Essential Skills for Your Digital World

Program Overview

Essential Skills for Your Digital World is a new program for adults offered by UBC Okanagan in partnership with the Okanagan Regional Library. This program introduces adults (age 19+) to core computational thinking concepts.

Over the course of the six, two-and-a-half hour modules, participants will have opportunities to:

• Increase their understanding of the digital world
• Design and build a simple web page with HTML
• Define and write a basic algorithm
• Connect to the Internet of Things
• Manage data in a spreadsheet through simple formulas and graphs
• Understand the rationale and learn some techniques for keeping information private and secure

Spring Schedule and Location

Dates: This program consists of six modules, with a different topic per class time. The dates and times of each class are as follows:

• Module 1 (Exploration): April 7, 2018, 1:00 – 3:30 PM
• Module 2 (HTML): April 14, 2018 1:00, – 3:30 PM
• Module 3 (Algorithms): April 21, 2018, 1:00 – 3:30 PM
• Module 4 (Internet of Things): April 28, 2018, 1:00 – 3:30 PM
• Module 5 (Spreadsheets): May 5, 2018 1:00, – 3:30 PM
• Module 6 (Privacy & Security: May 12, 2018, 1:00 – 3:30 PM

Time: From 1 – 3:30pm

Place: All classes take place at the downtown Okanagan Regional Library (1380 Ellis Street, Kelowna), 2nd floor classroom.

Intended Audience

If you have a general interest in what skills are required in a digital world, are a parent of a child that is experiencing the new BC Applied Design, Skills and Technologies Curriculum and/or are considering career advancement with additional digital skills, this program may be for you.

This program will build awareness of some core computational thinking concepts and highlight where you can pursue more advanced educational opportunities (at Okanagan College for example) to strengthen your knowledge and skills.

Please note that this program is for adults only (ages 19+).

Requirements

This program welcomes a wide variety of adult learners. Some familiarity with computer programs for creating documents (word processors) and navigating the Internet (web browsers) can be beneficial but not required.

A library card will be needed to complete the program. If you do not currently have a Library card, please ensure that you bring a piece of ID* with you for the first class, where librarians will be present to assist you with obtaining one.

Participants who have the card already are required to bring it with them for the first class.

*If you don’t have a current piece of ID please call the library for options.

Registration and Questions

Registration

Registration is now closed.

Questions?

Please click here to send us your questions.

Meet Our Team

Program Instructor

Deb Carter is a PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies (IGS) program at UBC Okanagan, her design and development research explores the impact of a research-informed professional learning event with educators, professionals and community members as they determine innovative solutions to localized ‘wicked’ problems.

Program Authors

Abdallah Mohamed is a software engineer who specializes in decision support systems for component-based software development.
To support informed decision making, his research involves studying and developing novel methods that integrate concepts and techniques such as optimization and expert systems.

Jocelyn Smith is a User Experience Consultant working with companies in Kelowna and further a field to improve their customer experience by better understanding their customers and how their customers experience their products and services. Jocelyn collaborates with UXperts.co to provide a full range of user experience services encompassing research and design of both the physical and the virtual.

Miles Thorogood is a creative technologist who specializes in generative systems for developing computational assistive technologies in creative industries. His research includes modelling human creative processes in visual and audio work for decision support systems, and designing autonomous agents for interactive environments.

Patricia Lasserre is a computer scientist mainly involved with the scholarship of teaching, particularly in active learning techniques for computer science, developing tools for learning, computational thinking and design thinking.

Program Graphic Designer

Armaghan Taghvaei is an Animator and Graphic Designer studying Animation and Digital Media at NAIT. Her work focuses on designing logos, UI/UX, characters and digital games.