Latino Immigrant Parents and Children Learning and Publishing Together in an After-School Setting

In this article, we overview 1 year's activities of an after-school project convening immigrant, low-income Latino parents and elementary schoolchildren for the purpose of learning and publishing together. The intent of the project is to help parents acquire a working familiarity with computers and computer-related technologies as tools for learning and communication in collaboration with their children. We describe the evolution and design of the project into a community-based learning community involving the family, teachers, university staff, and community members. We also present a description of computer learning and publishing activities. We then summarize data showing parents' growth in computer skills. In addition, qualitative research findings on parents' and children's interaction are provided with connections to sociocultural theory. In the concluding section we give attention to a cultural-historical theoretical account of the learning community and implications for thinking about the ways in which new technologies are mediating learning and schooling for immigrant families.