Did you see the Community Gabfest announcement in December 2022 and wonder what it was all about?

Why Community Gabfests?

We often hear that one of the ways that you learn best is during informal, ad hoc chats with other practitioners. Then we heard this:

CLN, a literacy support org in Alberta, now runs simple monthly “Community Cafes” for literacy practitioners. Just a simple online meeting, no agenda, where practitioners can chat, vent, brainstorm, etc. I just thought I’d tell you because if there was one organized in Ontario, I’d definitely attend it.

And the Community Gabfests came to be.

What is happening so far?

We’ve held four Community Gabfests and planned two more. At first, we invited a small group while we experimented with the format and the time. We had some amazing conversations and the response was positive. As a participant commented:

It was nice to learn about different experiences from literacy practitioners. The environment was safe and cordial to talk about your experiences with learners.

For 2023, we felt ready to invite the whole Ontario literacy field. We had a good response in terms of registrations. Actual attendance was light but the discussion was thoughtful, thought-provoking and inspiring. One participant said:

This isn’t gab, this is real talk.

What is happening next? 

We would love to learn from and with you at the next Community Gabfest and to hear your feedback about next steps for Community Gabfests. 

Are you a Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or Deafblind practitioner in Ontario?
If so, come join our FREE Google training sessions with ASL interpreters to build your digital skills in the classroom!

In a series of four Zoom meetings, scheduled for Thursdays, March 9, 23, 30 and April 6 from 2:30 pm to 4 pm, you will have a chance to work with Monika from AlphaPlus and two ASL interpreters. 

Together, we will take a closer look at cool features and applications of Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, Slides, Forms and Jambord.

Each session will build on the previous one. There will also be an option to stay after each session for additional questions. 

Even if you have tried Google Apps before, you will be surprised at how many new options you will discover and walk away with lots of new skills, ideas, tips and resources.

Secure your spot now! Space is limited.

Visit the website to learn more details about what we’ll cover in these free training sessions, as well as the format, timing and deadlines for registration. And don’t forget to invite tutors working in your programs!

Here is a printable flyer to share with the community. 

We hope to see you there.

Stay up-to-date with what we are thinking about at AlphaPlus and what we are doing to support  Ontario’s adult literacy instructors and program administrators.

Announcements

• What’s new at AlphaPlus and in the field.

Case Studies

• How we work with instructors and administrators.

Insights

• What we’re thinking about our work and the sea we swim in.

Leadership Letters

• How AlphaPlus is putting our vision and strategic plans into action.

Solutions

• Tech tips and ideas we gather during our work.

Back to the blog

We’re excited to announce the launch of our microsite called The Digital Inclusion Playbook that’s filled with ideas, information and resources you can use to support local digital inclusion efforts. We hope the site builds awareness at a provincial and national level on behalf of all literacy and basic skills (LBS) programs and the many learners who find themselves excluded from full and equitable participation in a digital society.

Resources, articles and mini-infographics you can use

Digital inclusion and literacy development work together, and LBS plays a key role in digital inclusion as a provider of digital learning opportunities for adults. LBS educators, volunteers and program co-ordinators are on the front lines of digital inclusion work and often address issues — such as access to devices for learning and low-cost internet plans — that go beyond everyday teaching and learning work. The playbook’s facts, resources, articles and mini-infographics can be used to:

• Help adult learners access affordable internet and devices.
• Discuss key issues with colleagues and stakeholders.
• Make a presentation to your board or institutional partners.
• Build a case for support with funding partners and community partners.
• Get involved and take action.

Information, ideas and strategies to help build awareness

Digital inclusion is bigger than LBS and involves affordable and adequate broadband internet service, internet-enabled devices that meet the needs of the user, quality and affordable technical support along with applications and online content designed to enable and encourage self-sufficiency, participation and collaboration. The playbook contains information, ideas and strategies that explore the following topics:

• Digital inclusion and the digital divide.
• Impacts of digital exclusion.
• Digital literacy in learners’ lives and leveraging their use of smartphones.
• Sources of free and open digital literacy resources.

We invite you to explore the site and share your feedback with us. We’d also love to hear about your digital inclusion initiatives and stories.
You can also contact Christine (christine@alphaplus.ca) or Alan (acherwinski@alphaplus.ca) directly.

Need help with technology set up or training?

Connect with us to take advantage of our FREE technology coaching services where we will work with you hand-in-hand to help you explore, integrate and adapt various technology tools and solutions.

The Virtual Showcase sessions are back this fall!

Our third session Should we Kahoot it? Using game-based learning and quizzes for fun and quick learning activities is scheduled for October 18, and the fourth session is planned for November 15.

Do you ever wish that you had time to stop and think?

We all do, especially after the hurly-burly of the pivot to remote learning during pandemic lockdowns and the pivot back to the blended and hybrid models that programs developed to meet the needs of new learners who joined during the pivot and returning learners who were unable to connect remotely.

