Page 30 - Gateways for Early Educators

Gateways for Early Educators
Having recognized the importance of technology use now and in the future, as part of the scope of work, the Gateways for Early Educators Program assessed the computer and technology training needs of Gateways participants as they enrolled in the program. As a result of information gleaned from the computer literacy assessment conducted during the 2014-2015 program year and during the current program year, CCALA developed a training module regarding technology for early care and education professionals. A total of 350 participants completed a computer literacy assessment and 79 participants took part in 8 computer and technology trainings hosted by R&R agencies. An in-depth report on the results of these training sessions is presented in Appendix B.
There were differences in computer literacy by language such that participants with Spanish as their primary language reported lower computer literacy than participants with English as their primary language. A computer literacy composite score was created by summing participants’ ability to complete specified computer and technology skills. Out of a possible 14 points, participants with Spanish as their primary language scored 10.4 on average while participants with English as their primary language scored 12.8. Across Los Angeles County, participants’ greatest areas of need were in saving a file to a specific location, creating a copy of a file, and locating and opening a saved file.
CCALA developed a computer and technology training module based on the computer literacy assessment from the 2014-2015 program year and continued to assess those needs with this year’s computer literacy assessment. This year, CCALA conducted 8 computer and technology trainings hosted by 6 Resource and Referral agencies and 79 early care and education professionals participated. Overall, participants reported a positive experience in the computer and technology training and reported change in various computer and technology skills. Participants rated the training Excellent or Good (Excellent=4, Good=3, Mean=3.87). In addition, 100% of participants indicated that they plan to do something different in their program as a result of the training. When providing comments about what could be improved about the training, most indicated that they would like longer trainings, more sessions, or more frequent trainings regarding computer and technology.
An analysis by language group supported the findings from the analysis of the computer literacy assessments with participants whose primary language is Spanish self-reporting less computer and technology skills prior to taking the trainings than participants whose primary language is English. Furthermore, Spanish-speaking participants benefited most from the trainings showing a greater percent of change than English-speaking participants in each area trained. While there was an increase ranging between 20% and 59% in the percentage of Spanish-speaking participants who had each skill after participating in the trainings compared to before participating in the trainings, the increase for English-speaking participants ranged from 0% and 35%. See Table 6.
2016
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