Digital Equity and Adult Education

 You’re reading the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s Weekly Digest, a recap of the biggest (or most overlooked) broadband stories of the week. The digest is delivered via e-mail each Friday.

Round-Up for the Week of February 26-March 1, 2024

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Goal 4: Quality Education

1. Strong partnerships and innovative community solutions are key for organizations looking to advance adult education opportunities using upcoming Digital Equity Act funds.
2. The webinar, Digital Equity Champions for All Learners: Preparing Adult Education, emphasized the importance of sustainable partnerships in closing the digital access divide.
3. The Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), will fund annual grant programs for five years to implement digital equity projects.
4. Entities eligible for these grants include those developing State Digital Equity Plans.

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

• The webinar highlighted the need for organizations to start planning now to maximize funding opportunities under the Digital Equity Act.
• Successful state digital inclusion strategies are likely to engage and rely on partnerships and coalition-building.

Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals

• Partnerships and coalition-building are crucial for maintaining digital inclusion work and ensuring the success of grant programs.
• Collaborative efforts at the national, statewide, and regional levels are likely to receive large grants from NTIA.
• Backbone organizations can act as fiscal administrators and redistribute funding to smaller organizations in need of support.

Now is the Time to Prepare for Digital Equity Funding Opportunities

The webinar emphasized the upcoming Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) under the Digital Equity Act. The Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program’s $1.25 billion will fund annual grant programs for five years to implement digital equity projects. A wide range of entities are eligible for these grants; however, the specific state agencies developing each State Digital Equity Plan will be receiving funding under the Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program to execute their plans, and, therefore, not eligible for Competitive Grant funding.

“It’s really critical for the education sector, including the adult education sector, to get involved with this opportunity,” said Ji Soo Song, the Digital Equity Advisor at OET.

The Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) for the Capacity Grant Program and the Competitive Grant Program have not yet been released by NTIA. Shirley Doan, Senior Education Advisor at World Education, expects the Competitive Grant NOFO to be released between June and September of this year. Once the Competitive Grant NOFO is released, organizations will have up to 60 days to submit applications for support.

According to Doan, participating in the Competitive Grant program is a great opportunity for any organization doing digital inclusion work that serves one of the eight covered populations identified by Congress in the Digital Equity Act.

During the panel, Doan discussed ways in which NTIA may decide to structure its awards.

While much is still unknown about how the Competitive Grants will shake out, panelists stressed the importance of organizations starting now to plan to maximize this funding, and with whom they are going to get this done.

“We’re not going to know some major details until the NOFO is released,” said Doan. “Either way, we believe that strong partnerships and strong coalitions are going to be critical to being competitive and successful for this grant as well as innovative models that serve our adult learners.”

How Partnerships Drive Adult Education Efforts

Dr. Charles Roessel is the President of Diné College, the first tribally-controlled collegiate institution in the US. Diné College serves primarily Navajo students in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Diné is a rural college, and 82 percent of students stay in the community after graduation.  

During the webinar, Dr. Roessel talked about the “unique breadth of partnerships” that Diné has and emphasized the need for a holistic approach to education through engaging the ecosystem around an anchor institution like Diné College.

“If you’re going to focus on your students, you really need to focus on the community because they’re also going to be there,” said Roessel

This line of thinking prompted Diné to introduce the School of Transformation, a non-degree school focused on upskilling and career readiness. Dr. Roessel said that starting this new school required Diné to shift from focusing on primarily educational partnerships and start making new partnerships with industries.

Dr. Roessel spoke about the impact of one such partnership. The college used to spend $800,000 a year on broadband, but by working with internet service providers, creating partnerships, and working with a coalition, the school was able to reduce the cost by more than half.

Luis Quiñones, Deputy Vice President of Adult Education and Workforce Development at UnidosUS, echoed the importance of the holistic approach to education and the community. Since 2009, UnidosUS has run Padres Comprometidos, a Spanish-language digital literacy program focused on educational technology. The goal of the program, Quiñones said, is to engage Latino parents and help them to understand the education system in the United States. Parents who have completed the program are better able to communicate with teachers, advocate for their children, and be more involved in their students’ educational journeys. This empowerment of the parents leads to better outcomes for the children.

UnidosUS also runs the Latinos at Work program, a workforce development program. After the program launched in 2019, UnidosUS quickly started getting feedback that participants needed even more foundational digital skills training. Unidos started engaging with communities and found that there were no foundational digital skills trainings in Spanish.

In response, Unidos developed the Digital Skills for Life program—a 20-hour foundational digital literacy program, available in both English and Spanish. The program is now available through 30 UnidosUS grantees.

Skye Downing, the Digital Equity Programs & Partnership Director at Community Tech Network (CTN), also emphasized the importance of providing digital skills resources in people’s native languages. CTN’s digitalLIFT program helps nonprofits to promote digital equity in their communities. To date, digitalLIFT has partnered with 94 agencies nationwide and enrolled 300 trainers. The program focuses on providing a culturally proficient curriculum. digitalLIFT translates to seven languages in-house, and partners with an outside translation house on an as-needed basis.