Here are some opportunities to stop and think about technology and teaching that AlphaPlus is offering this fall: two collaborative learning spaces, two self-directed learning spaces and the results of our new maker space project

Two collaborative learning spaces

Two self-paced, self-directed learning spaces

And something we are working on

Trying new things can be daunting but fun. Pushing outside of our comfort zones is a valuable experience. These are lessons that Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) instructors impart to learners — and that math instructor Susan Korstanje experienced herself over the last two years, as both a teacher and a student.

Susan teaches at the Thunder Bay Literacy Group Adult Learning Centre, which offers free education and skills upgrading for adults via classes in English, math, computers, General Education Development (GED) test prep and trades prep. The team emphasizes meeting each learner where they are and providing personalized learning plans to meet their goals. Susan focuses on building math skills and helping learners apply them in practical ways.

Like many of her peers, Susan has learned new ways of teaching, new techniques, tools, platforms and efficiencies over the last two years. Today, she continues to offer remote instruction for learners who request it. In the spring of 2022, Susan took the new Planning your digital tool box online course from AlphaPlus because of her ongoing need to teach remote learners effectively and provide all of her learners with more ways to learn independently.

Planning your digital toolbox online course 

According to the course creator and instructor, Tracey Mollins from AlphaPlus, planning your digital toolbox is a reflective practice and self-paced, facilitated opportunity for LBS instructors to evaluate theory and research and think about how it applies in their practices. The online course consists of six modules designed to help explore digital technology tools and resources to enhance and expand learning.  

“I created this course to build instructors’ confidence in applying blended learning concepts and methods,” Tracey explains. “For people who plunged into digital technology during the pandemic, it’s an opportunity to step back and consider what you’ve learned and how it fits into the broader field of blended learning.”

While Susan acknowledges that she would have benefited from the peer support available in the AlphaPlus Educator Network, the self-paced format allowed her to fit learning into her unpredictable schedule. She worked through modules covering blended learning frameworks, contexts for learners and educators, goal setting, learner agency and forming a plan. Along the way, Susan summarized her observations, created resources she can use with learners and used frameworks and rubrics to evaluate her use of technology. 

“My primary goal in taking this course was to discover new technologies or new ways of using technologies I was already familiar with,” says Susan. “But I discovered things I didn’t even know I needed and was prompted to evaluate my reasons for and methods of using tools. The course helped me go beyond simply imitating what we could do on paper to create a multi-dimensional learning experience.” 

Susan chose to explore choice boards, Jamboard and Flipgrid during the course to help her extend learning beyond the classroom. The choice board allows learners to continue learning independently, and Jamboard supports both synchronous and asynchronous learning and communication between lessons. She is considering ways to use Flipgrid to encourage learners to think about topics and create videos outside of class time — strengthening their communications skills.

Taking the course meant benefiting from the learner experience

Susan explains that she has added new tools to her digital tool box and explored new ways of using familiar tools thanks to the course. She now has an expanded suite that she can draw from when she needs to. Furthermore, the course turned out to have greater depth and breadth than she expected, covering such topics as the theories and framework around blended learning. And the course eased the way as she continued to push outside her comfort zone and learn new technologies — a process that created a deeper sense of empathy with learners’ experiences.

“Our learners are constantly facing things that they never thought they could do before, and this experience helped me appreciate that while that’s fun, it’s also daunting,” says Susan. “An important point in the course was the focus on learner agency. To encourage lifelong learning, we encourage learners to make their own choices and follow their paths toward their goals. That is something this course allows us to do; take the time to be a learner and enjoy all of the benefits of lifelong learning.”

Would you like to grow your digital toolbox, getting exposure to different theories, methodologies and tools? Would you like to be prepared to adapt your approach for diverse learners, technology changes and contexts? Learn more about the Planning your digital tool box online course. 

Learn more about Planning your Digital Toolbox

Read more case studies

Do you have innovative ideas for using technology to help learners? Do you know where to get help with implementing those ideas? Like literacy instructor Amanda Valliere, you can turn to an AlphaPlus coach.

When in-person programs shut down in early 2020, Amanda, a training facilitator at Spark Employment Services in Sudbury, quickly shifted to using Zoom to meet with her group. Her next step: figuring out how to make her Microsoft Office Workplace Essentials Introduction course content and materials available online — with no budget for a learning management system (LMS).

“I had dabbled with Google tools ever since AlphaPlus provided us with an overview years ago — but I knew I wasn’t using them to their full advantage. Along the way, I had formed an idea about digitizing course resources using Google Sites and suddenly, I had the opportunity to try it.”

Developing her idea for a course website

Amanda started by reaching out to Monika Jankowska-Pacyna, an education and technology coach at AlphaPlus. At weekly coaching sessions, Amanda explained her ideas and Monika answered her questions, helped solve problems and worked through different approaches. Monika also followed up between calls with email support and quick video demonstration or troubleshooting. Gradually, Amanda needed less support, so she and Monika met less often and eventually moved to email support.

