In case anyone needs a bit of a distraction from the elections, here’s a little something: Rec Centers in the cities of Baltimore and Pittsburgh have joined forces to address digital divide through an innovative program funded by the National Science Foundation through the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program.
This investment from the NSF will further the understanding of how to bridge the digital divide by researching the processes and challenges involved in establishing four sites in Baltimore (2) and Pittsburgh (2), delivering educator professional development training, and studying the impact of participating in technology-rich youth programs on the self-efficacy, creativity, and attitudes of youth and educators over a 3-year period. In addition to the delivery of training for educators and localized program offerings for youth, the grant will support the development of a Localization Toolkit to support rec centers across the nation to use a similar approach to create opportunities for more youth.
We are very glad to work as the external evaluators of the grant with Andrew Coy and his tech team at the Digital Harbor Foundation and Foad Hamidi, Ph.D. and his team of researchers at UMBC.
https://mailchi.mp/digitalharbor/rec-to-tech-u-press-release
