The inimitable David Rosen has  a new  blog – Adult Literacy Education – that promises to be a real boon to the adult literacy field.  David is a highly experienced adult literacy educator and researcher  – it will be wonderful to be able to tap into his experience and knowledge on the blog.  For example check out what David describes as Five Burning Technology Questions – a thought-provoking piece on the need for more research, more learning about the effectiveness of technology use in adult literacy. Well worth reading….
Thank you David – we look forward to hearing from you in the blogoshpere……

I have just spent an exciting hour exploring WikiEducator – an online global community of educators working collaboratively to develop and share free educational content. It includes an Adult Basic Education Section where you will find free learning resources developed in British Columbia under the auspices of the BC Council on Admissions and Transfer – a provincial agency.

I looked through the ABE  Fundamental Computer Studies Course and  saw that there is a great deal of information and material here that will be very useful for adult literacy instructors and students everywhere.

As with all Wikis, WikiEducator is an ongoing work in progress – with new content being added all the time –  the best way to keep up to date is to join WikiEducator and create your own “watchlist” so that you can receive notifications when new content is added – you can also, of course, become a contributor – adding your own content, editing existing content and joining in the discussions.

Click HERE to see a presentation about the WikiEducator Project.  Click  Wikis in Plain English to see a great short video,  explaining wikis from Commoncraft.

Enjoy!!!

Thanks (again!) to super-blogger Tracey Mollins over at Literacies Cafe – I have discovered these two incredibly useful blogs.

Free Technology for Teachers describes itself as A review of free technology resources and how teachers can use them. Ideas for technology integration – it is  a very good  place to go to learn about free technology tools and to learn how educators are using them, and, of course to get great ideas about how you can use them.

Emerging Internet Technologies for Education bills itself as Exploring the endless possibilities for the application of internet technologies in education – and that’s just what it does – offering a cornucopia of easy to read and understand information about Blogs, Blogging, Podcasting, Collaboration and Brainstorming applications, Whiteboards and much, much more.

You can subscribe by email or  RSS to each of these blogs – a great way to stay up to date with what’s good, what’s happening and what  educators are doing in and with technology.

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo – a teacher in California and an inveterate blogger – his blog is a treasure trove  – I found Tech-Ease a wondrous site  where with the click of a mouse you can get practical answers to all your questions about technology….

Wondering how to empty your browser’s cache or how to create a podcast just click on Internet on the Tech-Ease page.  What do you do if your computers and printers aren’t behaving – click on Hardware…  and that’s just the beginning. 

Visit Tech-Ease to see the wealth of information and support it offers – and make it a first stop when you run into tech problems  – I know I will …

I just have to share this simple but brilliant resource. 180 Tech Tips consists of 180 free 5 minute computer lessons emailed to you one day at a time from September to June.

I signed up back in September and look forward to my tip of the day, every day, and these clear, non-techie explanations of everthing from Copy and Paste like you mean it (no.9) to “Anatomy of a Web Address (no.12) on to Where is my toolbar? (no.71) and Password Pandemonium (no.14) have made me a much more confident and effective  computer user – I literally learn something new every day!!

All you need to do to get your daily Tech Tip is to click on 180 Tech Tips – click on Sign Up Now – enter your email address and look forward to receiving your first tip tomorrow….

Update: Here’s the 180 Tips sign off: www.180techtips.com/180.html

This final technology tip is a reminder to continue learning, experimenting and enjoying new technologies. Keep searching and exploring the internet, computers, and all the new wonders that they are making possible.

Here are two current sites from their list of where to keep learning: Free Technology for Teachers and How Stuff Works

The other sites are no longer current (September 2022) but these two have some good archival material:

• The FISCHBOWL
  This staff development blog was created for teachers at Arapahoe High School in Colorado.  If nothing else, check out his “Did You Know?/Shift Happens” presentation for some prospective on how our world is changing.
  
• Larkin.net.au
  Blog created by an Australian high school teacher that offers technology tips as well as resources from various workshops for teachers.  There’s also an extensive section about Australian POW’s in World War II.

Just back from a short trip to Ireland – and maybe I’ve had numeracy on the brain because I was so constantly challenged there in converting Euros to Canadian Dollars and back again – how much is that cup of coffee!! I made extensive use of my trusty calculator and had to confront my math anxiety on an almost daily basis – so when I got home I was very happy to find that there is some amazing work going on around numeracy, how we teach and learn, feel and think about numeracy…

The latest issue of Focus on Basics focuses on Numeracy in adult basic  education and provides an intriguing array of articles by adult numeracy instructors and researchers including Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy (TIAN) – a research  and professional development project involving 40 instructors in Massachussets and Ohio – and an article by Kate Nonesuch of Malaspina University College in Duncan B.C. describing her own learning journey as a numeracy instructor  and how she works to honour and respect student resistance to new ways of learning as she reflects upon, learns about and adjusts her instructional strategies. These are just a couple of the astonishingly rich articles in this issue of Focus on Basics

You may also want to explore or re-explore the Literacies (Spring 2005) issue on reflective practice in numeracy that offers a similarly rich array of articles on numeracy teaching and learning in Canada

Beyond Work Sheets: A Social and Holistic Approach to Numeracy  written by Tom Ciancone, Flora Hood and Joy Lehmann – adult numeracy and literacy instructors here in Toronto, is another essential resource for numeracy instructors  and provides a thought -provoking examination of numeracy as social practice – skill development in the context of and in response to the learner’s social environment and numeracy through holistic learning, taking the whole person, mind, body and spirit into account.

