April 17, 2025AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording

1:39AM Apr 18, 2025

Speakers:

Steve Peters

Erin Lorandos

Paul Ross

Andy Ridley

Mala Muralidharan

Lucy Howell

Holly Henly

Kelly Krusee

Anthony Constantini

Bill D'Agostino

Kelly Mukherjee

Gordon Fuller

Jared Bodine

Larissa Organist

Keywords:

Digital Equity

broadband access

Digital Inclusion Conference

AZBSN

force for health network

cyber security

BEAD program

IMLS funding

digital skills

workforce development

patient portals

digital navigators

technical support

rural connectivity

telehealth access.

Okay, good morning, everybody. Glad to see you. As always. Want to get started with our agenda this morning. I've added a couple of things that are not on the page here, but let's, let's just jump into it. So again, I want to just remind everybody that I do send out, and I think you all know, because you're probably tired of seeing my emails, but I do send out my newsletter, and I try to capture most of what people talk about at the meeting, and usually include the chats and summaries and all of that sort of stuff. So if you either missed the meeting, or you heard some things that you were interested in, or you heard somebody you wanted to catch up with, all that information is in my recaps, so I just wanted to remind you about that, and then kind of what's on the agenda today. So I want to do some updates courses, always from the broadband Office, Department of Education, State Library. And then I want to say a special thanks to Karen Ziegler with Karen Ziegler consulting, and Heather Floyd with Valley Telecom Group, who have graciously provided funding for me to be able to attend the Digital Inclusion Conference next week. So it's really great. It was wondering if I was going to be able to be there, so they have come up with some funding for me, so I greatly appreciate that. And then we're going to hear from Lucy Howe, who's the CEO of the force for health network that she and I collaborating on developing an AZ BSN and force for health, network Education, Health and Education Task Force give us an update about that, and then we're going to hear from Andy Ridley about when learning and what they're doing, and a lot of the work that Andy and he's been this in this game for a long time, before he went to Win Learning, and then just reminders about the net Inclusion Conference coming up, and any, and then any updates about what's happening in Washington. And then I do like to remind people that Paul Ross did this amazing video, hazy, broadband. Closing the digital divide, wired, wireless and digital. And I've been including links forever. It's a great video, and if you haven't seen it, you should take a couple of minutes to do that. Paul, thank you again for making that happen. So Erin, before I get into your updates. I wanna Jared, are you there? Jared, are you still there? Yeah, I'm here. Sorry.

I took me a second to find the mute button. So Jared,

you wanna introduce yourself quickly and again, just remind people about the great project you guys got going on. Yeah,

thank you. So I'm the executive director with AZ strut, Arizona students recycling, use technology, and one of our latest initiatives is to help make sure that people are able to also get connected online. So we've reached out with T Mobile, and what we're offering now is an opportunity to get people internet broadband in their home through T Mobile, we provide the devices. We're actually the official customer of T Mobile, and so we're lending these devices at a discount rate to anyone who's interested. It's a flat rate of $35 a month. And it's not one of those things where you have to prove eligibility. You don't have to have something renewed annually. It's as long as you want to be on the program for a flat rate of 35 it's going really well. We've had really no issues. We're expanding. And the only limitation that we might run into is we might run out of devices that we have on hand to lend out. We can get unlimited SIM cards with the arrangement we have. So the only funding that we would eventually need to work out is how to get more devices when we get to the point that we run out currently, though we're still good on that. So if anyone's interested, keep, keep, you know, contacting us or sending your friends our way. The link to find out more is a Z strut.org/internet, and I'll put that in the chat as well. Great.

Thanks. Thanks, Jared and again, maybe you did this. But just remind people that this is available statewide,

yeah, and actually, it works nationwide as well. So if you happen to want to move out of the state and you're on our program, you can stay on it is no problem.

Yeah, it's, it's a great project. I don't do this very often, but I've been highlighting him in my newsletter every week because I think it's just a great resource that people throughout the state can take advantage of. So thank you, Jared. I think it's a great project.

I'll just say I'm i. A happy customer here in the east on Sonoran Desert.

So there you have a testimonial. Okay, so let's move on. Erin, do you want to course, as you know, I don't think have to tell you anymore, to introduce yourself and then give us a quickie update, please. You

can't see it, but I have a gigantic sign above my desk at home to remind myself, to introduce

myself. I have a good memory. Just a little short.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Erin Lorandos, and I'm the Digital Equity Program Manager here at the Arizona Commerce Authority in the state broadband office. I on the de side, we have wrapped up both of our round tables introducing the sub grant process. Those recordings are on our website, and I'll drop a link to those in a moment, along with all of the questions that were asked in both sessions and the answers we are looking forward to opening our sub grant process on May 1. Those will be the window will be open through the end of June, and there is no extra points for submitting on May 1. So take your time. It's all good. We will review everything once that window closes. And as a reminder, this is one of our main implementation strategies for the Digital Equity plan. So we hope to see a lot of you know, thoughtful, creative, wonderful applications from organizations across the state that are are doing this work already. We want to support that. So I think that's about it for me. Unless there are questions, let me know. Erin,

do you happen to know if there's any who might be applying for cyber security? I

have no idea. I mean, I won't see the applications as they come in either. So it'll be just

wondering if any people had talked with you. I mean, I've had conversations

for the last two years about this stuff, but I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not going to say that you know, said, What? No, because you know. And as a reminder for that, it it, you know, it's important to remember that, in contrast to, for example, how the bead sub grants work, I'm not limited to one approved application per, you know, per goal, or anything like that. So if you've got an idea, please send it my way, and we'll, we will, you know, evaluate them and and, and hopefully we'll, we'll find lots of really great opportunities. So,

but yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, that was,

that was it. I was just gonna say, I think that's it.

Well, I am going to be looking at it. Have a call in to Ryan Murray at Homeland Security, and also to the University of Arizona and several other people, because part of that Digital Equity plan regarding cyber security is a long term strategy, and so I think there's some folks that that can fit that bill. So I'm working on trying to bring them all together to come up with a proposal that they can help collaborate on together. So anyway, that's that. Kelly, you want to introduce yourself and give us an update what's with what's happening with bead, sure.

Good morning first. Can you hear me? Yep. Okay, perfect. I am having some technology issues with my computer this morning. It doesn't like me, so on the phone. Apologies for no camera. My name is I'm the Community Engagement Manager for the state broadband office. I get to work with Erin and do all kinds of fun stuff, making sure everybody knows what's happening with bead. And there are no changes since last week. We are right now in review and evaluations, wrapping up those evaluations, heading into negotiations for round one of the applications that were received, and then, just as a reminder, those that information will be made public in our final proposal after it's approved by NTIA. So you know, we did get a lot of questions as far as, when will we find out who the applicants were, who was selected? It's a long process, and we're about to enter into negotiations with those applicants, and even at that point, once we enter negotiations, it still is not information that's that's shared, so again, that those specific details as far as applicants and who was selected will be a part of that final proposal after it's approved, after the list is approved of sub grantees, and we head into public comments, which will be in October. So I know that that's a long ways away. In the meantime, this also is getting us ready for round two, which is still slated for June 3, to open June 3, and then. Shortly before that, we'll have a map available that will show what areas, project areas were picked up in round one, and which project areas are available for round two. So start to be on the lookout, I would say, in the next few weeks for details about round two and the trainings. And I use trainings that term loosely. We'll have some guidance webinars on the application process for round two, details about that should be coming in the next few weeks, and I think that's it for updates from us.

Okay, any questions for Kelly? Going once, going twice. Okay, thanks. Erin and Kelly, appreciate it. As always, you guys being here. Mala, you want to kind of give us an update on what's happening, both at the state with the State Library, as well as all the federal stuff that you're that you follow pretty regularly.

Yes, certainly

there. There was a lion. Mala, yes, introduce yourself.

I don't have that. I don't have that billboard in front of me. I gotta get Erin to make me one. I'm Mala morely, darling. I work at the State Library and the state E Rate administrator for public libraries. Yes, and I will remember to introduce myself in the future. So last, last week, ALA, as well as Shelby, had their fly in April, 2 and third, and they there were more than 40 advocates who joined ALA. And if you hear my grandson in the background, he's getting ready for school. So it's going to be a few minutes more now of this noise, and apologize for that in advance. So als flying was had about 40 advocates, and they had scheduled 70 meetings, Seven, zero. They really went through all of them. Within that time, they split up into the meetings and talked about several things, including the urgency of getting IMLS back on track. IMLS is the Institute of Museum and Library Services that funds several activities for the libraries, including the state, all of our state libraries for the grants to state program. So the They also spoke about E Rate and the hot spots program, which has been under dispute, or, I would say, under scrutiny, by Ted rose and team. And I'll get put you a link on TED roses white paper, since I'm done talking, there was also, there's also another paper that I'd really like you to look at, I mean, a little news clip then that is, I love live libraries article that was a that's a beautiful article with pictures and stuff like that on what happened. So the focus, again, was on USF. As far as E Rate was concerned, the focus was on USF, the Universal Service Fund, and the Supreme Court case, we will not hear the Supreme Court decision until mid June, so let's wait and see what's going to happen the hot spots case, though, Senator Cruz wanted to bring a CRA to the floor, but looks like there, there may not be time, because of all the other things that are happening. May 12, it was scheduled for but we're not sure that it's going to even make it to the floor. And the there were, ala had meetings with the several senators, including Senator Young, who was a co sponsor of the the hot spots for E Rate bill, along with Senator Cruz, but it looks like their team has now decided that they are going to vote against it if it comes to the floor, which is really positive for us. So let's see. Let's wait and see what happens, what else, and have Senator cruises paper here for you. So I'll put that in the chat. There you go. Um. Uh, there's one other thing that I wanted to speak about, and that is the I think I raised this before that FCC has asked for comments on something they provocatively called delete, delete. Delete. Comments are due by 11. Return comments were due on 411 but there is time for the return comments. I think they are reply comments. I think they are due end of April, early May. The recommendations that were made by ala was mainly to for for like most libraries, they were they said, We're applying for less than 10,000 so they wanted an exemption from the competitive bidding, or they wanted us to work with the Procurement Offices, either the state or the county or their local procurement and follow those rules, rather than tag on additional E Rate regulations onto that. They also said that to stick to the same discount percentage for the whole five year period, rather than every year change their discount rate. That's the discount rate is based on the NSLP data the National School Lunch Program, and that's what is used to calculate the discounts that libraries and schools get for E Rate. And the last thing that they commented on was to have a rolling deadline for Category Two. Category two applications are for internal connections within the library and schools. And these can be the request was that they have a rolling deadline so the the applications can be done when we need to do it within a five year period. So that's, I think that's all I have. Yes. Back to you, Steve, unless there's questions.

Any questions for Mala so Javi, it's good to see you. Anything that you want to add, Holly is our director of the State Library. Anything that you want

to add, not really. We're just as Mala mentioned, you know, there's still the uncertainty around the federal funding from IMLS and what's going to happen our our office is actively supporting Attorney General Chris Mays in her efforts to protect the State Library's federal grant funding, and we've joined with 20 other states in a lawsuit to to prevent the impact of executive order 1214238, on the Institute of Museum and Library services, which administers our LSTA Library Services and Technology Act funding. So this, this lawsuit from Attorney General Mays and the other point of states was filed on April the fourth. And so we're just, you know, we're waiting for action there, and in the meantime, we're just experiencing uncertainty about the future.

Any thoughts at this point about what kinds of alternative funding if, if they don't restore that funding, the imla funding? Well, I

mean, as far as for our digital Navigator Program, which is which currently was just is discontinued because of that uncertainty, there's always the grants from ACA. So that's a an option, and we're just, you know, exploring other possibilities, hoping for the best, as far as getting being able to continue with the IMLS funding.

Thanks, Holly. Always good to see you. And Anthony, I don't know if you want to add anything to what Mala and just what and what we just heard.

Thanks, Steve. I think they, they covered it pretty excellently. Appreciate it, sure.

So. So Lucy, you want to give us a report on what's happening with the new partnership we have AC BSN and your organization and what the plans are,

I'm sure. I'm not necessarily going to share any slides. Let me just speak to what we did, because it was pretty exciting, and then I'll share some links in the chat. But we did kick off. Off last week we we presented a new Health and Education Task Force for this group. So anybody here that would like to join us every other Thursday, starting last Thursday, so the next one coming up is April 24 for an hour to roll up your sleeves and dig a little bit deeper into actions and goals for anything that implicates education and health with regards to digital connectivity and broadband access. And so we held our first one, and the agenda was pretty much, let's just share ideas so that we can start with some goal setting. And about half of six of us showed up. Mala was there, Steve was there. I had my partner, Dr Rob gillia, who is a special list in rural health disparities. We had Polly there, if she's on yay, representing rural Arizona, and we had another consultant that brought a tech perspective to it. So it was a small but mighty group, and we came up with four major goal areas that we will be focusing on in this 10 week period. This is an open door so anybody can come in at any time. But we're just going to go ahead and set up this task force so we have a beginning, middle and end on the sprints, and then we will adjust to go as needed. But you know, one of the so from Holly recommended and agreed upon one of the things that she wanted to see was a replicable and success, successful story coming out of rural Arizona. So where is there a problem? How can we work together as a task force to fix it, and then how can we go ahead and make sure it's replicable? And we thought that that was awesome as a pilot for rural Another one was, of course, let's see if we can build a path of sustainability for the health hubs that Mala was able to pilot successfully. Obviously, there's demand there. So what are this the tasks and the needs that would need to happen in order to make that happen? So that's one of our goals. Create a path of sustainability for healthy taps through libraries and other community anchor orgs to increase telehealth access and support for everybody. The third one was recognizing that it is way bigger than just us, so we challenged all of ourselves to go invite three to five other folks so that we can instantly increase actionable network and collaboration immediately. And so we are actively doing that. I've already because of other presentations, have had conversations with community colleges, and now part of the state action Health Network, and we'll be working with school nurses. And so it's just fun to get together and actually have these kind of weekly sprints. And then the last one that we will probably look to launch is a live broadcast. So the just a platform starting in May, where we can amplify some of these voices and the needs to a more Main Street type of deal. So the next one is April 24 again, it is hosted over the force for Health Academy. There is absolutely no cost to any of you. You can connect three different ways. You can join by zoom and not do anything, just talk. It really is helpful, though, if you are part of the virtual board room, I'll call it because that is where we're information sharing, and that's where all the documents are shared. And it's just nice to be able to put a comment right there, and, you know, no one has to, like, rewrite it, it's there, and we're doing some project task tracking. There also, or three come on in as a group leader, I am offering anybody on this network and a free $99 group leader membership of the force for health. So I'm not pushing that at all, but it is an offer. Did I miss anything? Steve, I