Downing stressed the importance of both designing a culturally inclusive curriculum and having instructors who are familiar with the community they serve.

“You want your instructor or digital navigator to not only speak the same language, but it’s also beneficial if they come from the same community as your learners, as they better know the culture and will have the relatable lived experience necessary to honor the learners in their journey,” she said.

Luis Quiñones closed by telling the story of a woman named Gloria, who was hired as a teacher assistant and then found out she needed to have digital skills for her position. Gloria went through the Digital Skills for Life training, and was able to gain the confidence and skills to keep her job.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Quiñones said. “We need to have that kind of impact in partnerships.”

Adult Education and Digital Equity

Digital Equity Champions for All Learners demonstrated the power of partnership in building sustainable digital equity programs for adult education. There are countless adult learners that can be reached through the influx of funding the Digital Equity Act has laid before the States, and adult education leaders are critical to the effort to reach them. Successful state digital inclusion strategies are likely to engage and rely on partnerships and coalition-building to ensure this work is built to last.

Quick Bits

Weekend Reads (resist tl;dr)

ICYMI from Benton

Upcoming Events

Mar 5—2024 INCOMPAS Policy Summit (INCOMPAS)

Mar 5-6––Tribal Workshop at Marksville, Louisiana (FCC)

Mar 5-7––ACA Connects Summit 2024 (ACA Connects)

Mar 8––Ask Me Anything! with Joanne Hovis, President of CTC Technology & Energy (Broadband.io)

Mar 12––Connecting One Minnesota (Minnesota Office of Broadband Development)

Mar 13––Stories from NTIA’s Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives and the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program (NTIA)

Mar 14––March 2024 Open Federal Communications Commission Meeting (FCC)

Mar 20––Life After ACP (Institute for Local Self-Reliance)

Mar 25––The Right Connection (CENIC)

Apr 9––Broadband Equity is Local (Community Broadband Action Network)

Apr 17––2024 Bipartisan Tech Policy Conference (Next Century Cities)

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. SDG 4: Quality Education

   • Target 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship.
   • Indicator 4.4.1: Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill.

2. SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

   • Target 9.c: Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020.
   • Indicator 9.c.1: Proportion of population covered by a mobile network, by technology.

3. SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

   • Target 17.17: Encourage and promote effective public, public-private, and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.
   • Indicator 17.17.1: Amount of United States dollars committed to public-private partnerships.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

SDGs	Targets	Indicators
SDG 4: Quality Education	Target 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship.	Indicator 4.4.1: Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill.
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure	Target 9.c: Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020.	Indicator 9.c.1: Proportion of population covered by a mobile network, by technology.
SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals	Target 17.17: Encourage and promote effective public, public-private, and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.	Indicator 17.17.1: Amount of United States dollars committed to public-private partnerships.

Analysis

The article discusses the importance of digital equity in adult education and the upcoming Digital Equity Act funding opportunities. Based on the content of the article, the following SDGs, targets, and indicators can be identified:

SDG 4: Quality Education

This SDG is addressed because the article highlights the need to advance adult education opportunities and close the digital access divide. The focus is on providing relevant skills for employment and entrepreneurship.

Target 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship.

This target is relevant because the article emphasizes the importance of digital skills training for adult learners to improve their employment prospects and career readiness.

Indicator 4.4.1: Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill.

This indicator can be used to measure progress towards the target of increasing the number of youth and adults with relevant skills. The article discusses the need for organizations to engage with the upcoming Digital Equity Act funding opportunities to provide digital inclusion work for adult learners.

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

This SDG is addressed because the article highlights the importance of access to information and communications technology (ICT) and the need for universal and affordable access to the Internet.

Target 9.c: Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020.

This target is relevant because the article emphasizes the upcoming Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, which aims to fund digital equity projects and increase access to ICT. The focus is on providing universal and affordable access to the Internet.

Indicator 9.c.1: Proportion of population covered by a mobile network, by technology.

This indicator can be used to measure progress towards the target of increasing access to ICT. The article mentions the importance of partnerships and coalition-building to ensure digital equity programs are sustainable and reach adult learners.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

This SDG is addressed because the article emphasizes the importance of partnerships and coalition-building in advancing digital equity programs for adult education.

Target 17.17: Encourage and promote effective public, public-private, and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.

This target is relevant because the article highlights the need for strong partnerships and coalitions to be competitive and successful in securing funding for digital equity projects. The focus is on effective partnerships between public, public-private, and civil society organizations.

Indicator 17.17.1: Amount of United States dollars committed to public-private partnerships.

This indicator can be used to measure progress towards the target of promoting effective partnerships. The article mentions the upcoming Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, which will provide funding for digital equity projects through partnerships between various organizations.

Copyright: Dive into this article, curated with care by SDG Investors Inc. Our advanced AI technology searches through vast amounts of data to spotlight how we are all moving forward with the Sustainable Development Goals. While we own the rights to this content, we invite you to share it to help spread knowledge and spark action on the SDGs.

Fuente: benton.org

 

Join us, as fellow seekers of change, on a transformative journey at https://sdgtalks.ai/welcome, where you can become a member and actively contribute to shaping a brighter future.