We heard from students from Fond du Lac Ojibwe School, Lac qui Parle Valley High School, and Two Harbors High School about how young people can be engaged in community broadband initiatives, both adding and receiving value. Moderated by Bernadine Joselyn, Blandin Foundation

Lac qui Parle Valley High School spoke first and joined us via livestream. (See that segment online.) They do regular livestreamed events, including a news program, broadcasting athletic and other school events and public service announcements. (You can learn more about their programs from an earlier BoB post.)

Two Harbors High School spoke about the seniors teaching seniors program where high school seniors work with older folks to get them making more use of technology. It’s been a win-win program where everyone is learning and friendships are forming. (You can learn more about their programs from an earlier BoB post.)

Fond du Lac Ojibwe School spoke about their App Camp, where students learned how to create mobile apps in a 2-week summer program. To get into the program, students wrote essays on what broadband meant to their community. (You can see some of the apps they created in an earlier BoB post.)

We got into talking about kid as digital natives. In the video below Charles Hilliard (from Fond du Lac). I think he nails it when he talks about how kids can use technology – but there’s more to technology than just using it. Kids need to learn how to fix and develop technology too:

Questions:

What training did you do with kids before they worked with seniors?

We had a team member who helped kids learn to work with seniors – awareness training like wearing the wrong glasses and still trying to read the computer. But as far as the digital sills go – not much training was required. The seniors (elders) weren’t looking for high tech topics.

If you’re working with seniors – sessions right after school is best. Elders aren’t looking for after dinner activities.

Here are slides from Lake County: