George Rebane
[This is the transcript of my 16aug13 KVMR radio commentary, plus a couple of snapshots.]
Last Tuesday I attended the opening of the Nevada County Library’s Collaborative Technology Center or CTC. The ribbon to the new 2,000 square foot facility was cut by country librarian Jessica Hudson after a few attending dignitaries had a chance to speak. The CTC is designed to support up to 70 people who will operate computers, laptops, tablets, printers, and even a 3D printer while learning everything from becoming computer literate to actually manufacturing a physical object described in a computer file.
The affair at the Madelyn Helling main branch was well attended by a large crowd of locals wanting to see what all the fuss was about. Among the notables were Supervisors Nate Beason, Hank Weston, Ed Scofield, and County CEO Rick Haffey. Supervisors Weston and Beason contributed to the opening remarks. Major credit for developing this technology learning center goes to Ms Jessica Hudson and director of the county’s information technology services, Mr Steve Monaghan. With the supes blessings it was they who corralled all the cats and herded them in the right direction to get the job done. (Left photo – R to L SteveM, JessicaH, NateB, HankW)
The CTC is a small but significant effort to get the young and the, shall we say, redundantly skilled back into the mainstream of today’s job requirements. These commentaries have long focused on the growing systemic unemployment in the country that is fostered by our dysfunctional education system and accelerating technology. Hitting the job markets without some computer based skills on your resume is now an unwinnable uphill battle. The numbers from Washington attempt to put lipstick on the employment outlook pig, but it only fools the lightly read and inattentive.
For example, of the claimed 700K+ jobs ‘created’ this year, only fewer than 200K of them are full-time, or what in the old days we would consider as real jobs. The rest are part time that will not bring in enough to support a decent lifestyle let alone a family unit. Low skilled Americans not on the dole must now work longer hours at multiple part time jobs to make ends meet. And the growth of our low and unskilled workforce today is rampant.
The only real growth continues in the broad area of STEM or science, technology, engineering, and math based jobs. And that’s where our new CTC comes in. Staffed by volunteer teachers knowledgeable in the various tasks and toolsets that are now resident on computers, kids and adults can go to the CTC to attend classes, get one-on-one instruction, or simply get a tricky question answered. But the main thing that the CTC will provide is the ah-ha experience for what computers can do and why they are central to our modern economy. Imagine the national benefit of encouraging just one more out of ten kids to study for a STEM career, or demonstrating to a chronically unemployed the art of the possible if they learn a computer skill.
I also spent some time talking to IT director Steve Monaghan about expanding the CTC to include the teaching of programming languages. For some time now it’s been clear to me that kids in grade school should learn a programming language that lets them solve interesting math/science problems or make the computer do things that stimulate their creative juices. Steve agreed, and we went into some detail on specific languages and how they could be taught in the CTC. It occurred to both of us that, given the capacity of the CTC, perhaps the annual merit scholarship TechTest for Nevada County’s high school juniors and seniors could be given in the new Technology Center. Exciting times and so many possibilities, but it will take some time to go through the crawl/walk/run cycle before we figure out how that facility will best serve our community.
So, if you have a computer skill that you would like to learn, or perhaps one that you would like to teach others, please contact our county librarian Ms Jessica Hudson, and help make the Collaborative Technology Center the success our community deserves. And then think of the possibilities when our CTC will serve as a template for other libraries across the land.
My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on NCTV and on georgerebane.com where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively. However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thank you for listening.
rebanesruminations.com 
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