The ‘RETOMadrID’ project arrives in the north of Madrid to reduce the digital divide in its rural areas. It is a regional initiative that seeks to help a total of 43 town councils of municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants, including those of Horcajuelo de la Sierra, Moralzarzal, and Venturada, so that their residents can improve their digital skills for everyday life.

The initiative has a budget of over 1.2 million euros and its purpose is to train 5,300 people, paying special attention to the elderly, as it will be carried out in aging areas. Its development is expected to last until 2025, having been underway since the first quarter of this year.

It comes from the Ministry of Presidency, Justice and Local Administration, through the Directorate General for Territorial Rebalancing, in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM); and the Community of Madrid itself has explained that these types of initiatives help ensure that all Madrilenians can acquire the necessary digital skills to manage in their day-to-day lives, paying special attention to those who are starting from scratch or do not have the basic concepts to use a computer or perform internet searches. Furthermore, among the different subjects to be taught, teachers will also teach how to fill out forms, open files, or make video calls independently.

This course is provided in the 20 open rural centers of the Sierra Norte Commonwealth; 9 centers belonging to the Los Pinares Commonwealth and another 13 in the Southeast Intermunicipal, as well as in the municipal libraries of small towns. For this purpose, 120 Digital Inclusion Points (PID) equipped with the teacherless training solution ‘TechPeopleCare’ will be installed in these spaces. Each of these stations, which will be fixed for between six and twenty months and of which twenty-four have already been installed in seventeen spaces, will have a complete computer equipment setup provided with a desktop or laptop computer, a tablet, an external mouse, and headphones. In addition, the methodology currently being used offers an instructional program that allows students, through a dual-monitor system, to reproduce on one screen what is shown simultaneously on the other. This facilitates individualized training, personalizing the contents and adaptation according to each case.

Other places where these points have already been installed are San Martín de Valdeiglesias, Redueña, Somosierra, and Valdemanco.

Original article: https://cadenaser.com/cmadrid/2024/08/19/el-norte-de-madrid-se-suma-al-proyecto-retomadrid-para-reducir-la-brecha-digital-en-sus-zonas-rurales-ser-madrid-norte/