Technology Goes Home

Technology Goes Home (TGH) has two key components:

• TGH@Community - Neighbourhood Technology Collaboratives, coalitions of community-based organisations, aim to help adults prepare for employment opportunities by improving computer skills, and helping children take advantage of home computing to improve schoolwork. The programme is offered in six low-income neighborhoods throughout the city. The coalitions are responsible for recruiting families, hosting the course, providing computer laboratory space, and ensuring ongoing support to families after the programme ends. The course is available only to families that do not have a computer at home. Parents and their children must participate as teams and must attend every class together. The programme's curriculum covers a broad range of topics, including computer assembly and setup, basic operations, word processing, internet and email use, and troubleshooting. The curriculum also features a review of career opportunities in technology. Low-cost computers have been especially produced for course participants, and graduates of the course are offered purchase options.
• TGH@school - offered in grades 4-10, the programme is similar to its parent programme, with the exception that the course is taught by the child's classroom teacher and the curriculum is aligned with students' schoolwork. Families attend an initial informational meeting at their child's school, and programme training is in a group setting with peers. The child's teacher conducts the training, creating an opportunity for parents and teachers to communicate regularly and get to know each other. Participants commit to rigorous, specialised technology training from the child's teacher after school or on Saturdays. Parents of those enrolled in TGH@school also learn how to use the Boston Public School's Web portal, MyBPS, to stay in contact with their child's teacher.

MyBPS Home Connection is an intranet portal for the Boston Public School District (BPS) that aims to improve communication among teachers, administrators, students, and families. The portal serves as a tool to provide and document professional development for staff, retrieve and analyse data to assess student learning, facilitate the identification of best practices in instruction, support the sharing and alignment of resources, and connect families and communities to student learning. The Home Connection, an emerging feature of MyBPS, will offer parents an opportunity to log in to their child’s classroom from home, view a calendar of homework assignments, access students’ work and test scores, and communicate with teachers. Teachers can also post announcements and provide parents with resources related to homework assignments.Click here for more information.

Technology

The Center for Social Policy at the McCormack Graduate School, at the University of Massachusetts, conducted a multi-year evaluation of both the community- and the school-based version of TGH. Evaluation methods included site observations, focus groups with providers, and pre and post programme participant skills assessments and feedback questionnaires. Findings showed positive outcomes in both skill development and family and community strengthening. According to the report, participants say that relationships - within their own families and with other families, as well as their connections to the community - improved after participating in the programme.