FARMINGTON — From taking apart toys as a kid to guiding Mainers through tech troubles, Michael Burd’s lifelong curiosity drives his work helping rural residents overcome fear and gain confidence with technology. Burd is currently an adult education instructor in Farmington.

“I have always been a need-to-know kind of guy,” Burd said. “Every birthday and Christmas that I can remember from being a kid, whatever I got for my birthday, I took it apart. Before playing with it, I thought, ‘Hm, I need to understand how this works or why it works.’”

Burd, who offers digital literacy support at libraries in Farmington, New Sharon and Strong, recalled breaking more than a few toys in his childhood. “Some percentage of those I actually figured out how to put back together and get them working again,” he said.

His early fascination with disassembly and problem-solving laid the foundation for a lifelong pursuit of understanding – and a career focused on helping others do the same.

“I work mostly with adults,” Burd said. “I would say the lion’s share of folks I work with are people who come in wanting to understand their devices, or how to do something on the computers, but they come to the table with fear being their biggest barrier.”

Helping learners overcome fear is central to his approach. “Mostly what I do is manage fears,” Burd explained. “It’s mind-blowing to see how easily the learning comes after that.”

He described working with adult learners who had internalized limiting beliefs. “When I first started teaching uke 101 at Adult Ed, people would come and say, ‘Well, good luck teaching me because I was told I would never sing, I would never play.’ So here we are 15 years later; I still have a ukulele group.”

Burd said technology literacy has changed with generational shifts in parenting. “Boomer parents were more letting the kids kind of lead them around.,” he said. “Now, because of popular culture, there is an assumption that kids know how to use everything and there is no fear. The flip side of that is that they weren’t taught fear. Their learning can be kind of risky. Without appropriate parenting, kids are using high-powered tools like the internet where they haven’t learned where the guardrails are.”

In his work Burd focuses less on device repair and more on user empowerment. “What I do here, instead of fixing the device, I try to focus on helping the users understand the device,” he said. “I help them understand their phone so they have a better idea of what it could do if they had a need, but also how to do that.”

Before the pandemic Burd led group classes like iPhone 101 or Microsoft Office, but often found sessions shifting based on participant needs. “It would only be a few minutes before they say, ‘By the way, can you help me with this?’ So the class could get derailed pretty quickly.”

This led him to create a “technology round table” format. “We all sit around the table and discuss what our needs are, what our goals are,” he said. “One person could walk in with one need and walk out with information on half a dozen other topics.”

While COVID shifted many of these to one-on-one sessions, Burd still offers group programs at local libraries through a county-wide digital literacy grant. He also provides support at SeniorsPlus in Wilton.

Asked about attendance at library sessions Burd said, “I don’t 100% always have someone there, but then sometimes I get there and have three people waiting for me.”

Burd noted artificial intelligence is an emerging topic. “I list AI as one of the topics,” he said. “Only a couple of people have wanted to go there so far. But certainly the fear and the demystifying of it; something that is going to need a lot of face time for folks.”

“Back to AI, I am personally really excited about it,” Burd said. “I really want to help folks feel comfortable using it. It’s all about understanding the capacities and understanding the risks and managing both of those.”

Burd stays current through reading, online research and continuing education. “I’ve taken a couple of classes in AI so I can use it as a tool and have a response for folks who are interested in using it,” he said. “Later this month I am going to be out for the week attending a national adult ed conference.”

He credited strong support from leadership: “We have a state adult ed alliance that meets annually. I have a lot of opportunities and support from my director, Mary Redmond Luce. She is really supportive, we stay current in our information so we are as effective as we can be for students.”

When asked about the most rewarding part of his job, Burd said, “It is bearing witness to the moment when the light comes on with the learner. And when they come back and say, ‘Hey, I tried that and it’s killer, it works really great.’ It is totally cool.”

Looking ahead, he hopes to revive past initiatives. “Last year we did lunch and learn, and we would have someone giving a talk.”

Burd is especially passionate about addressing the digital divide in rural communities. “The line of demarcation is those who have access to bandwidth and access to devices and access to support, and those that don’t,” he said. “They have lousy internet access, they may be in a circle of pals that are not comfortable either.”

He emphasized the vital role of libraries, “Libraries are so important as community centers. The presence of programs like this digital literacy stuff in the libraries is so important. Because in many ways it is the first point of contact that our residents have any kind of support at all.”

“The culture is shifting,” he said. “I see my job as making the word ‘digital’ go away from literacy. Literacy means everything; it includes digital, no need to specify.”

“I live in rural Maine and want to make it the best place to live ever and move forward and embrace the new paradigm, if you will,” he added.

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