don't think so. Just a couple of quick things. I will be developing a web page that explains kind of what Lucy just went over. You know, what are the goals? How do you join? What you know, where's all the links, and then we'll also be including all those, all that information in the my newsletter also. So I'm a little delinquent in getting that page done, but we will. So it's very clear about how you participate. As Lucy mentioned, you can either just join the meeting, or you can become a member of forest for health. And I want to just say, Lucy, you've done an incredible job in getting this going and committing the time and resources. So really appreciate that.

Well, thank you. It's only as strong as the people that show. Up, right? If you show up, your voice is going to be heard and it's going to be assessed and like we can act on it. So that's the tone I want to take with this.

Any questions for Lucy, Okay, moving on. I don't think Michael Kendall, are you here this morning? Don't think so. Okay, so a couple of other quick things. So Calvin kurji, or you, I think you're here, aren't you, if you want to talk just quickly about the net Inclusion Conference and the Aden super meeting that's going to happen right before the conference.

Yes, I know. I just

put you on the spot about that.

Good morning, everyone. Kelly Mukherjee from ASU enterprise technology, I support the CIO love gonik In our broadband and Digital Inclusion efforts. Namely, we have a program called as one. If you're not familiar with our web portal, I will provide a link to our web portal. We are storytelling also. So Steve, I put out a invitation. Yep, right. Give us your availability. We would love to interview you. We've also interviewed several people that come to these meetings. So Steve, thank you. Your this ACBS and meeting has helped spark other stories to take place. What Steve is referring to, I'll wear my other hat. I'm also on the board of the Arizona Digital Inclusion network, and so he's referring to a Super Eight in meeting that we're trying to have for net inclusion. A flyer that I have prepared thanks to Erin's great Erin Lorandos was a great example and helped me out last week, so I have the flyer ready this week. There's information here. We invite you all to come join net inclusion is a three day conference. It's fabulous. Erin Lorandos and I have met up in different cities across the country to attend this wonderful conference. They're expecting 1000 people this year. We're both on the local planning committee, as well as Steve and so wonderful, wonderful speakers and panels. But this is a chance for our local team to get together at this super Aden meeting, to spend a few hours together, really dive deep into what everybody's doing and then actually have working sessions to to figure out how we can work better together. So if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. I'm not the lead for Aiden. That's Cindy Hogan, but happy to help connect you with anybody you might need. Thanks. Steve, thanks.

Kelly, so just want to encourage you all, if you haven't already registered that you do want to attend that net Inclusion Conference. It's really great that we're having this conference here in Arizona, and so we'd certainly like to have good representation, and it's going to be a good opportunity to network not only with people here in Arizona, but throughout the country. So and could just encourage you all to attend that conference. Okay, so anything else, if not, let's get into our presentation this morning. I'm pleased to welcome and Andy's been here, attending our meetings pretty regularly. But Andy Ridley is a regional account representative for the southwest region for wind learning, and he's had a long time I'm not going to go into it. I'll let him tell you just quickly about himself, but he's had long time involvement with workforce development and with the state for quite a long time. So with that, Andy, I'm going to turn it over to you. And do you want to share? Do you want me to stop sharing?

Yeah, please. I'm still looking to try to see if I can't take that step here. I'm used to teams now. I used to use zoom all the time, and then now that I started working for when we use teams a lot. So I've got to re figure out how to share in the see if it's in the more here. Alright, somebody give me a little tutorial on how to, how to share my screen. Oh, I tried to the green button. I remember now.

