMS, getting on or whatever passwords.

So really, really interesting, I think very innovative. And other states have been interested in replicating or adapting this idea. And we have-- and this will be in the site.

I'm not sure how we're sharing these out. I don't know if they're going to be on the website in the sessions to download.

[interposing voices]

Jerry Yamashita: Yeah. I'll figure it out. But we want to get you guys all this because we've included a lot of links and resources here, including a video recording of-- through our EdTech center, we host EdTech strategy sessions monthly. Has anyone ever attended one of those before?

Basically we get folks to talk about topics. And they present on different things. And one of them was-- actually we go from people talking about how they designed and implemented this program. So that will tell you much more in better detail than I could ever explain. But I really, really thought that this program was worth mentioning as it relates to adult Ed and visual navigation services.

The second one that I recently became aware of is at Portland Community College. And this one is for students and general community members. And they help in the traditional digital divide way-- home connectivity, trying to get access to devices, and then digital skills training.

They are located at three different campuses And they have-- at least when I checked, they had nine digital navigators that are spread out and scheduled at all the different sites. And so you can take a look at their website, and there's a calendar. And you can see where they're going to be and what times.

So it's drop in. There's no appointment needed. But I think this was really cool that even though they were doing that more traditional topics related to the digital divide that I haven't really seen a ton of this work being done at the school level.

So this was a really interesting problem that's emerged at least somewhat recently. And they've got a pretty slick little video also that kind of explains what they do. So you can check that out as well.

And so there's a couple other notable models that I wanted to mention. And this is really-- these aren't necessarily adult Ed, but they talk about the power of those partnerships and how they almost reverse partnered in a way. Like, Connect Lake County is I guess, in the Chicago area.

They've worked directly with school districts to identify folks that needed ACP and then help them get that access and help them sign up. And so they were-- in whatever gaps that the school district had with providing access, they were able to step in and help get those folks on. And in many cases, I believe, they were also subsidizing some [muffled voice] definitely something to look at for some ideas.

Denver Public Library, they've had a digital navigator program since, gosh, at least as long as I had started one. So that was early 2020 mainly in response to the pandemic. And they do a group and one-on-one style trainings and offerings on many different topics-- technology, education, whether it's very introductory basic stuff, too. They can do things on coding and Photoshop and 3D printing, of course, [muffled voice]

They were also early on the makerspace movement as well. So they have all of that. You can drop in, or you can make appointments and check out their calendar for all kinds of events.

And they also have a broad peer navigation services. So when we're thinking about this in terms of offering navigation services, I feel like the core of it is always digital navigation in many ways. And that these other specialties, because we hear about career navigator, we hear about housing navigators, or health navigators, like, what are all those things have in common? Well, I'm probably going to need to put in an application on a website.

You're going to probably have to apply for housing on the website. You're probably going to have to use a health portal for my telehealth appointment. So technology is at the core of that.

And I think that these are more like specializations. So in my mind, all of these folks are digital navigators to begin with. And so they offer these different types of navigation services that they might not publish the navigators, but they also do a lot of the same kind of overlapping work.

And then the third one is Learning Source. They're a nonprofit that partners with school districts and then a bunch of the other partnerships that we've talked about-- library, workforce, corrections, and community colleges. And they offer professional development and also these digital navigation programs that have supported all of these partnerships.

And so thinking back, if connecting it back, finding agencies like this or a nonprofit that might have digital navigation services to connect with an adult ed agency might be an option as well if there's not funding for necessarily hiring or creating new positions. So these are really just kind of brainstorming things here because a lot of these things don't really exist right now, I mean, at least to my knowledge. And so we'll talk a little bit about the resources that we have. And this is one of the reasons why we really want to get these slides in your hands so you have all these links here.

But at the core of our work at World Ed is digital equity. And we-- that is really embedded in everything that we do. So as mentioned before, the digital umm-- coalition developed a digital navigator playbook, which we have based a lot of technical assistance and other resources on that work, really helping folks and agencies build out their own programs and everything from, think preplanning, how to assess asset map, hire, all of them.

And then other things that we've developed that go to supplement that, like our Digital Skills Library, a lot of folks are using that to help with digital literacy training or integration into their classroom. That includes the Digital Skills Glossary. And then there's an article about pure digital navigators and being a key to digital equity. That's that idea where we talk about maybe it's student-to-student support.

There's also examples of, in the workplace there might be - you know-- umm-- The example of this is a nonprofit that supports janitorial service workers in helping each other get digital skills and how they actually capitalized on that and move into advancing in their careers. So really, really, really, I think, important stuff.

Community of practice is a concept that we mentioned earlier, and I think is really important we develop that for our CLC support that we've been offering. It's really helped them collaborate and create that community. They're all over the country, but now that they can compare notes and talk with each other about what's going, what's working, what are some of these ideas they can share, like the tamales and training.

