Grant to Extend Hours of 10 County Computer Learning Centers

In an effort to demystify the Internet for thousands of teachers and parents, the Los Angeles County Office of Education and A T & T announced a grant Wednesday that will extend the hours of 10 computer learning centers in the Los Angeles area.

Local officials and schoolchildren were on hand for the presentation of the $750,000 gift at one of the centers, a South-Central Los Angeles technology firm.

Officials said the grant brings them a step closer to supporting 25 such centers and a goal of training 60,000 teachers and 28,000 parents in multimedia and telecommunications technologies over the next several years.

With some of the centers located in or close to disadvantaged neighborhoods, proponents of the training program say it will help bridge the gap between technology haves and have-nots. They say it is a novel, nonbureaucratic means of addressing computer illiteracy.

“We owe it to every child that comes into the world to have the tools to compete for quality jobs,” said Mayor Richard Riordan, who attended the event.

Councilman Mark Ridley Thomas, whose district is home to Break Away Technologies, where Wednesday’s news conference took place, added, “One of the fundamental parts of a democratic society is to have a literate population. [Computers] are the new definition of literacy.”

Last year, two highly publicized “High-Tech Barn-Raisings,” dubbed NetDays, plugged hundreds of Southern California schools into the Internet, though some educators complained that red tape kept them out of the program. But many teachers and parents who must instruct the children still have little computer knowledge, especially those who live in disadvantaged areas.

Of the about 28,000 teachers in Los Angeles public schools last year, less than half have Los Angeles Unified School District e-mail accounts.

A Los Angeles Times technology poll last year found that only 22% of Southern California households with annual incomes of less than $25,000 have a personal computer, compared with 69% of those with incomes more than $50,000.

Keeping up with technological advancements was also difficult for the poll’s lower-income group. Only 38% of those with incomes of less than $50,000 felt they were keeping pace with advancements, while 60% of those earning more than that amount felt that they were in stride.

Most experts agree that two-thirds of all new jobs in the next decade will require some knowledge of computers.

“This allows us to keep our doors open longer and help more people,” said John Bradshaw, a director of another extended-hour site, the Puente Learning Center in Boyle Heights.

In addition to the Break Away Technologies Center and the Puente Learning Center, hours will be extended at the Los Angeles County Public Library in Baldwin Park, Dana Middle School in San Pedro, Futures Academy in Redondo Beach, Parent University/Los Angeles County Office of Education in Downey, the Partners in Technology Training Center in Littlerock, the Sulfur Springs District Training Center in Canyon Country, the Technology Exploration Center in Alhambra and the Virtual Education Village in Pomona.

Dr. James S. Lanish, a director of the county office of education program, which is called Technology for Learning, said the sites were chosen because they were the most convenient and well-equipped places for teachers and disadvantaged parents to reach.

But different realities among the center’s surrounding neighborhoods were apparent.

Kirsten List, a parent at the presentation who has a computer in her Lake Los Angeles home that is not hooked up to the Internet, said she would use the Canyon Country center to gauge which Internet pages were appropriate for her 12-year-old son, Isaiah.

“We haven’t hooked up to the Net because we just haven’t got around to installing the phone jack,” she said. But representatives of the Boyle Heights Puente Learning Center said they may use the expanded hours to open after-work classes for single mothers.