Alright, is that showing up to you guys? It is on the first screen, is it saying digital skills solutions? Yep, okay, great. Let me, oh, I'm looking at a different thing here. I'm sorry. Just give me another second here to get to my version of. It on. That's what I get there. It is, okay. Thank you for your patience. Okay, can you if I move that over there? You guys seeing that about the meeting on the screen? Do you see anything there? I'm waving at you. Okay, good, good. If you can't see it, then good. As long as you don't see that, that I have over on that screen, alright, you're just seeing this, this presentation screen, right? Alright, let's get let's get started. So a little bit about when learning headquartered in Kingston, Tennessee, but it's a national company, and really international for mostly North America right now, began preparing for, you know, as a leader, preparing career readiness. Since 1996 a lot of a lot of awards have been given. But the big one on the screen is that we just won for higher education in 2024 for a couple of our products. So we, you know, we, we serve a diverse range of educational institutions, like school districts, community colleges, libraries, adult education, correction facilities, workforce development agencies and the businesses themselves. Everything we do is aligned with ONET if that, if some of these things, I'm going to go through this quickly, if some of these things aren't familiar with you, with you, for you, please just book a little moment to have a chat with me privately, and we'll we'll talk anytime you want. The other key piece is that all of the credentials from our assessments, you know, after successfully passing an assessment, are endorsed by the National Work Readiness Council, which is an independent third party agency for workforce. Our position is kind of the intersection of career development and validation for a number of models and frameworks. So I'm just quickly going to show you a couple here. Notice in that gray zone, can you see my mouse there, if I, if I wiggle it? Yes. Okay, so in this gray zone, and then in this sort of reddish pink zone, here is those foundational parts of the pyramid of the building blocks of of of competency for Employment and Training administrations. So, you know, notice that it includes, oh, I clicked it. I didn't mean to. I was trying to point. Notice that it includes things like interpersonal skills, professionalism, reading, mathematics and science and technology and so forth, basic computer skills, teamwork, problem solving, the like I'm skipping through this quickly, just kind of giving you guys a quick overview. So that's the point of view from the Department of Labor. This is the point of view from the Department of Education, kind of a different model here, but you'll notice that very similar kinds of essential skills are outlined, and you know, including employability standards and career technical education and adult education, that that overlap with what we were just looking at employability skills and the like. Okay, so again, I'm just snapping through this kind of quickly, because I want to get into our focus. Of course, in this group is related to digital skills and Digital Equity. And, you know, digital access, so the Digital Equity Act, of course, that 2.7 5 billion to establish three grant programs that promote Digital Equity inclusion. We're familiar with right and our our aim is to ensure that all people in communities have the skills, technology and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy. The NTIA has identified eight covered populations, including aging individuals, incarcerated individuals with disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, rural residents, etc. 92% of occupations require digital skills, yet 48 million US workers have few or no digital. Skills and according to the National Skills coalition, these skills gaps create a high cost for workers and employers that are invisible drag on productivity as workers struggle to navigate job requirements and spend precious time compensating for their skill gaps, or, you know, letting them go, and then the expense is rehiring someone else that again, they're not going to know if that's going to work, and they'll give it another try. They say that the expense of hiring a new individual is about half a year's salary, all of the process through through the acquisition and the training of the new individual, if that, if that individual just gets turned over after two months, every two, three months, they're spending half a year salary plus for the couple of months they work for them, having to pay them. So just a quick look at what are the industries that have a high percentage of workers with little or no digital skills? Well, some pretty broad areas and all are, in one sense or another, likely to be part of what our Office of Economic Opportunity would would deem as in demand industries. And you know what? I didn't really, I did the same thing, Mala, you're you're in good company here. I didn't introduce myself. I introduced when. I meant to say something about a little bit about my background when I was speaking about when, and I just kept on moving forward with the slides. So let me give you a little background. Is that I recently was working for the Office of Economic, economic opportunity, which is kind of like Arizona's Department of Labor. Prior to that, working with Arizona at work for Maricopa County, and my primary focus was in training and advancing people in that sort of method, or helping them through assessments that would provide them good information and data toward choosing a career path and moving forward in that, in that, in that direction. Okay, sorry about that. I didn't really give much of an introduction there, so I'm just skipping past that and moving on. Thanks, Andy. I'm trying to be brief. So if, if anything flashes up here that you want to talk about later, my contact information is on the last slide, plus I'm going to drop it in the chat here. When I get back to the access of the chat. So every state has a digital opportunity plan, and as a direct response to the Digital Equity Act. You know, you're probably all familiar with ours now, having been part of these meetings for you know, all of the year or so that Erin has been involved now, and so we're excited about our digital plan. And while the majority of the legislation is to expand broadband, there's a smaller but important piece and to the to the legislation after these disadvantages populations now have access to affordable, high speed internet they'll need to build their digital skills. And learning provides a personalized portal to serve the individual needs of our partners in building a better workforce. So this is kind of a screenshot of of what the access looks like from the administrator point of view. The next slide kinds of shows the student point of view, or the learner point of view. I'm not sure what to call it in the in the case of we just typically would call it a learner or students. So I'm just throwing those out,

