This past summer at the International Society for Technology in Education conference, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel spoke about how 70 percent of teachers today assign homework that requires kids to go online. A statistic like this poses a challenge for many families who don’t have access at home, and widens the homework gap for those kids who are not connected.
Seeing these challenges, particularly among its targeted Hispanic audience, Univision Contigo and Common Sense Media have partnered to launch the campaign, “¡Avanzamos Conectados! (Connected, We Advance).” Maria O Alveraz, the director of Latino content and outreach at Common Sense Media, heard the stories too many times of how a Latina mother would go to great lengths to get her child to a public library in the Chicago winter, all to connect to the free Wi-Fi they needed to complete a homework assignment. But even with connectivity, struggling Latino families are still at a loss, and unsure of how to traverse the digital sphere to ensure their children are being responsible online.
Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that provides resources to parents and kids on making smart media choices, and Univision Contigo, the arm of Univision that works to empower Hispanic families through education, health, and various tools and resources, have teamed up in an effort to encourage Hispanic families to get broadband access in the home. The campaign’s initiatives work to connect Latino families with local resources to attain the best value for broadband access and computer hardware, and to offer guidance for parents on how to best supervise their children’s Internet usage.
¡Avanzamos Conectados! smartly takes advantage of Univision’s resources and programming to reach the targeted Hispanic audience. The campaign’s outreach methods to Latino parents include: public service announcements on Univision’s platforms; public affairs segments throughout Univision’s network and local programming; social media Q&A sessions to answer parents’ questions on digital responsibility in the home; a text messaging platform; and a new section of its mobile website that helps parents find Internet training and discounts on broadband and computer services by zip code.
Univision is also taking the opportunity to integrate sessions on digital citizenry in its established “Parent Academies” program, which consist of workshops that empower parents to help their children attain their educational goals.
Read more about how cable companies across the country are working to close the digital divide by offering discounted Internet services and digital literacy programs.