Teaching Homeless the Internet (A Lesson Plan)

Classes for Nashville’s Homeless are offered at Room In The Inn’s Campus for Human Development. Credit for attendance can be exchanged for things like bus passes at the campus.

I started teaching a weekly class on Internet education to Nashville homeless a year ago.

At the end of my first class I asked a man, “Will we see you next week?” He said, “Hopefully not.”

Exactly.

I was hooked

• Teach a man how to use satellite view on google maps, and he can show you where he fished as a boy and then where his home used to be.
  
  
• Teach a man how to search, and he can write down a number on scrap paper and hustle for a job.
  
  
• Teach a man how to create an email address, and can email his son or daughter how he has been.

There are specific challenges to teaching a class for homeless: (1) your students aren’t necessarily the same every week, (2) your students are at different skill levels, (3) your students often don’t have consistent rest at night; but, the rewards are great.

This is your reconnaissance briefing.

If you are inspired, use it as a launching point to teach a class in your neighborhood (or to join me in mine).

My first class was around a year ago.

Context of class

The context of my class will make my suggestions relatable if you’re interested in doing something similar.

My class meets for an hour each week, unless classes are canceled due to holidays or in services.

I rarely see the same person more than two times in a month.

I have eight computers and usually have three to six students.

We meet at Room In The Inn’s Campus for Human Development in Nashville.

Students get credit for attending various classes and earn credit they can trade for things like bus passes at the campus market.

Other volunteers lead classes with topics including drum circles, writing letters to the editor, art, and much more. If you’re an educator, consider adding a service learning component to your class. For instance Belmont art students regularly volunteer. Start here.

These classes are a bright spot in Nashville’s response to homelessness, especially since they promote consistent relationships.

Friends heal: not services.

Cameron Powell created a video during a rally for Click Homeless, an initiative to help support homeless bloggers. We were a finalist for $10,000 in seed money in an ideablob contest.

Finding roots

My foray into teaching was a reaction to needs of a larger initiative.

I have a vision to put technology and resources in the hands of homeless bloggers. This initiative is called Click Homeless.

In October of last year I entered a contest to pursue funding for my idea with now-defunct ideablog.

At the end I was exhausted and overwhelmed at the magnitude of the need. (Here’s the history.)

I realized I didn’t need to create more buzz about my vision; I needed roots and slow growth.

So, rather than focusing on marketing, I sought to plug into the positive currents of other organizations and build some infrastructure.

Starting a weekly class was my first step in finding roots for Click Homeless.

Stay tuned and carry on.

“At the end of the contest, I realized I didn’t need to create more buzz about my vision; I needed roots and slow growth.” -Nate Baker Yeah that’s right. I pull-quoted myself. Have something to say about it?

Creating a lesson plan

We didn’t have a lesson plan. Kevin Barbieux, Molly Pearson, and I met with Jeff Moles at Room In The Inn to see if Click Homeless could start a class.

Room In The Inn advised me to shadow a similar class. Before I started, I signed a helpful document for volunteers which helped me set expectations for class.

The scope of the class was initially blogging. We quickly learned the scope was too narrow when a segment of my students were consistently first-time computer users.

Using Kevin’s suggestion, we rebranded the class as Internet education. This allowed the flexibility needed to make the class effective for the majority of students.

Luckily since I have background in information technology and support, I rarely have to plan ahead except for choosing a topic.

A big thanks to my company Sitemason for allowing me the flexibility to take a longer lunch break on Fridays. I’m very grateful.

I was initially frustrated about widening the scope of the class, but it again pointed me towards the need for prerequisites and infrastructure.

To support something like homeless blogging, it became clear I needed to not only find and support homeless bloggers, but create a path for people who have never used a computer before.

Since I rarely have the same students each week, it also became clear class needed to be flexible enough for me to help with individual needs such as email setup.

I’d estimate we’ve helped around 30 people setup gmail accounts this year. This is the first exercise I take students through if they don’t have an email address. You’re welcome Google.

In many cases, setting up email takes the whole class period. Some students have little experience with computers and are doing most of the pointing and clicking while I wandering from student to student. Google’s captcha can also be unforgiving.

A side note: Speaking of prerequisites and infrastructure, I’m extremely excited about the expanding success of Nashville’s new street paper, The Contributor. I do ninja kicks when I think about future collaborations with this network as Click Homeless matures. Room In The Room is also in the process of expanding their campus, which means a new computer lab. Ninja Kick!

Here’s the format I landed on for class:
This is a working document of course. Please leave suggestions in the comments below for how I can improve this process.

Here are the next steps for Click Homeless if you want to help with our efforts.

Click Homeless Needs in Nashville

VOLUNTEER AS A TEACHER — If you want to jump on board as a teacher, let me know. Come shadow my class and see if you want to start an Internet Education class. I’d love to have a Click Homeless volunteer start a class at Room at The Inn or Urban Housing Solutions. Or, if you have another passion, this post is your excuse to start a class!

CLICK HOMELESS INTERN — If you want to volunteer with the work of Click Homeless for a semester or period of time, we could use a very self-motivated intern. (So self-motivated that your first task will be to write up your internship description so we can fool your professors.) The Nashville Contributor could use a bit of office help as well so we could possibly create one internship. You would be doing some online exploration, manning social media outposts, building out our website, applying for non-profit status and grants, and creating frameworks to connect our volunteers with homeless bloggers. Email me if you are interested!

Feel feel to ask any questions below. Basic questions are allowed. Have you seen resources on teaching Internet skills to the homeless that would supplement this post?