detailed reports, a detailed resource center, although our services also automatically will include training and support and technical support as part of the service. It's a very hands on, high touch business, not an off the shelf. Here's the product. Go use it whatever fits for you. You know, figure that out for yourself. Kind of business, no, we're the ones that are going to help you, customize it, make it work for you. And let me move to the again. We have, we have several course where options that are not related to digital. But in that same realm of career readiness, such as soft skills, academic skills like math and reading and data analysis in the workplace, they're all supported in a similar fashion, with a similar view from the administrator or from the student view. But you can see, you can see in the digital aspect the training involves computer operations. This is the basic hardware and devices, internet use, digital communication. You know, this is, in a sense, all of the emails and the texts and the and the, you know, the Zoom meetings like we're in right now, dig of digital documents, all of the standard documents that either office or Apple or Google would typically use, including slides like we're doing now, or a doc or a power or a spreadsheet, and how to also share those within your your entity. In other words, you know, teams working together with a digital like a Google Drive or something like that. And then, of course, the key piece is the security also

by focusing on technologies and processes most often used in the workplace when learning digital skills, ensures that learners have the necessary, necessary digital literacy skills needed in the workplace. I

kind of already mentioned the digital security piece there, but this is a little sample of what a what a learning slide might be like. So there's an explanatory and then there's some follow up. Our approach is a standard instructional, common use, and so part of my background was also in education and education leadership for a number of years before I went into workforce. And we typically call that the that I do, meaning the instructor. Do we do instructor and learner together, and then you do approach to to instruction. So while this is a online instructional format, we're still incorporating as much of that I do, we do you do approach and as a side note to every aspect of the instruction in the course where here is workplace context. So it's not theoretical. It's not hypothetical. You're not going to learn spreadsheets that are looking at, you know, how many blue marbles and an assortment of blue, red and green marbles. Might you choose if you pulled them out of a basket? Kind of theoretical things? Did anybody remember doing those in high school when we were learning probability or something like that? You're it's nothing theoretical. It's going to be workplace based, as I mentioned, each of the credentials we have, and therefore the digital skills credential is endorsed by the National Work Readiness council. So it's a national credential. A couple of you on the on the meeting might be familiar. When I used to work for the state, we had a state credential that was branded for Arizona. I don't even want to mention it now, because it's defunct in the sense that it's been canceled and defunded. So the key here is that this is a national credential. The other key here is that the earner of this, and this is by passing the proctored assessment of the digital skills. That's the culminating event. After using the courseware to develop your skills, you show an employer with this credential on the back what specific skills you have based on passing the credential and various other bits of information can refer the the employer to, for example, the National Work Readiness council to understand their endorsement of the product or a number to get information about when an. Out the product a little bit more I kind of already started talking about them, the National Work Readiness Council, formed over almost 20 years ago by the US Chamber of Commerce, with support from the US Department of Labor, National Institute for Literacy, founding partners in different departments of labor and career departments across different states, that the key here is that they're all endorsing. They're endorsing all of the wind learning credentials. So besides the digital skills credential, the soft skills credential and the academic skills credential, which includes three components of math, work, math, work, reading and work, data analysis. All right, here's the promised contact information, and I'll take any questions.

Any questions for Andy.

Andy, is there an assessment or evaluation of your understanding once you do it.

Yeah, and I worked, I worked pretty fast on that, but there's that proctored assessment at the end, and that's what's endorsed by the National Work Readiness council. So it's a one, it's a one, one hour assessment proctored. So this is in comparison to some of the competitors that claim that they have an assessment. Well, that's just a self assessment that anybody can do, and might put your name on it, and if they were smart and put your name on it, you know, you look like you were in the credential. This is a proctored credential. So the entities that adopt this will will have trained individuals for proctoring the assessment.

And is the proctoring done online, or do they have to go somewhere to get it done?

Well, during COVID, we developed an online procedure, but it is a lot higher protocol to accomplish that, so it's preferred to be done, you know, in the in the In person setting,

that makes sense. Yeah.

Andy, can you describe? So how do you engage with this system? Is it employer based? Is it individual based? And what's that model look like?

