Lessons from the Life of a Learning and Access Center

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Lessons from the Life of a Learning and Access Center
By Thom Mahoney
Technical Online Services Coordinator
The Grove Neighborhood Network

Call him Richard Jimenez. He leans in the doorjamb, hands deep in his pockets. "I'm thinking about getting a Sentra," he says, nodding toward the 15 monitors lining the walls of our small community computer center.

"Nice car, I hear," Katherine Bauer responds. She's normally more talkative, but knows her role and doesn't wait for a response. She goes over to a computer, clicks up a Web page and a link, types a few words, and a page about the Nissan Sentra comes alive. Richard comes over, sits down, scoots forward in the chair, but not yet close enough to touch the mouse. In a moment, he'll ask if Katherine can help him get some Consumer Reports online. He's hooked.

They Learn, We Learn

Katherine, an AmeriCorps*VISTA Member, knows her job. She has become an expert in the three years she's worked with the clients at our community computer center, The Grove Neighborhood Network. The center is located in a low-income Housing and Urban Development-assisted housing complex in Greeley, Colorado.

Like all community computer centers, The Grove struggles to spark and maintain its clients' interest. We're experienced, determined and shameless, and these traits have served us well in coming up with ways to turn recalcitrants into regulars.

We regard overcoming clients' fear, reluctance or resistance toward computers as a noble goal, and a possible first step toward a GED, a better job, college-educated kids, and life beyond a low-income housing complex.

How We Do It

One of our best attractants is our daily-changing, topical, constantly accessed, unrepentantly gimmicky in-house Web page -- accessible only in our center -- which offers links to everything from Spanish-language soap operas to wrestling. Our ever-developing bag of tricks includes:

Keep it simple. Fancy pages deter the shy. You can link to bells and whistles.
Remember language. Provide information in your potential clients' own languages. Avoid "technobabble" in every language.
Eavesdrop. Listen to what your clients talk about in real life, and have links ready for them the next time they wander by. Ambush whenever possible.
Update regularly. Stone Cold Steve Austin might be as cold as Tickle-Me Elmos by next week.Keep up with your audience.
Clients' Interests. Be responsive to your clients' real-life interests. Commemorative plates and Selena work for us.

Getting Clients In the Door

Making intuitive, leaping guesses about people is an excellent skill for getting them into your center and dazzling them with your Web page. If you can get a handle on what your clients care about in real life, you can convert them from just looking into your center to using it. Quick-take client categories, how to recognize them, and simple approaches we use to work with them, include:

Doorjambers lean in the center's doorway. We let them be the experts while we drive the computers. Sooner or later, they take charge and show us a better Nissan Sentra.

All-Thumbers present themselves as Gumps with 10 thumbs. We tell them our own worst experiences with computers and let them laugh at us first.

"Oh-No"ers are skilled at walking backward. We never chase; if they back away, we back off. We give them a reason to come back -- even lend them something so they'll return it.

"Tee-Hee-Hee"ers appear nervous or embarrassed. We ask them for help. Have them distribute fliers, read the screen to a kid -- or make a potluck dish and dictate the recipe while we word-process and print it out for them, with instant digital-camera pictures.

Thom Mahoney can't wait to swap stories and lore by phone at (970) 304-9636, e-mail igvillage@uswest.net. His center's public Web page is at www.islandgrove.org; a sample in-house Web page is at www.islandgrove.org/netting.html.

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Community Resources....
Penguin Days Strengthen Technology Use (March, 2005)

Collaboration and the Calculator: Increasing Food Stamp Access in NYC (December, 2003)

NYC Tech Collaboration Breathes New Life into National Initiative (August, 2002)

Teaming for Technology: A Connectionist Approach to Making IT Happen (November, 2001)

Searching for Cancer Information on the Internet: A New Project in Harlem (April, 2001)

TECH NEWS: Changing of the Guard (November, 2000)

Nonprofit Provides Access to Affordable Technology (May, 2000)

Lessons from the Life of a Learning and Access Center (December, 1999)

Black Data Processing Associates Offers Training, Performs Community Service (October, 1999)

Communities Becoming LINCT in New York City (August, 1999)

New York Cares Launches Partners in Technology Program (April, 1999)

Program Donates Technology to Nonprofits (April, 1999)

It Takes More Than Computers. . .Libraries in the Information Age (December, 1998)

BrookynX - A Guide to Getting Your Communities on the Net (October, 1998)

Other Articles of Interest....
Help is Just Three Digits Away (October, 2001)

Intergenerational Technology Initiative Seeks to Bridge the Digital Divide (April, 2001)

TECH-U-NET: Providing Technology Guidance to Nonprofits (November, 2000)

Harvard Business School Alums Provide Valuable Volunteer Consulting (May, 2000)

LEGIT: Training Teens for Better Futures (March, 2000)

HUD Neighborhood Network Centers Respond to Need for a Computer-Savvy America (October, 1999)

Hispanic Federations CREDIT Project (December, 1998)


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