---
title: "UMD, State Combine to Get ‘Marylanders Online’"
date: 2024-04-25T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/umd-state-combine-to-get-marylanders-online"
section: Articles
---
# UMD, State Combine to Get ‘Marylanders Online’

*April 25, 2024* — by [Chris Carroll](/author/chris-carroll)


> $6M Program Provides Digital Access, Literacy From Baltimore to Rural Areas

*AGNR Elderly Internet Access 04182024 JC 1936 1920x1080 — Francena Bean-Waters of Baltimore and Tech Extension Educator Blaise Brennan '18 share a high-five after working through a smartphone operation question together. Below, Brennan explains the basics of phones and the internet as part of a class sponsored by the Marylanders Online program.*

If Gen Z is composed of “digital natives” who never knew a time before smartphones and social media, then the students who clustered around a University of Maryland Extension educator at a Baltimore senior apartment complex last week might be dubbed digital pilgrims. They’ve traveled a long way over the decades, and now they’re determined to make the best of the new world of technology.

And oh, they have questions:

- One woman had lost the “answering machine” inside her Android; could it be located so she could return calls to friends and family?
- With a grimace, another held up her iPhone: How does she stop the spam calls and emails bombarding her from early morning to late at night?
- A Marine Corps veteran with a trusty flip phone noticed that check-in and other functions at Veterans Administration clinics increasingly required QR code scanning. Did he finally have to surrender to the new tech?
- A woman’s doctor had moved from Baltimore to Towson, but she doesn’t drive. How can she set up Zoom telehealth calls?

The half-dozen seniors had come to the “Smartphone Basics” class presented by Blaise Brennan ‘18, a tech educator for the UMD Extension who’s part of a program, [Marylanders Online](https://marylandersonline.umd.edu/), funded by a [$6 million grant](https://today.umd.edu/6m-award-from-state-to-help-extension-bridge-digital-divide) from the state of Maryland to UMD to bridge the digital divide. With up to 20% of Maryland households lacking high-speed internet at the time of a 2021 Maryland Department of Planning [report](https://planning.maryland.gov/Documents/Our-Engagement/MPCA/20211025/2021_2_Expanding_Broadband_Across_America.pdf), the program aims to help populations disproportionately cut off from broadband internet access—residents of Baltimore and rural counties, Black and Hispanic people, low-income and older Marylanders—get online and access the wealth of information and opportunities found there.


*instructor presents about smartphones to senior students*




**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [University of Maryland Extension](https://today.umd.edu/topic/university-of-maryland-extension-2)


**Units:** [College of Agriculture and Natural Resources](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-agriculture-and-natural-resources), [College of Information](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-information-studies)