The COVID-19 pandemic shined a spotlight on the digital divide across Canada, and one organization in Nova Scotia has been taking charge to help bridge the gap.
Colchester Adult Learning Association (CALA) is a community-based, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing opportunities for all adults to pursue their learning goals. CALA helps adults in Truro and Colchester County improve their skills in reading, writing and math to prepare for further education including high school equivalency prep, employment readiness and other training programs.
While CALA has always included some form of digital literacy skills training in its programming, it began offering dedicated digital literacy programs and one-off workshops in 2020 in response to the demand from the community.
“We are always looking for feedback from the community, and when everyone moved online so quickly during the pandemic, we really saw that digital divide even more,” says Vangie Beal, digital literacy instructor at CALA. “As a result, we started adding dedicated digital literacy programs and one-off workshops to help learners build confidence in using technology – whether that’s just getting started using a mouse or using Microsoft Excel for work purposes.”
Beal was hired as the organization’s first digital literacy instructor in 2020 to deliver their three core digital literacy programs:
- Digital Literacy Basics: An introductory program teaching fundamental computer skills like keyboarding, mouse use, and basic navigation.
- Get Connected, Stay Connected: Focuses on Internet safety, privacy and secure online practices.
- Home & Office Essential Skills: Teaches Google and Microsoft tools for business communication, documents, spreadsheets, and email.
Each program runs for six weeks, with two half-day sessions per week for a total of 12 sessions.
After Beal was hired, she was quickly introduced to ABC Connect for Learning as a key resource for teaching. ABC Connect for Learning is a digital literacy program from ABC Life Literacy Canada that offers free resources to those looking to improve their digital skills – whether they’re just getting started with the Internet or looking to learn about new technology.
“The resources from ABC Connect for Learning are amazing and I always have them on hand,” she says. “I just love the language used in them. As an instructor, you always have to be aware of people’s literacy skills, and these resources are perfect for people who have higher literacy skills as well as those with low literacy skills.”
Beal says her two “go-to” resources from the program are ‘Getting started online’ and ‘Searching safely online’, which she uses frequently in the ‘Get Connected, Stay Connected’ program.
“These two workbooks are such a great introduction to the Internet. On the first day of class, we start with ‘Getting started online’ and I ask participants to take it home and highlight all the words they don’t understand. Then in the next class we do more of a hands-on workshop and go through the activities in the workbook. As the program continues throughout the weeks, we introduce ‘Searching safely online’ once we start talking about Internet use and how to stay safe online.”
The demand for CALA’s digital literacy programs has been so great that they recently had to hire a second digital literacy instructor to reduce the amount of people on their waiting list for the program. In addition to the three core programs, there are one-off workshops held frequently both at CALA’s offices in Truro and at locations across the county.
“We always embrace what we hear in our community, and so we are starting to run workshops around AI in March,” says Beal. “We’ll be using the three new AI resources from ABC Connect for Learning – What is AI, Chatbots and Pi – to host two half-day workshops.”
The skill level of CALA’s program participants varies greatly, from those who have never used technology before to people who can do everyday things like texting and banking but want to improve their knowledge of Internet safety. Many participants tend to be adults in their 40s and 50s who have worked in manual labour jobs for a long time and are looking to transition into other roles as they get older. They find themselves unable to even apply for work without having the necessary digital skills. Estimates say that around 84 per cent of jobs in Canada currently require the use of a computer and basic technical skills.
“We had one participant in her early 50s who couldn’t do her physically demanding job anymore. She went through our two introductory programs to nail down the basics before moving onto the home & office program that would give her the skills needed to take a program at the community college,” recalls Beal. “She enrolled in a program for medical office administration and told us she would have never been able to attend if it weren’t for the skills she learned in our program. She is now working in the medical administration field full-time.”
Beal says the most impactful stories for her are when she sees the learner feel successful.
“We did one workshop on password management, and even just seeing someone successfully create and remember a password when they couldn’t before, means the world. Those are the everyday things we need people to do when it comes to digital literacy.”
To learn more about ABC Connect for Learning, access free digital literacy resources or book a workshop for your organization, visit abcconnectforlearning.ca.
