Syracuse College, AT&T, Museum of Science and Know-how (MOST) and Tech4Kidz partnered this summer time to create the Central New York area’s first free digital literacy and training summer time program designed to deal with equality points in expertise training and to assist native college students impacted by the digital divide.
The AT&T ’Cuse Digital Expertise is designed to encourage extra underserved and numerous college students to enter the sector of expertise, an trade that has lengthy confronted a pervasive variety hole. This system offered greater than 120 underrepresented college students from the Syracuse Metropolis College District in fourth by way of eighth grades a chance to realize essential digital literacy and readiness abilities by way of distinctive expertise centered immersive experiences, whereas encouraging them to discover a STEM and expertise instructional and profession paths
Over the course of this system, the scholars discovered an unlimited array of digital literacy abilities, together with cybersecurity, optimistic social media makes use of, analyzing search engine outcomes, laptop coding fundamentals, keyboarding abilities, synthetic intelligence, 3D printing disciplines, digital animation, robotics, computer-based design for civil engineering and public area initiatives, and abilities for locating factual information on-line.
The scholars additionally discovered how expertise can be utilized for good and group constructing by creating options and discovering artistic makes use of to deal with points impacting youth of the area, equivalent to digital citizenship, whereas additionally studying the hazards of cyberbullying, cyberscams and digital footprint points that damage kids’s repute later in life.
Deborah Nosky
“We’re grateful to AT&T and our collaborative companions for permitting us to introduce digital citizenship to so many native college students. Throughout our time collectively we had been capable of be taught extra about security and the right way to shield our private data within the digital world,” says Deborah Nosky, professor of observe within the College of Info Research. “By increasing the scholars’ understanding and use of digital applied sciences, college students had been higher capable of perceive how the talents we discovered utilized to careers they had been already accustomed to and new ones that they could want to discover.”
“Know-how innovates and transforms our world, and it creates boundless alternatives for individuals who know the right way to unlock its potential. Because of this I’m so excited for the 120 Syracuse Metropolis College District college students who participated within the first AT&T ’Cuse Digital Expertise summer time program. They discovered helpful abilities that may absolutely be the inspiration for his or her future success—and the financial prosperity of our group,” says Jennifer Tifft, director of strategic initiatives for the Metropolis of Syracuse. “I’m deeply grateful to AT&T, the Museum of Science and Know-how, Tech4Kidz and Syracuse College for providing such an impactful program to our youngsters. Partnerships like this make it doable to create extra inclusive instructional and financial alternatives for households of all backgrounds.”
Digital data has turn out to be the brand new literacy and is the motive force of all new international expertise. With the rising demand to innovate, organizations throughout varied industries wrestle to fill expert positions. It’s projected that there can be 3.5 million STEM and digital jobs within the U.S. by 2025, underscoring the significance of offering the youth the instruments and abilities essential to compete on this innovation economic system.
The urgency for extra numerous expertise educated workers is accentuated by the low proportion of variety make-up of the expertise trade. This alarming variety scarcity within the tech trade and the rising STEM job market emphasizes the significance of offering programing just like the AT&T ’Cuse Digital Expertise for youth of all backgrounds and financial conditions.
“It’s been a pleasure instructing and studying from these energetic native college students about expertise and digital citizenry. Thanks to AT&T for making it doable,” says Laurie Ferger, instructing professor within the College of Info Research.
Laurie Ferger
The free program was made doable by monetary assist and programing collaboration from AT&T as a part of the corporate’s $2 billion nationwide dedication from 2021-2023 to assist bridge the digital divide and homework hole.
“It has been an honor to collaborate with the MOST, Tech4Kidz and Syracuse College to supply this revolutionary expertise to those college students, because it additional enhances our dedication to offering assets for digital literacy instructional programming throughoutnd builds upon our vigorous efforts to bridge the variety hole within the expertise trade,” says Kevin Hanna, director of exterior affairs, AT&T. “I’m so impressed by these exceptional college students and happy with their dedication all through the summer time working laborious to realize essential digital literacy abilities, all of them have nice futures forward of them.”
