LibGuides: Broadband and Digital Equity for Pennsylvania Public Libraries: Digital Skills

Map to Find Digital Skills Classes in Pennsylvania

Digital Skills in Pennsylvania
Access this webpage on the Pennsylvania Open Data Portal to use a map to find locations teaching digital skills classes.
Download the Pennsylvania Digital Skills plan from this page.

Form to Delete, Add, or Update a Digital Skill Class Listing
Organizations (like libraries) who teach patrons digital skills can find a link to a form to submit an update for listing.

Slides from Advancing Digital Skills . PA State Plan
Copy of presentation slides used by the NGA WIN Team to share the Advancing Digital Skills : PA State Plan and Recommendations 2022.

Ebooks to Increase Digital Literacy at ALL levels from Beginner to Advanced

POWER Library has AMAZING ebook content that all Pennsylvanians can access with their library card.

Check out these ebook collections that have many titles that focus on Computers, Digital Skills, and Technology:

EBSCO Ebooks for Computers
Gale Technology Ebooks
CyberSmarts

The most recently acquired titles are listed here on POWER Library's For Librarians page.

Tell Patrons and Staff About SkillUp™ PA

Libraries should be aware that the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry has purchased statewide access to online job skills training for all Pennsylvania residents through an arrangement with Metrix Learning.

Library staff are encouraged to widely share information about this valuable service to help meet your community’s workforce development needs.

SkillUp® PA provides access to no-cost online job skills training for Pennsylvanians.

Pennsylvanians can register for an account to sign up for selected classes on the PACareerLink® website.

Courses include soft skills and communication, Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, project management, and more. Users can browse the course catalog and find classes to prepare for industry certification tests or select a skill track for workplace skills, digital literacy, retail/service, and more.

Access the SkillUp Digital Toolkit to find flyers, brochures, and sample social media posts to share news of the resource.

Resources for Digital Skills to Refer Library Patrons or Staff

Promote Digital Literacy Resources that already exist online.

When you meet a patron who doesn't have strong digital skills, or is looking for resources to help a loved one to better understand how to use modern digital technologies, refer them to existing sites listed below.

Action Ideas:

Make sure library staff are aware of these resources.
Preview a few sites and then write a blog post for your library's website with links to sites where people can find free online training.
Create a flyter to post or handouts with links to some of the online resources that you can easily refer patrons to for their digital literacy independent learning.

DigitalLearn from the Public Library Association
DigitalLearn from Public Library Association offers quick tutorials for anyone to learn how to use a computer to do almost anything. Libraries who want to host their own learning platform and collect statistics and offer badges can set up their own servers or purchase access to do so.
Northstar Digital Literacy
Northstar Digital Literacy offers assessments and skill building classes that are free for users.
Organizations can sign up to be a digital literacy location to track outcomes and offer certificates.
GCF Learn Free.org
Free Online Learning from GCF Global offers a full list of topics for computer learning including computer basics, email, software use, internet safety, media literacy, and more.
SkillUp™ PA
SkillUp™ PA (a resource purchased by PA's Labor & Industry) is a collection of online classes that help people to attain improved job skills. Classes include a variety of options from beginning computer use basics to advanced technology skills, as well as trainings in soft skills to help people attain fulfilling employment. Print or share items from the Digital Toolkit your library can use to spread the word about online classes that all Pennsylvanians can access.
PA Online Learning in POWER Library
Look the icon to connect to PA Online Learning, where you can find a category called Computer and Internet Skills.
Digital Skills Library
The Digital Skills Library is an open repository of free learning resources designed to help all adult learners develop the digital skills needed to achieve their personal, civic, educational, and career goals.
The library is managed by the EdTech Center @ World Education.
ProLiteracy Workforce Collection
This collection of online courses and other resources will help students begin a successful career while improving their literacy skills, and literacy providers meet the workforce needs of their community. Courses are free, though creating an account login is required.

Resources to Help You Teach a Digital Skills Class

Do people in your community ask for help with using websites or finding information online?

If you aren’t offering programs in digital skills or digital literacy, now is the time to make a plan to start.

The Resources in this box below can help your library staff to be ready to host digital skills classes with pre-made curriculum and lesson plans made with OER (open educational resources).

Pennsylvania Adult Education Lesson Bank
Pennsylvania Adult Education providers have templates for lesson plans that you could adapt to use for a library program in digital literacy or another topic using online resources.
SkillsCommons.org
SkillsCommons provides an open, online public library for workforce training materials, created for and funded by the U.S. Dept of Labor (part of the $1.9 B TAACCT program for all 50 states since 2014). SkillsCommons will expand its library to include more FEED (Financial, Economic, Educational, and Digital) materials available to all.
Teacher Guides from GCFGlobal.org
Resources for educators that want to use the online courses and plans that rely on the publicly available set of resources from GCFGlobal.org
Tools and Resources for Trainers from Digital Learn
Find English and Spanish language curriculum ideas and tools that you can use to teach introductory digital skills classes in your library
PA Online Learning in POWER Library
Look the icon to connect to PA Online Learning, where you can find a category called Computer and Internet Skills.
Digital Skills Library
The Digital Skills Library is an open repository of free learning resources designed to help all adult learners develop the digital skills needed to achieve their personal, civic, educational, and career goals. The library is managed by the EdTech Center at World Education.
Digital Navigator Resources
Digital Navigators provide individualized or small group assistance based on learner goals, help learner-workers resolve emerging tech problems with accuracy and efficiency; and provide information so they can make their own decisions.
As possible, Digital Navigators help learner-workers secure connectivity to reliable internet; access low-cost devices; offer tech support; provide referrals to digital literacy and upskilling programs; provide foundational digital skills; and provide upskilling and job training support.
Learn ACP from Education Superhighway
Information and links to courses to help digital navigators learn how to assist people in signing up.

Provide Comments about Digital Literacy

Digital Literacy and Resilience Request For Information

Contribute your thoughts or the opinions of your organization to impact planning.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is requesting information on successful approaches related to digital skills attainment and competency development in education and training efforts, the strategies our education and workforce development systems are employing to assess and ensure individuals are digitally resilient, and any challenges the education and public workforce systems are facing. DOL is also requesting information on strategies to advance digital equity and inclusion in the workforce. DOL developed this RFI with substantial input from the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce), U.S. Department of Education (ED), and the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS), as part of its long-standing coordination and partnership with these agencies.