I always love these sorts of projects. With help from Blandin Foundation, Spectrum High School was able to buy 60 Chromebooks. Their service learning service group, the Tech Tutors, were able to take those Chromebooks into the senior center to provide computer training.

They offered classes on using the Chromebooks and several of Google’s free services. Once the class was taught, they students revamped the training based on experience and feedback from participants.

They learned that this sort of training is popular. The class filled up quickly. They were able to hone the training and they plan to do more of it next years. They also plan to expand the use of the Chromebooks to include thrir American Sign Language classes so they may collaborate with the Minnesota School for the Deaf.

I used to be the librarian for the National Service Learning Clearinghouse. What I really like about this project is the learning happening with the student-teachers as well as the seniors. The kids are learning to edit their past work – something that I think can be hard for kids, but something we all need to do – especially if you’re talking about something that changes as quickly as technology. The inter-generational component is a bonus too.

It sounds like they developed the curriculum based off Google’s existing materials. So it’s a class that would be easy for another community (with a group of Chromebooks) to replicate.