Let me try to answer that and see if I know what you're talking about, in other words, who purchases this product. And okay, so we're looking at, and I kind of rattled through this kind of quickly, okay, education institutions, libraries, correctional facilities, work, workforce, offices. And including employers, too. For that matter, they use it for onboarding and or new hires as a as a probationary tool, or maybe even as simple as a screening tool or something like that. They can, they can be the, be the entity. So we're it's not individual where an individual buys an access and uses it from home, they're going to an entity, for example, let's say a library or a CTE program at a high school or an adult education program at a community college, the the institution purchased the Access provides them the username and password that gets them into the course where they're the ones that also have the trained individuals that would be proctors For the assessment. The assessment is a one hour pass or no pass, probably kind of a 76% echelon. In order to count it as passing or otherwise, they don't earn the credential because otherwise it's not a standardized, valid and secure credential. Answer, what you're what you were trying to under

just one follow up question, is it per use, or is it a license to administer?

So yeah, think of it as a software as a service. It's a license to to to use and. The the the the entity would either have a one year or multi year contract. Typically, it's one year, you know, but year by year, we look at renewal and whatever else would, you know, be added to that as time goes on. What works the reason I'm in this meeting that, for example, is I'm seeing this as an opportunity that the entities that might be applying for the Digital Equity grant might either include this as part of their proposal. And, you know, we have a white paper for the digital skills product that we have that if they wanted to use that or post being awarded the grant, how can they implement some of their solutions that are training for digital skills? We see it as the training is the course where but the big value is in the culminating event of taking that proctored assessment, walking away with a credential in your hand that you can include on a resume in a portfolio as you go to an interview and show an employer look, I'm ready to work for you because I have these skills,

helpful. Thank you.

Other questions for Andy,

I was curious, just because the opening of the window is coming up quickly and so like, if, let's just say, one thought was we want 100% of the kids in Pima County to come out and be graduated with this digital certification, right? Is that, like, five bucks ahead, three bucks ahead, 10 bucks ahead? Is it like? Is there any way that, like, what a cost per High School activation could look like for 1000 kids or something? I just don't know if you're price like a Mercedes, a Honda, or like a used car in there,

respect to to that being very broad and and I didn't give a proper sales presentation or a demonstration here, I'm going to reserve that that particular piece. But let me say this much we're competitive with pricing against any of our competitors. It's typically related to the number of students, because you kind of mentioned, like, for 1000 students, or something like that. It's typically related to that or users, let's call it, because, if it's a library, you don't want to consider your clientele the students. But if you imagine, in a year that 1000 are going to use it throughout the year, either the courseware or take the assessments, and those would be priced in a bundle together, then you know, if you assume that you were going to just use the course where it could be a an a la carte sort of approach there, but still based on number of students. And for fairness, for people that are listening, that that are wondering, well, would, how will I ever know if this is going to fit in my budget? It would be a few, you know, maybe a couple dozen students, but a minimum of a $5,000 purchase for us to just stay in business. You know that can't We can't be working something lower than that. We're because we are a group approach.

So $5,000 for about 50 learners, or whomever is a nice target to consider budget wise, let's include that. Okay, yeah, perfect. But again,

I say that with no,

I hear you. Listen, I'm Tech. Also, I think that there's good synergy, and it's nice that you're kind of all wrapped up, and you're coming in from former leadership of the state, you know. So if there are gaps, and this could be priced out paid for, it'd be great, especially as digital navigation. And, you know, the libraries are just feeling the pain. But anyways, thanks, Andy.

Yeah, and while we're talking, I put in my contact information also, if you want to go investigate when learning directly, there's that website there. Alright, Steve, how do they do on time? You're good, Andy,

you're good. Any other questions for Andy? Hey, any other announcements?

It's world he it's world Hemophilia Day. So just think about your blood. And if you have healthy blood, be grateful. And if you don't, I'm there are resources. And if you know somebody

exactly, give blood. I My mother passed away because of a blood disease. So definitely give blood. If you have healthy blood. Absolutely.

Paul, anything you want to add to.

I just want to say that if you want to look at some of the previous updates provided by Steve, if you're still interested in participating in my PhD interview process, there is a link that was provided in previous times to be able to sign up to express your interest. And believe me, most of you actually already qualify, because you've done presentations relating to the topic. So please check out the the information, and hopefully we can talk soon. So

Paul, can you just give a little more background about what it is you're looking for? Yeah, basically,

what we're doing, what I'm doing is part of my PhD study, is where I'm building a conceptual model of the digital divide to look at the barriers, the solutions and the challenges from multiple perspectives. Traditionally, a lot of what has been done relating to the digital divide is very focused on access. And I go, Well, I go well beyond access. I'm also including technology aspects as well, and so this will probably be the most comprehensive model of the various challenges and solutions to the digital divide that's been ever developed based on my initial information. But I'm looking forward to being able to wrap this up in about three to four months, and a key piece is the interview process. But I've already analyzed, actually, as an example, over 700 different videos on the topic from YouTube, from numerous entities from around the world. So looking forward to interviewing some folks, to be able to outline the model that I'm currently got developed and get feedback and input to be able to then come out with a final model in a few months.