One of the many great aspects of my job here at AlphaPlus is the opportunity to continuously learn about trends and new ideas and applications of technology in adult literacy. Since I have been working on this blog I have been trying to keep up with what’s happening in the blogosphere in general and how blogs are and could be used in adult literacy teaching and learning.

I just came across a very interesting article Let them Blog  by David Huffaker of Northwestern University  that looks at blogs  as effective educational tools in the K-12 classroom. The author set out to examine the hyposthesis that,

 “… blogs can be effective educational tools in the following ways: 1) they promote verbal and visual literacy through dialogue and storytelling; 2) they allow opportunities for collaborative learning; and 3) they are accessible and equitable to a variety of age groups and developmental stages in education.” (p.2)

Although the focus of this study is the K-12 classroom I think that it raises questions about blogs in education that will be of interest to the adult literacy community.  I also discovered the  very interesting blog  by Konrad Glogowski of the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) called the blog of proximal development  ( the title is taken from the concept of proximal development, that is skills that are in the process of development by Lev Vygotsky ) in which the author  shares his reflections on blogging communities in education and the impact of blogs on that blogging and blogging communities have on his own classroom and his students.

Reading this article and the blog  made me wonder  –  How are blogs being used in  adult literacy teaching and learning? Is blogging a useful activity for adult literacy students?  Is anyone looking at this specifically in adult literacy?  If you’re interested in creating a blog or in blogging with your students here are a couple of resources to get started. Learning 2.O Grab yourself a Blog in 3 Steps   is a very accessible hands-on introduction to blogging,  and now it is quite easy to set up multi-user blogs  that can be used in groups or classes .

I know from speaking with colleagues here at AlphaPlus and around the province that some adult literacy instructors are using blogs with their students and  that adult literacy students are very interested in blogs and blogging – so it would be great to hear more about that – please share your thoughts, ideas and experiences about blogs and blogging in the comments section. Look forward to hearing and learning more.

Another useful application that makes the web more accessible to learners is audio streaming.  Audio streaming is the method of delivering audio files over an Internet connection in real time.  These files can be accessed from any location, as long as there is a working Internet connection.  This allows for people to access audio from any location in the world, often for no cost!

There are many different uses for audio streaming.  A popular option is online radio broadcasts.  Most radio stations simultaneously broadcast their shows over the airwaves and on the Internet.  Past shows can also be accessed, and many stations have shows that are available for streaming that are not available over the radio.  A popular station that offers many different types of online radio is BBC International Radio: choose from world news, talk radio, popular music, sports, and more.

Audio streaming is also available for books that have been recorded: pick your favourite novel and listen to it online!  Listen to a reading of a new bestseller, or read along with the audio for help with a classic.  Sites like Audible offer a very wide range of audio for a fee, or try a free service like LibriVox which recruits volunteers to read public domain books.

Accessing the files requires them to be downloaded from the website, or subscribed to through a service such as iTunes.  After downloading, the files can be opened in a media player like iTunes, Windows Media Player, or RealPlayer.  Plug in your speakers or headphones and enjoy!

I  am an avid baseball fan and a lover of baseball lore. So when someone told me about a display of images about the history of baseball in Canada in the Community Memories exhibition at the Virtual Museum of Canada I rushed right over.

The museum is free, easy to get to and a delight to visit… just  CLICK and you’re there… …

You will find over 500 virtual exhibitions and Community Memories Exhibits from every corner of Canada, 420,000 images over 150 interactive games. 

Check out this enjoyable and information packed exhibition with students in your literacy program. I guarantee that everyone will enjoy it and everyone will learn something new.

Enjoy !!

 

FourDirectionsTeachings.com presents a series of First Nations teachings from the Mi’kmaq, Ojibwe, Cree, Mohawk and Blackfoot nations. This beautiful site honours oral traditions by creating an environment where the visitor is encouraged to listen with intent as each elder or traditional teacher shares a teaching from their perspective on the richness and value of cultural traditions from their nation.  In addition, the site provides curriculum packages to further explore the vast richness of knowledge and cultural philosophy that is introduced within each teaching.

Developer, Jennifer Wemigwans, has experience as a literacy teacher and has combined this knowledge with her expertise as a filmmaker to bring us this rich, unique resource.