Mobile tech lab offers training to all ages, abilities

GENOA – Genoa Branch Library patrons have gotten a little more tech-savvy thanks to a visit from the Mobile Technology Training Center, a mobile tech lab provided by the State Library of Ohio.

The bus spent several hours offering free training at the library earlier this month. Matt Motes, an information technologist and mobile technology lab instructor, said the visit was one of about 100 the bus will make this year.

“We’ll go to any library in the state of Ohio. We do schools, but it’s mostly public libraries that request us,” he said.

Julie Kling stopped by the lab for some additional training. Kling is an AmeriCorps service member who teaches computer classes at the library as part of the Guiding Ohio Online program. Because the mobile labs are available to both library patrons and staff, she was a perfect fit for the free training.

“He was showing me how to troubleshoot issues with iPads and e-books and so on,” Kling said. “He was answering some of my questions on how to better troubleshoot for patrons.”

Kling said every e-book is different, so Motes was helping guide her through the different technologies.

“It was very helpful. He spent the time answering my questions and showing me some of the resources,” she said.

The Mobile Technology Training Center offers a wide variety of classes, including Android training, cloud computing and the use of iPad audiobooks and e-books. The federally funded program provides the free classes to people of all ages.

“It’s a wide array. We’ve done as young as kindergarten, but we mostly have seniors in our classes,” Motes said. “It’s not limited to them. You’d think the millennium generation would be great with it, but if they’ve never seen the technology, they need to learn it.”

The labs have been offering free training for 13 years, but this is the first year the labs provided course instructors. Previously, libraries had access to the lab and its equipment but had to do the teaching themselves.

“We just changed the formula, where we provide the training. We used to just leave (the mobile lab) there. This new model seems to work better,” he said.

Genoa branch manager Mimi Fintel said the purpose of bringing the mobile lab to the library was to offer more computer training to the public, especially the older generation that did not grow up with the technology.

Children, she said, easily take even to new technology they have never tried. A lifelong familiarity with it gives an ease that is not always there for adults born before computers became commonplace.

“We get a lot of people coming in wanting help, especially the older patrons. Kids are the natives to computers, and we are the immigrants,” Fintel said.