Rachel Pepper, a Digital Charlotte literacy instructor who has supported multiple community organizations in Charlotte, discusses the progress made by students.
What is surprising about digital literacy?
We have computers at home–internet at home to just simply look something up really quick. I’m learning from teaching this class–there’s a 17 year-old now who doesn’t have access to internet, who doesn’t know how to access an internet browser, who had poor typing skills. This is week five and tonight he is applying for Barnes and Noble online; he made a resume. Most 17 year-olds in my mind know how to use technology.
How do students make progress in the course?
We get a lot of different skill sets; some are a little more advanced. I have one right now, she’s in the back and she’s pretty advanced. I think she was a little bored the first few weeks but I gave her a budget excel spreadsheet to work on and she’s working on her resume now. It’s just really great to see the light come on in their eyes and if they’re having trouble typing or maximizing the screen, when they finally learn how to do that and they didn’t make a mistake, they get excited. It’s good to see that progress in them.