computerCENTRAL and our Community Technology Programs

In 2006, CCTV provided 13.5 hours weekly of open access to the public in computerCENTRAL. In addition, specialized training sessions for seniors and for Spanish-, Portuguese-, and Haitian Kreyol speakers were held weekly, resulting in a total of 24.5 hours of computer assistance each week. The lab hosted 1714 visits during Open Access, 279 visits to the Tutorial for Non-English Speakers, and 181 visits to Computers for Seniors. Amy Steptoe, a computerCENTRAL Intern, comments:

"The computer patrons appreciate the help they receive and, in return, I feel as though I am making a contribution to my community, which makes me happy.”

Computers for Seniors
If you had walked into computerCENTRAL on any Monday morning in 2006, you would have found a vibrant community in our Computers for Seniors program. Participant Marie Caso spent this year making media. Marie writes:

“I’ve been making digital stories. In fact, I just won an award from the Alliance for Community Media for my video called ‘Get Me Out of the Office.’ My most recent digital story, ‘Woman in Black Boots,’ is about meeting Eleanor Roosevelt during my youth. Digital stories are a great outlet for seniors to tell stories for generations to come. My utmost gratitude goes to the splendid CCTV staff!”

Tutorial for Non-English Speakers
Technical jargon is hard enough to understand. Translating the language of the Internet and computers is even more of a challenge for the dedicated interns in the Tutorial for Non-English Speakers. CCTV offers computer instruction in Portuguese, Spanish and Haitian-Kreyol. In 2006, we continued to focus on building the technical skills of our members – whether teaching someone to create a resume in Word or hunt for a job in an on-line database, or learn to type with Mavis-Beacon. Intern Karin Koch had this to say about the program:

“Most recently I have been working with María Ren. She is from Guatemala, a country with a rich tradition in weaving. She creates designs using a cross-stitch technique in which X-shaped stitches form images on a piece of fabric. The success of her designs depends on how the color values of the pattern are translated into stitches. When this is done manually, it is very time consuming. But she’s been using Photoshop in computerCENTRAL to help her speed up the artistic process by adding digital grids to create cross-stitch charts. The innovation and intelligence of my students never ceases to amaze me.”