Technology for Tomorrow

We're happy to share that we will be hosting a training session for staff members from the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington at our office in Williston! In this session, we will be discussing how to optimize efficiency in Microsoft 365 and OneDrive. We're looking forward to this work which, thanks to support from Comcast, will be provided free of charge.

This week marked the official halfway point for our Tech Thursdays webinar series in partnership with AARP Vermont. These sessions allow us to showcase the fundamentals of a particular technology skill with older adults from across the country. In our lates session, Damien Royer went into the basics of Google Maps, walking through features like location permissions, route setting, searching your area, and checking out local businesses!

We host these webinars on every other Thursday from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM, and they're free for all AARP members nationwide! For those who are not able to attend, AARP records each session and has a "frequently asked questions" page associated with each topic.

As always, we want to thank AARP Vermont for their continued support of this series, and to Erin Boyd for her work in helping us to run each session!

Google has announced a major shift to their search bar to incorporate AI completely. In the past, Google search has added both an AI Overview to searches, as well as an "AI Mode," but in this recent announcement, they have stated the search engine will be powered by their Gemini model. When you look something up, you won't be met immediately with the usual links to web pages. Instead, users will face the same "AI Overview," as well as a text box to interact with the program. For our learners and participants, you will still be able to look up questions and websites, but any websites or links associated with your search will be located further down the page, requiring that you scroll past the AI Overview and response box that immediately appears.

This week, Technology for Tomorrow team member Damien Royer completed the final session in a 4-class series in partnership with Williston Recreation & Parks and Senior Planet. On the first Tuesday of each month, Damien worked in-person with older adults at the Williston R.E.C Zone to discuss basic, but important digital literacy lessons like using smartphone cameras, managing your privacy on the internet, navigating Facebook, and accessing medical resources online! We were able to provide these courses free of charge thanks to our incredible network of local supporters.

We'd like to thank Williston Parks and Recreation and Taylor Hayes for helping us to set up and facilitate these sessions, and Senior Planet for providing the class materials and training resources.

This week, we want to take a moment to extend a sincere thank you to the Windham Foundation for their gracious support to our organization! With this grant, we are able to provide more digital literacy and workforce development classes to our local partners, and assistance to rural members of our community. It is through these course that we seek to provide more access to opportunity for Vermonters, and prepare them with the skills that are necessary in this digital landscape.

Once more, we want to thank both the Windham Foundation and Dan Lerner for their trust, dedication, and support of our mission to help bridge the digital divide.

Numbers tell a story too — and knowing how to write them makes all the difference when you're asking for funding.

Our own Becky Holt (and Vermont Story Lab partner) joined Wolde North's American Connection Corps AmeriCorps pod this week for a virtual grant writing session. She shared practical tips on how to write a budget narrative that reflects your organization's mission, makes the case for your work, and steers clear of the red flags that can raise eyebrows with funders.

Have questions about grant budgets or writing for funders? Drop them below!

Often in class, we're asked the question "How do I spot AI? How can I tell if what I am looking at is actually real?" Spotting AI-generated images is something that needs to be learned and practiced. Recently in our programs, we have been playing a digital literacy game: Two Truths and AI. This website helps train people how to pick out AI-generated images through short 60-second challenges, with multiple levels of difficulty and complexity.

This learning tool can be found here and down below: https://www.commonsense.org/two-truths-and-ai

Two Truths & AI | Common Sense Education Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

The clouds drift across a 28-foot digital sky. You see your own reflection. You see smiling faces.

Then you realize: Those aren't the people standing next to you. They're families in Ciudad Juárez — parents and children visiting La Rodadora Interactive Space, a children's museum across the border — looking back at you in real time, from their own digital sky.

Microsoft General Manager Mike Egan had opened the TechSpark Fellows Summit last week by saying: "This is more than a summit. It's a connection."

That moment, standing in front of the Connected Sky exhibit at La Nube STEAM Discovery Center in El Paso, Texas, gave his remarks deeper meaning. Connected Sky spans two museums, two countries — but one community of people sharing their hopes and dreams, under the same blue sky.

That's the work for Technology for Tomorrow and TechSpark Fellows everywhere — bridging divides, creating genuine human connection, and bringing people into view for one another. We left El Paso with new energy, new partnerships, and a clearer sense of why this work matters.

Thank you, Microsoft, for making it possible. And to our nonprofit partners across the globe: We see you.

May 14th marks the 9th session in our Tech Thursdays webinar series in partnership with AARP Vermont. In this session, we will be discussing the fundamentals of internet privacy, where Maliki LaForce will be showing AARP members how to limit trackers, clear cookies, and control where their personal information is shared.

Our classes with AARP take place on every other Thursday from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM, and are free for all AARP members. For those who are not able to attend, there are also recordings available. These sessions are offered nation-wide!

As always, we want to give a massive thank you to AARP Vermont who have continued to support this series, and to Erin Boyd for helping us to run every session!

We're happy to announce that, next week, we will be working with the and Girls Club of Burlington to provide a OneDrive class to their staff. This class is part of our Digital Navigation Program, an initiative we created with to support local nonprofits by providing "train the trainer" digital literacy courses to their staff.

We're looking forward to our session next week!