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Plugged In
Program Report
August 20, 1998
Overview
According to a study recently released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce, blacks and Hispanics are falling farther behind whites in computer ownership. The same is true for low-income households. To ensure meaningful participation in the emerging information economy, people in our community must have access to the most current information technologies. In addition, training opportunities and concrete demonstrations of how these technologies can positively affect the lives of people of different ages and backgrounds must be provided. In doing so, Plugged In is a model for how universal access to information technologies can be a window to economic, educational, and social opportunity.
Programs
Plugged In was created in 1992 to bridge the technological gap between East Palo Alto and Silicon Valley. To achieve this goal, Plugged In offers three programs:
Access
The Technology Access Center is a cross between the library of tomorrow, a self-paced learning studio, and copy center. It provides community members of all ages with access to computers and the Internet seven days a week. Children use the center to practice basic skills such as reading, writing, and math. Teens use the computers to do online research for school, write class papers, and work on personal web pages. Adults look for jobs on the Internet, write their resumes, and use our fax machine to apply for jobs. Others use Plugged In as their virtual office: they use our computers for everything from bookkeeping to maintaining their web sites. Community members can even set up voice-mail accounts.
Enterprises
Plugged In Enterprises is a web page design business run by teenagers. The program provides intensive education in the latest web design technology, supports the teens in managing client projects, and provides them with authentic work experience and structure. The program is unique in that it teaches the wide-range of skills necessary to take part in the information revolution. Customers have included Hewlett Packard, Sand Hill Challenge, and Sun Microsystems.
Education
Community Kids is an after-school, multimedia studio and literacy center for neighborhood children between the ages of six and twelve. It cultivates the creative spirit by giving children tools for self-expression. It strengthens critical thinking and problem solving skills by exercising their minds. Primary focus is given to storytelling and the arts: visual and graphic. A special emphasis is given to new technologies.
Organizational Impact
In the last year, Plugged In received visits from 75 individuals and organizations from around the world interested in replicating our work. Examples of this impact include the following:
· Six librarians from France visited Plugged In to learn how they can incorporate technology in their libraries and how to engage young people in the use of technology.
· Staff members from the Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts received a training session on ways to establish a community computer center in their neighborhood.
· Hitoshi Shirai, a senior researcher from the Hitachi Research Institute in Japan, visited Plugged In to learn how to create community computer centers in his country.
· Don Tapscott, described our organization and Plugged In Enterprises in particular, in his book Growing Up Digital as a community computer center model for the future and a creative solution for closing the "digital divide." His book is a guide for parents, teachers, and policy makers.
Plugged In Enterprises budget: $128,378
Plugged In Enterprises Profile:
Dominic Bannister
My name is Dominic Bannister. I live in East Palo Alto with a family of nine. I started coming to Plugged In during my freshmen year when I attended a class called StreetNet and then applied for a summer job at Plugged In. That summer, I learned how to answer phones and do technical work. My interests are browsing the Net, programming, watching TV, chatting, designing web pages, and hanging out with my friends.
I was asked to join PIE after the summer ended. I worked on my resume and I was accepted as a PIE member. I learned how to design a web page and worked with applications like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Page Mill, Infini-D, Gif Builder, and Fetch.
I want to become a computer programmer in the future. Working for PIE is a step towards my future goal. What keeps me in PIE is the attention I get when I do something excellent.
Participant Impact
1.) Forty-six teenagers learned to use a wide variety of multimedia tools: Adobe Photoshop, HTML scripting language, Microsoft Office Suite, Macromedia Dreamweaver, and Aldus Pagemaker, Adobe Premiere, and Specular Infini-D.
- Twenty-five teenagers earn money from paying clients for the creation of information products on the Internet. (i.e. online content at OpenVoice and web sites).
Community Impact
1.) In addition to participating in training sessions and completing client projects, Plugged In Enterprise participants have helped over 100 people and organizations become educated about computers and get connected to the technological revolution. Examples include the following:
· Dominic, a web page designer, taught 12 students from Zimbabwe basic computer skills. He also provided a tour to students in the Zimbabwe Education Exchange Program. His work will be featured in a portion of a PBS documentary.
