How do you build Internet Health for Transitioning Veterans?

[mozfest-bot]

[ UUID ] 82b456e8-a7c1-40eb-bcec-75b30d3d18f9

[ Session Name ] How do you build Internet Health for Transitioning Veterans? [ Primary Space ] Web Literacy

[ Submitter's Name ] Kelly Hudson [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] USO, Inc.

What will happen in your session?

Every military veteran started out as a civilian, but transitioning back into that world can be a challenge. Transitioning veterans have to re-calibrate their identity, their community, and their careers in a rediscovered civilian world.

In this session, Web Literacy Leader Kelly Hudson will share her organization's experience teaching web literacy skills to a pilot group of clients. Session participants will share their own experiences and brainstorm ideas for incorporating interactive, accessible activities into formal and informal training. Participants will break into groups to design an activity that teaches a web literacy skill of their choice, digging into how to bring transitioning military veterans the web literacy skills they need to become employable in the civilian sector.

What is the goal or outcome of your session?

At the end of this session, participants will:

Have a good understanding of veterans and their transition needs Have skills and ideas to strengthen existing web literacy curricula Have designed and shared new web literacy curricula focused on empowering veterans to be responsible for their own privacy and security Have designed and shared new web literacy curricula to introduce/build new skills the veterans can use to be more marketable to potential employers

If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.

Post-it flip charts or wipe boards would be very helpful for brainstorming/design thinking.

Time needed

60 mins

[edovio]

Hello Kelly Hudson - We are very happy to announce you that we have decided to accept your session at the festival this year! Congratulations! 🎉

[Halfcompass]

I'm excited to be participating, thank you!

[edovio]

Thanks for your confirmation @Halfcompass !!! :)

[jonathanprozzi]

Hello @Halfcompass! As MozFest is approaching we’re asking that you reply to this issue with an outline of the topics and activities for your session. A rough, bullet-point outline with time estimates would be ideal. Thank you and let us know if you have any questions.

[edovio]

Dear Facilitators, we are happy to share with you the MozFest facilitators 2017 Guide at the Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fezzIH8u0Li6pIHMNYDCuUjA_gHpB4Px9eXQo4Ol7es/edit It is also important to sign in here: https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/festival.fabriders.facilitatorcoaching2017 for the coaching session, that helps you in your facilitation role! :)

[flukeout]

Hey @Halfcompass - have you had a chance to put together a brief session outline that includes a breakdown of activities and how long you estimate they will take? We'd love to see it. Thanks and let us know if you have any questions!

[Halfcompass]

Hi @flukeout - I'm not gonna lie, I'm struggling a little bit to figure out activities that will work with people coming in and leaving during the session. Ideally, I want to give participants an idea of the types of people veterans are, what they need, and solicit participant input about the best activities to teach these folks web literacy. I was thinking of having "profiles" of veterans prepared, and have participants "become" a profile as they enter. I would pair them with another participant who is the "instructor" with a goal of teaching them something and the two of them would experiment with communicating. Every 10 minutes or so I would stop the groups to find out what's working and what isn't, sharing those on a board for everyone to see. I could also do this in small groups. Am I on the right track? I'm very open to suggestions.

[flukeout]

Hey @Halfcompass - I think that once the session starts you wont have many people coming and going. You can expect a group of people (of uncertain size) to stick around for the duration. Does that help to change your thinking at all?

I like the the basic idea of introducing your work and using the personas to make it real. I'm guessing that the unique history and experience of each persona would pose an interesting challenge for the participants.

Do you think you'll be able to attend any of the facilitator training that I linked up above? That might be helpful too.

As far as an actual outline, this issue here has a pretty good template. Would be probably good to take a few minutes in the beginning to get to know the audience and what brought them there. Maybe some of them have a veteran in their life so you could maybe explore their particular scenario in addition?

Ping @jonathanprozzi - do you have any ideas, thoughts or suggestions for this session?

[Halfcompass]

Hi @flukeout - That helps a lot, thanks! Yes, I signed up for one of the coaching sessions, and I'm looking forward to it. Getting to know everyone in the beginning is crucial, for me and for an ice breaker. I'll brainstorm fun ways of doing that. Thanks for the actual outline example; it helps to see what someone else is planning. I'll try to get a good outline to you soon. I appreciate your help!

[Halfcompass]

Hi @flukeout and @jonathanprozzi. Here is the outline for my session. Looking at it, I'm thinking that we will be hard-pressed to squeeze it into 60 minutes. What do you think? WHO is the audience: 10 minutes Introduction Activity–? Introduce yourself to the person next to you and find out their name, home, occupation, and childhood nickname or their passion. They each introduce their partner to the group. Next, ask for a show of hands for 1) How many of you have served in the military? 2) How many of you have friends or family members who have served in the military? Who are veterans: 10 minutes Introduce the audience to three profiles of veterans (each illustrated on a flip chart page). “How many of you know a person like this?” Have them place a sticker on the page of the person they recognize What was the pilot last year? 5 minutes Tell them what we taught and what we learned. Tell them that our goal is now to teach them web literacy skills to help increase their employability. Group Activity Part 1: 20 minutes Group people at each of the profiles. Ask them what WL skills does that person need to learn to: Safely search for jobs Safely build an online presence Increase their marketability for prospective employers Have a spokesperson from each group share their key takeaways Group Activity Part 2: 15 minutes Invite the group to suggest activities that would teach the skills they identified earlier as needed. Copy on a master sheet.

[flukeout]

Thanks very much for the outline @Halfcompass, and also, we've created the first version of the Web Literacy Space schedule for the weekend and wanted you to have a look...

• Web Literacy Space Schedule
  • It's a public Trello board, so please don't make any changes!
  • We are still finalizing the longer Gallery Space session drop-in times.

Please take a few minutes to locate your session (I've had to abbreviate the session names) and let us know if you have any questions or if there are any reasons that you cannot host your session during the chosen time (like a travel conflict or another session you are hosting at the same time). Please comment in this issue and and include @flukeout to get my attention.

We'll be finalizing the schedule next week and updating the Guidebook app that attendees will use during the festival.

Thanks!

[Halfcompass]

@flukeout, Am I reading the Trello right, that my session is at the end of the day on Sunday?

[flukeout]

That is correct @Halfcompass - does that work for you? We'll be making a few more adjustments as some of the facilitators have requested changes due to travel and other conflicts.

[Halfcompass]

@flukeout Yes, that's fine; I'm not leaving until Monday. I just worry about having no one show up. I'll try to make some enticing posters. :)

[flukeout]

I hear ya - you know, I think it might make sense to have the session a little earlier. Something lighter or more hands-on might work better at the end of the day, I'll keep you posted!

[Halfcompass]

Cool. Either way, I'll just be happy to be there. I'm guessing that "military" or "veterans" as a subject may not appeal to this crowd, so I'm brainstorming ways to make it approachable via posters. Do you know if we'll be allowed to tape paper posters to the college walls?