New Digital Skills Training On Horizon

RISON - A new program that will help teach people how to use technology is expected to launch as soon as December as part of the Cleveland County Broadband Committee's effort to improve "digital skills" for those in the county who need it. Britt Talent, who co-chairs the Cleveland County Broadband Committee with Justice of the Peace Donnie Herring, said this could be the first such program of its kind in the state, and may possibly be a model for other counties. Digital skills, as defined by the University of Nevada at Las Ve-gas, is "the ability to find, evaluate, use, share, and create content using digital devices." The Arkansas State Broadband Office estimates that as many as 275,000 Arkansans within the ages of 18 to 64, including about 600 residents in Cleveland County, lack the digital skills to use the internet. Talent pointed out that having a digital skills program will be one of the criteria that the Arkansas State Broadband Office will consider when it begins awarding local grants from the $1 billion in federal aid the state will be receiving to expand the high speed internet infrastructure in the state. What makes this program unique, Talent said, is that it utilizes local high school students to teach others how to use technology. Danielle Watson, staff chair for the Cleveland County office of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service, is spearheading the development of the program for the Cleveland County Broadband Committee. She is also part of the committee. She is working with both the Cleveland County and Woodlawn School Districts to recruit and train high school students to learn how to provide one-on-one training to teach others how to use technology. During a broadband committee meeting on Monday, Watson gave an update on the progress she has made with getting both Rison and Woodlawn High Schools involved in the new digital skills training prog...