· John, a graphic design artist and former graffiti artist in San Jose, is helping two non-profits design and paint murals. He is also a speaker at Palo Alto High where he talks about his experiences and discusses his work at Plugged In with students on probation for "tagging."
· Edward, a web page designer, works with the librarian at Sequoia High School to make sure computers work. He fills in when the MIS Coordinator is not available.
Goals
- Train 36 new teenagers in advanced computer software applications.
- Expand the size of the PIE production team from four to nine.
- Increase collaboration with community organizations and connect 36 community groups and individuals to the Internet.
- Increase the web site development repertoire of the young people to include mouse-overs and animation.
- Create an advisory council for the program consisting of Silicon Valley professionals and youth development experts.
- Document the successful initiatives and business structures.
Technology Access Center budget: $100,000
Impact
Profiles
People use our Technology Access Center to complete a variety of tasks. Here are some samples:
- Susan is a performing artist and uses Plugged In to write letters, schedule performances, and design publicity for her shows. She used to go to Design Technology in Palo Alto for her computer needs but felt alienated by the poor attention she received when she had a problem. It was too expensive and too "out of her way." She calls Plugged In "the greatest place in the history of places."
- Joe is a 19 year old Stanford University student who lives on Manhattan Street in East Palo Alto. John uses the Access Center to check his e-mail, conduct online research, and design tests for the students he teaches at El Buen Pastor on Bayroad. Currently, he is using our Center to do online research for his friend who is interested in transferring to a new college.
- John is a custodian at De Anza College. He is using our center to apply for a reseller’s permit so that he can sell multi-media sound systems. He is working to secure capital by demonstrating demand for the product. Plugged In referred him to Start Up, an organization that helps community members start small businesses.
- Bill started coming to Plugged In when he needed to write his resume and search for a job after completing his rehabilitation program. Bill wants to secure a job at a warehouse or a data entry position. Each week, he spends six to seven hours at Plugged In faxing his resume to potential employers and searching for new job leads. Although he receives job leads from a job developer at State Rehabilitation, he says he has found most of his leads from Cal Jobs on the EDD Internet site and the web sites of the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, and the San Mateo County Times. Recently, he found a job with Closet Unlimited and has an interview for a second job at Amco Express.
- Julie is a single mother on a welfare program who recently graduated from San Jose State University where she majored in communication. Her occupational goal is to become a Domestic Violence Advocate but feels that the wages that people in this job earn is too little to sustain her young family. Currently, she is willing to take any job and is applying to be a shift supervisor at a fast food restaurant and at Target. She says that before she completed her resume at Plugged In, she was declined for many interviews because it was not of high enough quality. She has had a two interviews in the last week and will have another in three days. She founds these leads using the Internet. Because she does not have a car, Plugged In is the only place she can use computers.
Number of Visits Per Week
The following chart represents the number of visits we receive each week. The totals do not include the number of children who participate in our children’s after-school program, the teenagers that work in Plugged In Enterprises, or the people who take computer education courses. Many of the customers who use the center visit us more than once per week; therefore, the number of people who use the center is a lower number than is represented in the chart. There is no data for January and February. In January, even though the Center was open, we focused our energy on restructuring the organization and, in February, we were closed down for a month due to flooding from El Niño.
Community Collaborations
Plugged In works with Start Up, a micro enterprise initiative, to help local entrepreneurs to start businesses. We helped them construct a special page on our "Community Central" web site that provides important information needed to write a business plan, make financial statements, obtain a seller’s permit, and get a business permit. Soon there will be an additional section on applying for business loans. Ten entrepreneurs take advantage of this resource.
The Technology Access Center sponsors evening computer education classes for adults. The Center identifies volunteers and trains them to teach computer basics and a few more advanced classes on the Internet and web page design. To accommodate for our students’ busy schedules, the courses run in three week intervals with two classes per week. Each class is comprised of six students.