Thank you, Paul, thank you. So I have a question for those of you who have been involved with the digital navigators, what have we been looking at in terms of system support? So I can tell you that I've been through a lot of challenges with my computer in recent times, and I somewhat sophisticated, but fortunately, I have contacts with a lot of people who can help me walk through that stuff. So I'm just wondering, as we talk about digital navigation, how are we helping people who run into system related issues? Do we have a mechanism for providing that kind of technical support, or mechanisms? I should say I

you, I think you've got your standard, you know, street facing shop, right? That is an option you have. Then maybe organizations like Arizona strut, if he's still on Jared, potentially those nonprofits that are interfacing with maybe seniors and or those that are less digital literate. I don't know, Jared, do you help hands on with people when they have system issues

at all? We don't. We don't do as much direct tech support. We we do more general like instruction and training sessions and device distribution. But we do have schools that we're partnered with, and I know that at least up until recently, and possibly still east valley Institute of Technology, or even they've been open to the public and allowed, you know, the students to work with the community and help them with their tech issues. And that's been pretty successful.

Oh, I love that, like a student

empowered thing, yeah, a student tech support thing. It's experience for the students and it's community service.

That seems a lot of I think a lot of the tech support, a lot of tech support, was previously provided by digital navigators and libraries. To be frank, the libraries are a key point for a lot of people for support if they don't have any other formalized structure in place, that seems to be what, but it is actually a very important issue for a lot of folks. It is regarded as a barrier and a constant challenge.

Go ahead, Gordon, yeah. Gordon Fuller, here, I was just going to say people with disabilities, Oh, please, from the children all the way to aging adults, it's, it's a huge problem, and there really is absolutely no bridge. I know people that are professionals who have been losing their eyesight recently for macular generation. And they have, and they have, they have iPhones, you know, film editors and stuff such, and trying to talk them through how to use those tools for accessibility, such as the things I use is, is very difficult. And a lot of its mindset, as much as anything, but it's really the culture we don't have a culture that's encouraging or uplifting when people find themselves on the other side of the digital divide. I'd be glad to talk to you about that, Paul. Thank you.

Any other thoughts or comments?

I just think it's in I think it is critical that the local councils on aging are all connected in with like this topic, because those centers can be instant training centers for the seniors, which to me, are the most vulnerable to be lost with the digital divide, because they are closest to health issues and the negative impacts of that disconnection. And then I think obviously the schools, the there are here in Tucson, you know, closed down schools that then pop back up as computer labs that are more community serving and facing. And of course, the libraries, to me are the three main places I think that I'd love to go to spot check. Well,

just say a 22% employment rate for people with disabilities in the population. That says it all right there. I mean 22% according to Social Security, 68% of the people who receive disability income from Social Security, or would would work if they could, but they can't. There's no opportunities for them. So it's, it's just a huge tragedy, and no one would choose to live in such abject poverty. There's no real support. You know, in the social safety net, they have an update in 40 years. So not a good deal. So please, help. Help people with disabilities. They're the most difficult, the most challenged, and they represent every single other group of our society. Anyone can join anytime.

One of the things that I can say is that as a digital navigator, one of the things that I work to do is not just teach people basic skills, but teach them how to be confident, so that they try things. Because I know I've seen a lot of times people are afraid to push the button, oh, my God, my phone's going to die if I do that. And so teaching them how to have the confidence to say, Okay, this worked on this. Maybe this will work with this so that they will try things, and then also teaching them, Hey, have you tried doing a Google search? Have you tried looking on YouTube? Because Youtube, they may be able to walk you through it, so teaching them how to find the resources. And just because there is a there is research, there are resources, but teaching people how to not be afraid.

Good point. Any other thoughts, comments?

Well, a hyper focused to me, I think, is making sure that those at most risk, vulnerably health wise, are all connected to their patient portals. And if they need to have a confidence, at least with their patient portals, and then, of course, they're, they're pharmacies, if people that are just connected with patient portals and pharmacies, they are on a much sturdier, you know, foundation to make sure that they're not falling between the cracks. That's just a hyper focus area that we think, as we look at rural and seniors, quite frankly,

Okay, anything else for today, I'm going to stop recording. And if anybody still wants to stay on, and if it's for a while longer.