Parent and Community

Parent Technology Trainings

	Parent Survey (Winter 2001) Oakland Technology Exchange-West Home Computer Program
	Parent Technology Workshop Assessment
	2001 – 2002 Evaluation Results for Summative Workshop Evaluation Form
	Community Partnerships
	Access to Technology

Urban Dreams provided basic computer training for parents during the 2001-2002 school year (Objective 3.1). The Marcus Foster Institute provided the trainings through a subcontract with the school district. The technology trainings were mandatory for parents prior to their participation in the Take-Home Computer program. Over 300 parents participated in the trainings during the 2001-2002 academic year. The trainings were designed to provide parents with basic computer concepts and skills through hands-on use of computers.

To measure gains in specific competencies related to computer use, trainers developed and administered workshop evaluation assessments during the first and last sessions. As Table 17 demonstrates, approximately the same number of parents took both the pre and post workshop evaluation assessments. The majority of the respondents were female African-Americans:

Ethnicity and gender of parents taking pre-post assessments

Gender	African-American	Asian	Hispanic	Other	Total
Female	142	28	31	7	208
Male	46	15	14	4	79
Total	188	43	45	11	287

The evaluation of the parent technology trainings also included a summative evaluation form that elicited participant feedback on the trainings themselves. The summative evaluation form contains six questions and a corresponding likert scale. Participants are asked to rank from “1” (lowest) to “4” (highest), the quality of the training using six indicators. Section 2 consists of three open-ended questions. The following table provides an overview of the results of the summative evaluation form:

Quality of training results by indicator (N=253)

Questions	Number of Respondents	1 (Lowest)	2	3	4 (Highest)	Median
Goals for the training were clear.	253	1	6	54	192	4
Instructor met the training session goals.	252	2	4	44	202	4
Training session/instructor was clear and organized.	253	4	38	211	253	4
Handouts were relevant and useful.	250	3	4	53	190	4
Training information was useful.	252	1	4	37	210	4
Information was understandable.	250	2	3	43	202	4

The median score on the four-point scale was 4 indicating that the vast majority of participants thought that the trainings were of the highest quality. On average over 82% of the participants gave each quality indicator the highest rating.

Access to Technology – Placement of Technology into Classrooms

A major reason for the development of the Urban Dreams project was the lack of technology access by students within the classroom. The vast majority of students in the target secondary schools attended classrooms that did not have computer technology or access to the Internet. Similarly, the teachers in those classrooms rarely used computer technology for instructional purposes.

Urban Dreams has made a significant impact on the access to technology by both students and parents. More students and their parents are accessing technology on a regular basis as a direct result of this project. The project is accomplishing this by: a) the placement of technology into secondary social studies and English classrooms; and b) the placement of refurbished computers into the homes of students who attend those same classrooms.

A major activity of the Urban Dreams project has been the building of infrastructure including wiring classrooms for the Internet, purchase of computers and software and the placement of the technology within each of the more than 50 classrooms used by Urban Dreams teachers. This undertaking was accomplished through a joint effort between district, school site, and project staff. The district has made extensive use of state and local funds to support this effort.

As a result of this undertaking, all of the classrooms of participating teachers currently have high speed Internet access, a laptop computer, 5 desktop computers, software, a VCR and a large presentation monitor. In addition, Urban Dreams provides each school site with two class sets of "Alpha Smarts" keyboards and two projectors for classroom presentations. Urban Dreams and district staff also provide ongoing technical assistance.

Participating teachers are overwhelmingly supportive of the new technology. They are increasingly using technology as a part of their instructional programs. Students also use the technology as part of their regular instructional program throughout the day. Several project teachers have reported that students from other classrooms lacking equipment often use project technology before and after school.

Index