NMPED News:
SANTA FE — The New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) announces the launch of New Mexico Family and Community Engagement Solutions (NM FaCES), a new program that works to ensure a smooth statewide broadband rollout.
Over the next two years, NM FaCES will prepare community members to benefit from the arrival of broadband in their area and position them for stable, high-paying jobs. NM FaCES will enable communities to engage in digital storytelling and support the development of five internet-based vocation training centers.
The program, which will utilize StoryMaps, allows communities to combine video, audio, images and text to share stories unique to their cultures and history. NM FaCES will help families become digital storytellers for their own communities.
The new program builds upon PED’s response to the Martinez-Yazzie Tech Order to ensure all students have internet connections, computers and support to fully participate in learning and career training at home.
NM FaCES will kick off with a public viewing of the virtual, immersive 3D Space Messengers installation created in part by Taos students. The exhibit is presented by STEMarts, a Taos-based non-profit organization seeking to empower youth through art, science and technology, as part of the 2022 Festival International de Ciéncia in Portugal.
The collaborative installation combines the work of students, artists and scientists from around the world and will showcase the creative power of broadband. Community members experienced the festival virtually 14 at the UNM-Taos Hub of Internet-based Vocation and Education (HIVE).
“Through interactive projections, virtual reality and space messages, we share the importance of artistic, scientific, and humanistic literacy, expand our identity as planetary citizens and imagine a peaceful and sustainable interplanetary future,” said Agnes Chavez, founder of STEMarts Lab.
Free workshops to demonstrate how students and their families can take advantage of the new broadband opportunities will be available until late November. For more information, visit the NM FaCES StoryMap at https://bit.ly/NMFaCES
