Advice Needed: Creating 3-hour hardware/refurbishing/Intro to digital literacy clinics for youth & parents.

[Christian Mendelsohn @ Loaves, Fishes & Computers.]

Dear Refurbsihers,

Loaves, Fishes & Computers of Salinas, CA is creating ~3-hour clinics/workshops to demystify computers and technology for parents and kids concurrently, together. I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the formatting of such clinics/workshop to keep it engaging and educational via "disguised learning" and would appreciate feedback if anyone does/did something similar or, what to (and can build off of this).

I feel that this "program" could be refined, and shared, among other refurbishers to do the same activity within each refurbisher's geographic area where they serve thier low-income families.

Reasoning: I feel the future of our nonprofit's refurbishing/placement program is in Chromebooks (moving away from Windows), due to the imminent large-scale decommissioning from public schools, thus a large-scale availability (we're promised 2,000/year right now from a local district and will attempt to get more). Plus, the benefits of the Chromebook platform are humungous. LFC is creating an educational, engaging, learning, and equipment-providing vehicle to provide these Chromebooks for our thousands of local low-income families. We want to sell this activity to our local agriculture companies [to provide to their blue-collar employees/stakeholders (field workers)], local libraries, schools, and other non-profits' families.

Many times in the past, we've had youth refurbish their own desktops, but it's a ton of work to transport & refurbish- yet, we're trying to figure a way of bringing the engining activity of refurbishing desktops, but using Chromebooks. So....

Because we have (and will have) many Chromebooks, we want to start having youth and parents, as a family unit (cohesion), learn about hardware (demystify), refurbish (take ownership) their own Chromebook they get to bring home that day, and in the same 3-hour clinic introduce the family (parents) to the power of computers (how a computer can change their life/the power and importance of having one in the home) to get them excited enough to insprie them to go to the local/free 10-week deeper training in digital literacy (on the Chromebook platform) offered at our local libraries (which we are attemting to get ALL library systems in our county to teach digital literacy on the Chromebook platform, mainly because thier kids are being raised on them and could be the in home tutor).

Here's what I'm thinking so far for this 3-hour clinic/workshop (& kindly request your opinions on this of what to change, what to do, etc.):

• Hour 1 & 2: Children & Parents Together: Intro to CS/IT clinic/workshop.

• 10 minutes: Welcome & what's the plan for the day

• 45 minutes: Hardware experience. Take apart Chromebook and put back together ( take out the battery, RAM, SSD- swap with their mom/dad/ and put it back in and make sure it works). Explain what each part does. This is the place I could use some ideas on how to be engaging.

• 45 minutes: Refurbish their own Chromebook using our Chromebook refurbishing checklist.

• 10 minute: Break

• Hour 3: Separate the Parents and Children:

• Children:

• 1 Hour: Implement a software side coding experience using one of these (3) 1-hour Google modules under their CS First initiative.

• Parents:

• 1 Hour: Intro to Digital Literacy: The Power & importance of Computers

• 30 minutes: Explain the power of what a computer can do in a person's life. All the cool and helpful things a computer can bring into a home. How important it is to know for the benefit of their children.

• 30 minutes: Explain the Chromebook: how to turn it on, what is wifi, how to connect to a wifi network, what’s trackpad, keyboard/type.

• TOTAL TIME = 3 hours

Does anyone have any exiting program that is similar to this? I'd love to hear your thoughts so we can create a program that we can. 

Sincerely,

Christian

Founder & ED of LFC

[Phil Shapiro]

Christian, teaching Google Voice Typing on Chromebooks is something rather fun. I would use a USB headset 

so that people have the best experience with voice typing. (The Chromebooks internal microphone might not

give the same accuracy.)

  See my sample video here -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d64ohzVlur4

      Having a voice typing writing contest sometime could also be quite a lot of fun -- especially if people were

given a basic storyline and then had to fill in the details on their own.

           For example, here is a video where I sat down and made up a story on the spot. This is a skill that can be acquired, methinks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze8OEtuDV9c

                Hope this helps,

                          phil

---

From: "Christian Mendelsohn @ Loaves, Fishes & Computers." <chri...@loavesfishescomputers.org>
To: "refurbishers" <refurb...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 2, 2018 8:55:26 PM
Subject: [Refurbishers List] Advice Needed: Creating 3-hour hardware/refurbishing/Intro to digital literacy clinics for youth & parents.