Now with tax season, I just learned that there she just started a new workshop called tacos and taxes. So they're doing that now. And it's really been a hit, I think, for them in that space. Now, that might not work maybe in another location, but with 52 sites now coming on board, there might be a lot of that resource sharing and collaboration and ideas sharing.

So some of the considerations for that are just like, how do you want to host that? And that's been for a lot of agencies, how do you host that platform? What are you using? And not only that, but the training aspect of it.

And so that's one of the things that we would be talking about next, because I think one of the missing pieces that we saw or at least that I noticed as I was working with digital navigation programs across the country, was everyone seemed to be reinventing the wheel on a daily basis almost. Every time we would meet, there would be, hey, how can I-- what kind of training are you guys using? Oh, we just developed our own or we're using this one or we're doing a-- we're cobbling together North Star and Google, this and that, or whatever.

And I was like, mm-hmm, I wonder if we can maybe create something that unifies this a little bit. And so we have been working very, very hard on actually building a comprehensive specialization training program that will be hosted on Coursera with a certificate backed by World Education and also Goodwill International. And we are very, very excited because we are projecting a launch in July or at least in the summer time of this year.

And so if you are interested in that, scan the code. We're just collecting emails so we can we're not gonna spam you, but we'll just keep you updated on what's going on and how to access it. And I would also like to emphasize that it's going to be free for learners. And so--

Jeane Davis: Learners being anyone, not just students.

Jerry Yamashita: Yes. This is going to be public. It's going to be a massive open course. So it's going to be open to anybody. But I've already-- when I mentioned this at a previous conference just a couple of weeks ago-- it was the first time we mentioned it-- I had folks approaching me from different places.

I have a-- I actually have a professor who approached me and said, hey, we're building something like this because we want to start training folks in digital customer service in a way, like, basically digital navigation. But, oh my gosh, you guys are building something. Like, what -- So I think that there definitely is a need, and there is a lot of people interested in this. If this is something that you're interested in, please hit that code and sign up, and we'll send you some information.

Jeane Davis: So, Jerry, I just want to highlight some of the important features of it. So ultimately, an individual taking this training or doesn't have to be like an expert in digital navigation as a whole. The idea would be that either, A, you want to try and implement digital navigation services within whatever program structure that you already have existing. It can be adult ed, it can be a community-based organization, it can be something that you're simply passionate about, or you can be in a position of leadership and just help think through what it would take in order to implement navigation services.

So, I think, it has a pretty cool, valuable perspective. It incorporates asset mapping and just thinking through local applications. So one of the things that we've found as we've been exploring other national trainings is a lot of people try to be tremendously prescriptive. And digital needs are so variable based on the communities that people serve and/or the population that come in to whatever organization that you're a part of.

So this is intended to be very fluid and give you some tools and resources to take home with you so that you digest the information, and then you think through local application through your own lens. And I just-- we're really proud of it. I don't want to toot our horns too hard, but I think it'll be really helpful, especially in how states start to think through the implementation of the funds associated with the Digital Equity Act dollars. But that's it. That's all I had to say. [laughs]

Jerry Yamashita: Yeah, so all of that for sure. And so--

Jeane Davis: And also I know we have three minutes left here.

Jerry Yamashita: So we have a bunch of other resources that I've put on a slide. We don't have to go into these. These are additional things that you can take a look at when you get access to that. And that is, that is it.

So we have a-- we are obliged to remind you about the evaluations. So leave us five star, please. And we will leave you five stars. So [laughs] thank you.

Thank you all for coming in and -- and - We have a little-- we have a couple of minutes. So, is there any questions or comments?

Audience 3: I just have one quick question. While you were talking, I went in to look at World Education site. I'm just curious because I didn't get to check it out fast on my phone, but is the material that you have available? Is all open source like we are, this?

Jerry Yamashita: Yeah.

Audience 3: And would this be something that you would be willing to put onto a repository that is open?

Jerry Yamashita: The training?

Audience 3: Mm-hmm.

Jerry Yamashita: The Coursera or the resources that we--

Audience 3: Resources --

Jerry Yamashita: So a lot of that is already available in a OER repository that we have. And so yeah, I mean, we could--

Audience 3: I'm CSU-- And so I'm looking for merlo to upload some of this material for ease of access. A lot of our folks go straight to merlo as our repository.

Jerry Yamashita: I think what would be great is if we could connect you--

Jeane Davis: There's a-- yeah, Jerry, I think, there's a really big conversation here that we could bridge on. We do a tremendous, a lot of amount of work through our skill blocks initiative around OERs. And we'd be happy to connect you with that team so that that way you guys can find the appropriate synergies. I think there's a lot of work that we do. And also in the back end of our stuff, if we can take the onus off of you and just transfer things in a digestible, I guess, code format, we'd be happy to do that, I'm sure.