At the Center for Experimentation and Social Innovation (CEIS) in Montpellier (Hérault), Christianne comes out of a small digital workshop, her computer under her arm. And she is already asking for a new date. “Next week, at the same time, with the same person, is that ok with you?” », smiles the young woman, at the reception. ” It’s perfect ! “replies the septuagenarian. Because Christianne wants to learn.
She concedes it, she knows nothing about computers, and, in her daily life, it handicaps her. “Yes, I know how to store my photos! “, she rejoices. The abundant digital vocabulary, Christianne tames it, little by little. “At our age, we’re not used to it,” she says. I was born with the pen, me! You really feel demoted in life today. You feel like you’re even older. »
“People in great social fragility”
The CEIS, hosted by the city’s Center Communal d’Action Sociale (CCAS), in the Arceaux district, offers introductions to new technologies: how to use your computer, surf the Internet, send SMS, take a photo, download an application, use the cloud, avoid malicious sites, etc. The objective is to fight against illiteracy, that is to say the difficulty, even the inability, to use digital and computer tools. In these free workshops, labeled Territory Digital Factory, there are elderly people, but not only.
“The digital divide is not just octogenarians or nonagenarians,” says the mayor, Michaël Delafosse (PS). It also concerns people in great social fragility. Who left school early, etc. Ilelectronism remains a challenge for our society. Refugees, too, benefit from these initiations. “The CEIS team is taking good care of us,” says Ibrahima, 54, from Guinea. In particular “on the creation of a CV or the use of IT tools”.
“Breaking Borders”
To lead these workshops, the city hired 12 digital advisers in September, who work at the CEIS, but also in the Maisons pour tous and media libraries. David, 48, is one of them. “I like the social bond that we smooth with the people we accompany,” confides this forty-year-old, who would like to set up workshops on video. “I meet a very varied audience, hence the richness of this profession. »
Les Petits débrouillards, an association for education in science and technology, also works at the CEIS, in Montpellier. The idea, says Maxime Thomas, the training manager of this association, is to “demonize the tool”. Via citizen cafés around digital, “where we dissect a theme, to create knowledge with others, he notes. Especially on fake news. Who am I to believe? How do I unravel the information given to us? Or practical workshops, to learn how to take a good photo with your phone, secure your digital equipment, or learn how to use a 3D printer.
The Petits Débrouillards association also organizes intergenerational meetings at the CEIS. “On the one hand, there are civic services, young people, who have a perfect command of Tik Tok and Snapchat, parents, who don’t really know how to position themselves on this, and elderly people who don’t know what it’s all about. is, smiles Maxime Thomas. It breaks down boundaries. Every year, 8,000 people in social difficulty benefit from digital workshops at the CEIS in Montpellier.