Currently, Plugged In is working with representatives from Free At Last and AIDS Community Research Consortium to create a community health resource web site. It will provide community members with information on HIV, AIDS, and hepatitis C.
Community Investment
To increase community investment in the Technology Access Program, we started a membership and fee program in April 1998. In the first month, over 20 people became members. Fifteen members contributed 4 hours of volunteer time in exchange for unlimited use of the lab for the month. Five people purchased a monthly membership for $15. In total, community members contributed 60 hours of volunteer time to help run the center. This August, we had 24 people contribute volunteer time. Volunteers perform tasks that range from working with children in our Kid’s Program and formatting disks for other customers to cleaning windows. Adults comprise 60% of our user base for the center and teenagers comprise 40%.
On the contribution end, in April 1998, the center generated $310 in revenues from adult computer access fees, $237 in photocopy sales, $90 in class fees, $50 in miscellaneous fees and $150 in fax usage.
Community Kids budget: $96,000
Impact
Since the program was re-launched on July 7, 1998, 139 individual children have benefited from the program this summer alone. Each day we serve an average of 22 returning students and three new children. They have received 132 hours of structured activities. During this time, the children have completed a variety of projects.
Technology Projects
- Created 40 "monster" books (The illustrations in the books features fantasy creatures made out of alternating heads, torsos, and lower bodies drawn by the children.)
- Wrote and illustrated 25 story boards
- Created 30 vacation books (In these books, the children went to imaginary places and described their journeys with pictures and graphics from the computer or magazines.)
- Made 153 nametags with digital photographs
- Designed 75 greeting cards on the computer
- Opened 35 e-mail accounts
- Completed 45 Glowbird reading sessions
- Created 150 digital drawings
- Colored 50 coloring books from Orly’s Draw A Story graphics
- Created 30 Glowbird story books
- Scanned in 20 drawings and wrote accompanying stories
- Completed 45 Kid Pix slide shows
- Wrote 30 creative compositions on a variety of topics
Art Projects
- Sculpted 42 paper mache animals
- Wove 28 tapestries
- Designed 45 wire sculptures
- Built 150 Lego structures
- Made 41 stuffed animals
- Etched 100 pencil and pen drawings
- Decorated 20 gift bags
- Drew 25 circle weavings
- Constructed 25 mosaics
- Wove 25 baskets
Programmatic Structure
The physical layout of our Community Kids space is divided into two sections: the technology studio and the arts center.
The Technology Studio
The Technology Studio consists of three computer islands:
- The Literacy Center: This center is sponsored by volunteers from the Stanford University School of Education. The primary activity at this center is story boarding focused on reading comprehension. Children read stories like Glowbird, a literacy-based software package with stories on ecological themes. Once they read the stories, they write original story-lines and create graphics.
The kids have also used the software title Knock, Knock to practice their reading and phrase recognition and comprehension skills.
The children have created their own e-mail accounts and correspond regularly with volunteer pen pals.
- The Digital Arts Center: This center focuses on graphic design and desktop publishing. Each child begins the program by creating their own name tag using a digital camera to photograph themselves and write their names. They are also creating their own place mats, greeting cards, and slide shows. The final project is a photo year book. The kids use Print Shop Deluxe and Kid Pix.
- The Independent Exploration Center: This center features software applications like MathBlaster; Magic School Bus – Ocean; Magic School Bus – Human Body; Magic School Bus – Dinosaurs; School House Rock – Grammar; School House Rock – Math; Orly’s Draw a Story; Arthur’s Teacher Trouble; Casper Reading Series; Mavis Beacon Typing; Internet Exploration; Dangerous Creatures; and Microsoft Encarta. The children sign up for time in half hour time increments. Frequently, the children choose to share their time with their friends.
The Arts Center
Each day the children complete an art project. The goal of the projects is to develop the kids’ creative skills and create a forum for self-expression and community reflection. To see a list of projects they have completed please see the impact section.
In the arts center we also feature a reading corner and a Legos design section. The Legos have become a huge attraction for the boys.