Following Obama’s Lead, Digital Elders Lead Us into the Future

Noting that the future of the world will be digital, President Obama recently announced his commitment to increasing cyber security awareness as well as digital literacy. The good folks at Message Media Ed. are taking the initiative with the creation of the Digital Elder program. The basic premise of the program is to help close the digital divide still present in the African-American community through education in different facets of the online experience including social networking, effective searching, and communication.

Digital Elder seeks to reach African American at risk youth including high school dropouts or those thinking about dropping out, providing a high tech education that many inner-city schools are lacking. Following the old African adage, “It takes a village to raise a child,” the program takes community elders (anyone that has contact or influence with young people) and puts them through a two day, 15-hour workshop. During the workshop, the elders learn about emailing, how to search for jobs, and how to use the web as a means of obtaining and dispensing information instead of just going to a few familiar entertainment sites.

But the training goes beyond the technical aspects. For Message Media Ed. founder Shani Byard, it was important to focus on cultural education as well. In her previous career in television production, Bayard felt that she might have been “contributing to the unhealthy images and messages that our youth receive in advertisements, music, and other mediums.” Growing up in L.A., she understood gang culture and decided to start giving back to the community.

“It was time to flip it and teach them what I had learned.” In addition to teaching computer skills, Byard also shows films and holds discussions to bridge the other divide present in the black community, the generation gap. In an era where older people in the community seems to look down on the younger generation, Byard feels that it’s important to reestablish this important connection.

“It’s not just the youth that needs educating, it’s their parents and elder that need to be taught how to communicate with the youth in this age and learn their langauge and support them as they grow.”

In our march towards digital literacy, it’s important to institute a no man left behind attitude. This is especially true in inner-city communities where residents historically and systematically been denied the same opportunities as  their upwardly mobile counterparts. In the next 5-10 years, many jobs will require a high level of not just computer literacy, but tech saavyness. With the intiatives taken by the Obama administration and foward-thinking, community-minded leaders like Shani Bayard, the future is looking increasingly bright.