Digital Proficiency Pairing

This series of questions/exercises is intended to gauge a mentee’s digital literacy to identify additional areas for improvement and/or to gauge whether additional study in the digital literacy track would be helpful. Take notes on areas where the mentee is unsure of how to do things, and note the unit next to the question in case you’d like to return to the topic with your mentee (key for unit abbreviations is below).

You can start off by asking the mentee if there were any areas that jumped out at them while they were taking the Digital Literacy Survey: were there any areas that were new to the mentee? Any topics that they would like to learn more about while in the program?

Key
*CB = Computer Basics
*Int = The Internet
*E = Email
*DSec = Digital Security
*Prod = Productivity
*S = Search

While your mentee is sharing their screen or with the mentee driving (if in-person), you can use these set-up tasks to get a sense of their digital literacy:

Could you create a new folder on your desktop and name it Emergent Works? (or anything to specify that it’s for the program) *CB

Can you add a file to the folder for note taking? *CB

Do you feel comfortable adding text, editing and saving files for note taking or writing? *CB

  • What programs do you usually use for writing/tracking your work? *Prod
  • Are you familiar with Google Docs/Sheets, Microsoft Word/Excel and would you like to learn more about them? *Prod
  • Are there specific things you’re interested in learning how to do in these programs? (i.e. write a formula in Excel or Google Sheets)

Do you have a text editor installed on your computer? *Int

  • If not, ask them to look up a text editor (your choice) and install it. Can the mentee:
    • Open their browser to search for the application
    • Successfully download the application
    • Complete installation
      If they already have a text editor, ask them to walk you through how they would go about searching for and finding a new application *Int, *S
      Alternatively, you can also ask them to download an application like Adobe Acrobat Reader *Int

If the program froze while they were editing it or trying to open it, what would they do to try to fix it? *CB

Discuss the best forms of communication with your mentee – do they prefer email/text/Slack? *E, *Prod, *M

  • Have they used Slack before?
  • How long have they been using email?
  • Do they feel comfortable with the BCC and CC fields, and forwarding emails?
  • Have they used any messaging apps besides the default texting apps, such as WhatsApp/Signal/Telegram? *M

What’s their preferred search engine/what do they usually do when they’re trying to look up information on the internet? *S
Do they know how to create strong passwords? *DSec
Do they use a password manager? Would they have any interest in learning how to use one? *DSec