BASIC: Building Adult Skills in Computing
Older adults face a variety of obstacles when entering the digital realm. In addition to physical and cognitive barriers traditionally associated with aging, technology-related anxiety discourages exploration and tinkering, behaviors that are critical to the development of digital competency. Indeed, the problem is not restricted to older adults, as socioeconomic factors can hold younger people back in technology adoption. Our research explores learning strategies to bring newcomers into the digital community and give them the skills they need to stay current in this ever-changing space. Our outreach work helps newcomers in a range of venues, and also gives university students valuable first-hand tutoring experience with capable people struggling with unfamiliar technology.
The Breaking Digital Barriers (BDB) project started in 2011 as a local outreach project. Our flagship program, BASIC (Building Adult Skills in Computing), is hosted at the Portage Lake District Library in Houghton MI. Over the years, the group has brought BASIC to a number of other venues, including the Ojibwa Community Library in Baraga MI, Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly in Hancock MI, and Michigan Works! in Hancock MI. Students from Michigan Technological University volunteer to assist participants with the basics of digital literacy, as well as more advanced topics.
The program has recently expanded to include programs at Masonicare-Ashlar Village in Wallingford CT and Elim Park in Cheshire CT, with student volunteers from Quinnipiac University providing one-on-one tutoring.
The Breaking Digital Barriers team is refining and testing a learning model that seeks to mitigate anxiety and strengthen development of higher order skills, through scaffolded technological assistance. Rote step-by-step “solutions” do not give learners long-term competencies; instead, we offer strategies that allow users to ​explore (understand the full space of affordances that are available to them, by a combination of visual scanning and navigation) and tinker (understand how user actions affect the system state, by direct action) in a safe, methodical way.
BASIC in the News
MTU Huskies Zoom in to Help Community Connect (04/02/20)
The Gift of Computing (12/20/19)
BASIC Program Featured on TV 6-WLUC UPSide (12/10/19)
Negaunee Public Library selected to participate in Libraries Lead with Digital Skills (08/19/19)
Transdisciplinary: Working Across the Campus (04/06/17)
Michigan Tech students introduce common technology to the inexperienced user (03/11/17)
Breaking Digital Barriers (02/20/17)
Back to BASICs: Computer help group has new name, same drive to help build skills (01/30/16)
Support BASIC
You can support BASIC through SUPERIOR IDEAS. Donations will support tutor trainings for students and community members, the development of tutor training videos, and the development of a digital competencies toolkit, including a gamified assessment of online exploration and tinkering, a test of learners’ mental models of digital interactions, and a technological self-efficacy questionnaire. DCAT will be a fast and easy way to determine current levels of digital competencies and to assess progress in training