Austin Free-Net is a non-profit based in Austin, Texas that is committed to "fostering skills that enable people to succeed in the digital age." Students in my class worked with various Austin Free-Net locations in a community-based learning project. Here are some of the projects they completed:
Hearthside Suites
Hearthside is an extended stay hotel that took in a number of Katrina victims last Fall. Students visiting the Hearthside location conducted a video interview and designed a website for the Hearthside location.
Conley-Guerrero Senior Center
One group of students visiting the Conley-Guerrero center helped volunteers there to design syllabi for courses for residents who were interested in learning about on-line banking and finding information on news and government websites.
Another group working with Conley-Guerrero put together a tutorial for residents who wanted to learn how to attach documents to their emails. The presentation they put together is extremely detailed, and it takes into account the skills of their audience.
PowerPoint version of this presentation
Web version of this presentation
Eastside Community Center
The Austin Eastside Community Center is a food pantry that doubles as a computer lab. Students visited this location and created a promotional video.
DeWitty Center
The DeWitty location is Austin Free-Net's main location. Students visiting this site developed a plan that AFN could use to get the word out about its largest free computer lab.
Garden Terrace
This group put together a page using Blogger that Garden Terrace can set as the browser homepage in its lab. The page offers instructions on how to use resources such as Craig's List, search engines, and Microsoft Office.
[Garden Terrace resources page]
Casa Marianella
Casa Marianella offers shelter and aid to immigrants seeking employment in the Austin area. Students developed a homepage that residents can use to access bus schedules, internet email accounts, and government websites. They also included detailed directions about how to use these resources.