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Phil Shapiro, psha...@his.com
http://www.his.com/pshapiro/briefbio.html
http://www.twitter.com/philshapiro
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"Wisdom begins with wonder." - Socrates
"Learning happens thru gentleness."

"We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options."  David Suzuki

[Terry Scott]

Many Chromebooks do not have the ability to upgrade memory or SSDs.  You might want to also note the best way to clean screens and keyboads as well as best practices for charging.

https://www.starryhope.com/chromebooks/top/chromebooks-with-upgradeable-storage/

Terry Scott

Director

2nd Chance Computer Refurbishing Modesto

209-402-8586

te...@2ndChanceModesto.org

www.2ndChanceModesto.org

- Providing students with computers at no cost - 

On Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 7:09 PM, Phil Shapiro <psha...@his.com> wrote:

Christian, teaching Google Voice Typing on Chromebooks is something rather fun. I would use a USB headset 

so that people have the best experience with voice typing. (The Chromebooks internal microphone might not

give the same accuracy.)

  See my sample video here -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d64ohzVlur4

      Having a voice typing writing contest sometime could also be quite a lot of fun -- especially if people were

given a basic storyline and then had to fill in the details on their own.

           For example, here is a video where I sat down and made up a story on the spot. This is a skill that can be acquired, methinks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze8OEtuDV9c

                Hope this helps,

                          phil

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From: "Christian Mendelsohn @ Loaves, Fishes & Computers." <christian@loavesfishescomputers.org>

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Phil Shapiro, psha...@his.com
http://www.his.com/pshapiro/briefbio.html
http://www.twitter.com/philshapiro
http://www.his.com/pshapiro/stories.menu.html

"Wisdom begins with wonder." - Socrates
"Learning happens thru gentleness."

"We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options."  David Suzuki

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[Sean Dion]

I'm curious...why would you think you need to add memory or storage to a Chromebook?  That part of the beauty of them.  They don't use much in the way if resources.  The CPUs are often Low-end Celerons and even 2GB Chromebooks run perfectly fine.  Of course, you don't store much in the.  You store your files on Google Drive.

Sean Dion

Sent from Outlook for Android

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Sent: Friday, February 2, 2018 7:52:49 PM
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Subject: Re: [Refurbishers List] Advice Needed: Creating 3-hour hardware/refurbishing/Intro to digital literacy clinics for youth & parents.

 

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[Christian Mendelsohn @ Loaves, Fishes & Computers.]

Thanks everyone so far.

I'll check out Google Voice Typing- thanks Phil. I'm open to more ideas from you (& everyone)

We don't want to upgrade the Chromebooks, just to pull out parts of a Chromebook, explain the part, try to boot the computer w/out various parts and see what happens, swap with thier neighboor, and put the parts in and get the comp to work again. The CBs we have now have removable ram and SSD- though, the next one's we get will be soldered on-- so the curriclum would have to change if we did that.

Hoping others will chime in too. 

[Amber Schmidt]

Hi Christian,

It sounds like you have a great outline for your workshop. Here, we do something very similar but in a different way. We have our volunteers go through an "Anatomy of a Computer" class when they are first learning about hardware. This class parallels the parts of computers to the human body (e.g. cables = nervous system, heart = power, RAM/HDD = short/long term memory). Younger folks seem to really enjoy this method of association. Our Anatomy class usually runs around 2.5 hours and covers both desktops and laptops currently, but I think it could be easily translatable to CBs.

We also have folks do a full tear-down of a machine before they are allowed to start refurbishing them - our tear downs go more in depth due to laptops and desktops having more removable parts than chromebooks. I shudder a bit at the thought of trying to fit a tear-down and rebuild into 45 minutes. I wonder if with your next lot of machines (the ones with integrated ram and ssds) you could either keep aside some of the previous lot as "learning" chromebooks for folks, or even get some pc laptops to do the tear-down with. Sure they don't look the same, but it might be a good teaching opportunity that the guts work the same way regardless of how the outside looks.

I would be happy to discuss our program with you more, and hope this has been helpful in some way.

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Amber Schmidt

Manager of Technology Refurbishment

FREE GEEK

Including everyone in our digital future

1731 SE 10th Avenue

Portland, OR 97214

(503) 232-9350

Learn more about us at:

www.freegeek.org

[Alex Tabony]

Love the idea and the outline looks like a reasonable place to start.

We do a hardware anatomy and use desktop parts since they are so much larger and discrete. We pass them around the class as we describe what they do. Since they have something hands-on, they tolerate the lecture part well. At the end we go over specs and compare them across device types desktop/laptop/phone. I am not sure if that fits what you are doing but I can say that it works well for a large cross-section of people.

