Good afternoon everyone! So happy to be part of this conversation and thanks to all the organizers!

Hello friends! Good to see everyone.

Good afternoon, all. Great turnout for an important topic!

Hello everyone. I hope to connect with everyone outside this meeting as well. Please email me at clopez@boundlessconnections.com.

Is Stephanie’s audio choppy for other people sd well or is it my zoom issue?

Mine too.

Its choppy.

She is choppy.

Yes it is.

its choppy, my be Stephanie's connection

Its choppy on my end as well

Hopefully, Stephanie's block will have fiber optic cable sometime in the next bit of time. . .

Headphones of any type might help, if she's not using them.

Fair enough Larry! Fortunately, it’s not so bad on my end that I can’t follow along.

ABC was just recently awarded a grant to address the digital divide. More info to come as we are in the implementation planning phase now.

Sorry about that, folks! What I have is actually a bad device. :) If I sit too far away from my microphone, it doesn't pick me up well. You would think I would have that distance on instinct by now.

can we get a video recording of this presentation? I would like to include it in our community assessment report..

Is a “chrome tablet” a chromebook or a tablet?

Here is ROC the Future's Digital Divide report: https://rocthefuture.org/updated-2020-digital-divide-report/

Hi Tanya - how much is the grant? Who awarded? Would love to hear more!

A Chrome tablet is considered to be a tablet in most research.

And we will, ABC is up in a few!

Yes, I will do a video recording of this presentation and we will put it on the ROC the Future website.

ABC's grant was from the CARES Act.

Because addressing the digital divide for children will be ongoing and can not be addressed by the philanthropic community then it will be government (school, city or town, county, state, and federal) funding. The question is what is the formula by household from various governments (plural) to provide digital services for all of our children and their families both in the city and county?

I would argue that digital access is not needed only by children and families. Libraries see adults constantly who needed access, instruction, and assistance on accessing the digital world.

Most of the government funding in 2020 for the interventions being presented on now were federal CARES Act funds. A long-term solution will require sustainable vs. one-time funds.

Agree with Dirk. This problem/challenge is not unique to Rochester. What lessons n=might we learn from other cities that are ahead of Rochester in managing this?

I would add the providers in the formula; they offer discount services but even at the discounted rate the services are still out of reach for many of our families. working across the various systems, how might we make this more affordable for those who can access and seek other solutions for those who can not. looking forward to chatting more, I have some ideas : )

Corinda, totally agree and this too would require a concerted government actions - laws and regulations

Libraries and schools receive reimbursement for telecommunications expenses through the federal e-rate programs (that is the "universal services" fee on your telephone bill. The program is managed by the FCC and has been the catalyst for public libraries and school to acquire hi-speed internet access.

Cities with municipal broadband have had mixed results. The programs have tended to be expensive and do not necessarily increase the % of households with internet.The important thing to remember about municipal broadband is that most of those programs still charge for internet access; they do not provide free service.We will follow up this meeting with sending out additional information on the questions/issues being raised.

There are many models to provide municipal broadband. To Stephanie’s point, providing internet alone is not enough.

I addressed a lot of these issues in my MPA capstone paper: https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.138/qmp.ed9.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BRIDGING-THE-DIGITAL-DIVIDE.pdf

Rochester Public Library and Monroe County Library System receives a reimbursement in the range of 80% - 90% of cost.

(RCSD back in 2016 proposed a beautiful FTTH muni model that would have been FREE at slower speeds. There are creative ways we can do this, but there are many barriers and it gets complicated fast. Addressed in my paper. Thank you!

We have a solution for Tech Literacy that is sustainable and able to keep up with the constant changes in tech. Please connect with me. clopez@boundlessconnections.com

I think another aspect that needs to be addressed is the relationship between the digital divide and language access for non-English speakers or individuals with limited English proficiency? Will anyone be presenting on this topic?

Shalym I think that is a CRITICAL gap. That is precisely the kind of feedback we need to inform the next working meeting as we think about areas to address.

in aggregate, ABC will be investing $600-$700K on this issue

Literacy Rochester has been working with low literate and non native English speaker to improve their understanding of the English language for over 55 years. 7 years ago Literacy Rochester started a Digital Literacy program. In the past 7 years Literacy Rochester has partnered with OACES at RCSD and the Monroe County Public Library system to provide digital support at community based location. On average this program helps over 1,200 adults complete over 3,000 digitally based tasks that range from setting up an email account to applying for jobs, health benefits, or social service help.

I understand that RCSD is now including PreK students. My concern is in regards to Preschool Special Education students who may not necessarily be enrolled in UPK programs but must go thru the district to receive their therapy services. These therapies are now being done via tele-therapy and children need access to participate and receive their needed therapies. Have these children been addressed?

The Digital Literacy program from Literacy Rochester works very well.

Since I like to think of costs in units of people and months this is what I have from these presentations

*$15/month - Monthly Cost of unlimited data for Mifi ( 2900 devices for $43.5K )*$80/student 5 year cost for chromebook ($2Million assuming a 5 year lifetime and 80% survival and 25K students)*$370 each annually Library Mifi loan - (500 mifi units for loan - $185K)*$370 Learning Pod per student per month ($20K per pod per semester (10 weeks) 14 students)*? $/month for Spectrum WiFi/internet (would like to know)

How do we as a community figure out how to scale this to likely ongoing needs post-pandemic - recognizing needs will be different and perhaps less, but still significant for long-term learning, for both kids and adults? How determine the needs and the resulting costs going forward?

If I got something wrong let me know

Email me at aqua.porter@uwrochester.org

sbanister@racf.org

jackie@thechildrensagenda.org

Larry@thechildrensagenda.org

i have to attend another meeting great information! Thank you to the sponsor of todays session.

I too have another meeting to attend. Great information. Thank you.

A great resource to refer to when doing this work is XQ Institute. The XQ Project speaks to how we “Reimagine” school by working with students, families, community, schools and systems. Check out https://xqsuperschool.org/

Sorry I need to attend another meeting.

Appreciate inclusion of rural families.

Definitely a social justice issue

Will these slides be available somewhere? So much good info in them.....

Russell, they’ll be posted on the Roc the Future’s website.

Refugees

Refugees

Deaf and hard of hearing community

Briefly mentioned but really important children 0 to 3 and their families

Deaf/ non hearing communities

For folks that are interested in learning more about digital inclusion work on a national level, and what we can bring back to our local area, I definitely recommend checking out the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) https://www.digitalinclusion.org/ - they have been a wonderful resource for our work in the rural areas of the Finger Lakes with the Finger Lakes Digital Inclusion Coalition

Encourage thinking about access for all people and being inclusive of all people.

I agree NDIA is a good resource

Also, blind and visually impaired community. In a new digital world, how do we help our blind, visually impaired brothers and sisters. Very interested in understanding what that might look like.

GREAT session…many thanks for bringing us all together for this critical conversation and continuing the dialogue.

Thanks for a very informative session

Thanks for this presentation!!

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/press/jump-starting-america-new-book-mits-jonathan-gruber-and-simon-johnson-argues-public-investment-science-key-to-revving-u-s-growth-engine