Technology for Tomorrow

06/05/2026

This week, Technology for Tomorrow team member Damien Royer completed the final session in a 4-class series in partnership with Williston Recreation & Parks and Senior Planet. On the first Tuesday of each month, Damien worked in-person with older adults at the Williston R.E.C Zone to discuss basic, but important digital literacy lessons like using smartphone cameras, managing your privacy on the internet, navigating Facebook, and accessing medical resources online! We were able to provide these courses free of charge thanks to our incredible network of local supporters.

We'd like to thank Williston Parks and Recreation and Taylor Hayes for helping us to set up and facilitate these sessions, and Senior Planet for providing the class materials and training resources.

06/03/2026

This week, we want to take a moment to extend a sincere thank you to the Windham Foundation for their gracious support to our organization! With this grant, we are able to provide more digital literacy and workforce development classes to our local partners, and assistance to rural members of our community. It is through these course that we seek to provide more access to opportunity for Vermonters, and prepare them with the skills that are necessary in this digital landscape.

Once more, we want to thank both the Windham Foundation and Dan Lerner for their trust, dedication, and support of our mission to help bridge the digital divide.

05/29/2026

Numbers tell a story too — and knowing how to write them makes all the difference when you're asking for funding.

Our own Becky Holt (and Vermont Story Lab partner) joined Wolde North's American Connection Corps AmeriCorps pod this week for a virtual grant writing session. She shared practical tips on how to write a budget narrative that reflects your organization's mission, makes the case for your work, and steers clear of the red flags that can raise eyebrows with funders.

Have questions about grant budgets or writing for funders? Drop them below!

05/27/2026

Often in class, we're asked the question "How do I spot AI? How can I tell if what I am looking at is actually real?" Spotting AI-generated images is something that needs to be learned and practiced. Recently in our programs, we have been playing a digital literacy game: Two Truths and AI. This website helps train people how to pick out AI-generated images through short 60-second challenges, with multiple levels of difficulty and complexity.

This learning tool can be found here and down below: https://www.commonsense.org/two-truths-and-ai

Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

05/20/2026

The clouds drift across a 28-foot digital sky. You see your own reflection. You see smiling faces.

Then you realize: Those aren't the people standing next to you. They're families in Ciudad Juárez — parents and children visiting La Rodadora Interactive Space, a children's museum across the border — looking back at you in real time, from their own digital sky.

Microsoft General Manager Mike Egan had opened the TechSpark Fellows Summit last week by saying: "This is more than a summit. It's a connection."

That moment, standing in front of the Connected Sky exhibit at La Nube STEAM Discovery Center in El Paso, Texas, gave his remarks deeper meaning. Connected Sky spans two museums, two countries — but one community of people sharing their hopes and dreams, under the same blue sky.

That's the work for Technology for Tomorrow and TechSpark Fellows everywhere — bridging divides, creating genuine human connection, and bringing people into view for one another. We left El Paso with new energy, new partnerships, and a clearer sense of why this work matters.

Thank you, Microsoft, for making it possible. And to our nonprofit partners across the globe: We see you.

05/13/2026

May 14th marks the 9th session in our Tech Thursdays webinar series in partnership with AARP Vermont. In this session, we will be discussing the fundamentals of internet privacy, where Maliki LaForce will be showing AARP members how to limit trackers, clear cookies, and control where their personal information is shared.

Our classes with AARP take place on every other Thursday from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM, and are free for all AARP members. For those who are not able to attend, there are also recordings available. These sessions are offered nation-wide!

As always, we want to give a massive thank you to AARP Vermont who have continued to support this series, and to Erin Boyd for helping us to run every session!

05/08/2026

We're happy to announce that, next week, we will be working with the and Girls Club of Burlington to provide a OneDrive class to their staff. This class is part of our Digital Navigation Program, an initiative we created with to support local nonprofits by providing "train the trainer" digital literacy courses to their staff.

We're looking forward to our session next week!

05/06/2026

This week, we concluded our third session of a 4-class series in partnership with the Williston Parks and Recreation District. On the first Tuesday of each month, we hold a "lunch and learn" program that aims to provide basic digital literacy classes to older adults in our community across a number of different topics. This month, focused on Internet Privacy, went very smoothly as participants asked questions around their own devices, best practices, and ways to make protecting their information a little more convenient.

Our class materials for this series have been provided thanks to Older Adults Technology Services! Their partnership, as well as our supporters and partners here in Burlington are what make these free classes possible, and help us spread digital literacy skills.

05/01/2026

This week marks the conclusion of our trainings with Cohorts 3, 4, and 5 as part of our ongoing workforce digital literacy program in partnership with Associates for Training and Development! This program works to provide professional digital literacy trainings to people looking to re-enter the workforce. Our series focuses on topics such as computer and phone literacy, scam prevention, and the Microsoft Office and Google Workplace suites, and features both lectures and workshops to put learners in the driver's seat.

We'd like to thank A4TD for their continued partnership, assistance, and amazing work in helping to bridge the digital divide. Additionally, we're incredibly proud of our learners, and we'd like to thank them for the commitment and energy they bring to every session!

May 12th marks the beginning of our next trainings with two new cohorts, and we can't wait to get started!

04/29/2026

We're happy to announce that we have just booked a new 2-class series in partnership with Community College of Vermont (CCV) ! This project will focus on providing "train the trainer" courses to work-study students who assist CCV learners with any needs they have with their studies. Our trainings, which begin on May 14th, will cover material such as Transitioning Skills from Google to Microsoft and Internet Safety Best Practices. These classes, as part of the Comcast Digital Navigation Program, and are being provided free of charge thanks to the support of our amazing funder.