With laptops and I assume Chrombooks are largely the same, the physical aspects are often overlooked or assumed are obvious. So like a WiFi on/off switch, volume control, other buttons, function key etc - a physical orientation to the device is really helpful.

I don't know Chromebooks but I assume everyone needs a Gmail account to really use it. So save some time to have people create an account (or ensure they have them before arrival). We have had issues with Google security and the creation of multiple accounts at the same time from our classroom. If you trip their suspicious behavior flag you'll be blocked which is a real headache.

And since everyone has Gmail account doing a lesson in the Google Docs system can be fun. We introduce the topic by creating a document and sharing it with everyone. Having a group see collaborative editing can really blow minds and it's fun practical technology.

Just some ideas, hope it helps.

--
A diversity of opinion is vital.
Alex Tabony, Executive Director
Computer Technologies Program
www.ctpberk.org
510 849-2911

On Sat, Feb 3, 2018 at 11:24 AM, Amber Schmidt <amber....@freegeek.org> wrote:

Hi Christian,

It sounds like you have a great outline for your workshop. Here, we do something very similar but in a different way. We have our volunteers go through an "Anatomy of a Computer" class when they are first learning about hardware. This class parallels the parts of computers to the human body (e.g. cables = nervous system, heart = power, RAM/HDD = short/long term memory). Younger folks seem to really enjoy this method of association. Our Anatomy class usually runs around 2.5 hours and covers both desktops and laptops currently, but I think it could be easily translatable to CBs.

We also have folks do a full tear-down of a machine before they are allowed to start refurbishing them - our tear downs go more in depth due to laptops and desktops having more removable parts than chromebooks. I shudder a bit at the thought of trying to fit a tear-down and rebuild into 45 minutes. I wonder if with your next lot of machines (the ones with integrated ram and ssds) you could either keep aside some of the previous lot as "learning" chromebooks for folks, or even get some pc laptops to do the tear-down with. Sure they don't look the same, but it might be a good teaching opportunity that the guts work the same way regardless of how the outside looks.

I would be happy to discuss our program with you more, and hope this has been helpful in some way.

[Christian Mendelsohn @ Loaves, Fishes & Computers.]

Thank you Amber & Alex. You both have given me great perspectives.

Amber, I especially like the idea of relating parts of a computer to one's own anatomy. That makes the material easier to comprehend. I think to have them take apart old laptops AND desktops concurrently is really cool, and at 2.5 hours, fits the bill. Would Free Geek be ok with sharing the material/presentation with Loaves, FIshes & Computers? I'd like to see how the formatting is, using desktops AND laptops concurrently. This would be an excellent thing for kids and their parents to do together. 

I know it's a lot to ask, and I understand that it took a lot of time to develop it. I can share anything we have with you as a trade of some sort. 

Alex, I do like the idea of having them get on to Google Docs and see a document being shared/worked on by multiple people. I would like to use that example in our advanced Chromebook digital literacy curriculum that will be designed shortly for another initiative we do (we are hired to teach digital literacy to a local school district's parents who get to keep a laptop when they complete the classes with good attendance). Thank you for the tip.

[Christian Mendelsohn @ Loaves, Fishes & Computers.]

Amber... following up with an additional thought:

In your opinion, could the curriculum of the 2.5 hours "anatomy of a computer" be mashed together with the 45-minute "complete tear down"? All within the 2.5 hours?

[Amber Schmidt]

Christian,

I'll touch base with my digital inclusion manager and see what she is able to share regarding class layout.

Could the lecture and teardown be done in 2.5 hours, sure. Would it be comfortable, I don't know. I think  it depends on how in depth you get with the hardware and their functions.

It might be possible to segment it a bit, like doing an overview of some components, then opening the chassis and having students find those parts. If they can't find those parts, say RAM, they go further in the teardown. Does that make sense?

I'll be in touch about our curriculum.

On Feb 5, 2018 11:54 AM, "Christian Mendelsohn @ Loaves, Fishes & Computers." <chri...@loavesfishescomputers.org> wrote:

Amber... following up with an additional thought:

In your opinion, could the curriculum of the 2.5 hours "anatomy of a computer" be mashed together with the 45-minute "complete tear down"? All within the 2.5 hours?

--

[Christian Mendelsohn @ Loaves, Fishes & Computers.]

Amber- thank you very, very much. You've been wonderful to us. I'll touch base.