Monika explains that this consultative, fluid approach is what any program can expect from working with an AlphaPlus coach: “Amanda was precise about what she wanted to do. However, we always start by asking coaching participants what they are looking for and how comfortable they are with a particular technology. Then we serve as a sounding board, offering ideas, suggestions, options and ways of doing things that you might not have considered.”

With Monika’s support, Amanda created a one-stop course website complete with the manual, videos and quizzes. Thanks to grant funding, Spark purchased laptops installed with Microsoft Office, which they lent out to help learners complete the training.

Several months later, Amanda returned to Monika for help with creating a more engaging learning environment and learning to use additional features within Zoom (for example, reactions, backgrounds and chat), Kahoot and other tools.

Learning alongside learners

“I might have been able to do this on my own, but it would have been inefficient and taken so much longer. Instead, I had access to one-to-one guidance catered to what I needed, the day I needed it,” says Amanda. “As a result, I was able to provide an open, engaging, quality learning environment — and more than that, an opportunity to connect during the pandemic.”

Spark has returned to in-person program delivery, but Amanda continues to use her course website. She teaches from it and makes it available to learners who need to catch up on a missed class or review material. In the future, she would like to explore using Google Classroom for even more integration and features.

“As an instructor, you can be innovative, adventurous and role model learning — and we can help,” says Monika. “Amanda could have just made the course materials available as a PDF, but she thought about a unique use for Google Sites and was willing to learn alongside her learners.”
Carry forward the momentum of the last two years, with an AlphaPlus coach

New coaching sessions are opening in April, and the AlphaPlus coaches are excited to support a new round of instructors and program administrators. Here are just a few examples of the ideas they are ready to explore with you:

• Blended learning
• Creating and maintaining organization websites
• Digitizing course content
• New media and tools for education
• Strengthening file sharing, security and other administrative systems

Would you like to pursue a technology idea with the support of an AlphaPlus coach?
Learn more about coaching and get on the waiting list now for the next round of sessions.

Happy December!

We made it through another year and as we reflect on 2021, we are — as always — wildly impressed with the thoughtful work of our colleagues around the province.

At AlphaPlus, we have the good fortune of hearing about all the amazing and innovative ways programs are working with literacy learners across the province. Our focus is digital technology, but our conversations with practitioners meander over many fields and we find treasures in each one. Thank you all for contributing to our knowledge and to making literacy work the best work.

One of the ways we hear about and share promising practices is through eNet.

Join Us for eNet – Winter 2022

eNet is our short name for the Educator Network — a collaborative, supportive space where literacy instructors can connect with colleagues from other programs to share new tools, resources and ways of doing things.

As an AlphaPlus eNet participant, you will:

• Find support to plan, experience and evaluate new approaches.
• Build relationships with colleagues and develop your own professional development network.
• Increase your confidence in applying blended learning theories and methods in your practice.

French eNet takes place in collaboration with COFA (Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes) and is delivered within four online workshops starting December 15. Contact Guylaine to find out more about subjects, dates and registration.

English eNet will meet synchronously via Zoom and asynchronously in Moodle. Do not worry if you are not familiar with Moodle, because we will support new users.

Our tentative time for Zoom sessions is Tuesdays from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m., but we can adjust this to accommodate the schedule of the group.

Date	Topic
January 18	Getting Started
January 25	21st Century Learners
February 1	Literacy Learners
February 8	21st Century Learning
February 15	Planning the Digital Toolbox 1 – Goals
February 22	Planning the Digital Toolbox 2 – Learner Agency
March 1	The Digital Toolbox
March 8	Reflection and Evaluation

Contact Tracey to find out more and register.

Planning a Digital Toolbox (English)

If a self-paced version of eNet would work better for you, you can sign up for Planning a Digital Toolbox. 

Planning a Digital Toolbox is six modules for exploring digital technology tools and resources that will enhance and expand learning in your program.  You can work through the modules at your own pace starting any time after January 17, 2022. 

The program is delivered in Moodle. Do not worry if you are not familiar with Moodle because we will support new users.

Contact Tracey to find out more and register.

In 2018 a college upgrading instructor came to AlphaPlus with an idea. 

He had developed an assessment tool to determine whether learners were ready for the ways they would be using digital technology as college students. He wanted to enhance that resource and make it available to all LBS instructors.

Six other Literacy and Basic Skills college instructors joined him and worked with AlphaPlus and the College Sector Committee for Adult Upgrading to determine the digital technology skills that learners need as they enter postsecondary education.

The working group developed assessment tools that college LBS/AU programs can use to help assess their learners’ digital skills readiness for transition to post-secondary studies.

Learners can try out their skills and knowledge in a quiz and in a set of holistic assessment activities for Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel. There are two versions of each of the holistic assessment activities that cover the same set of skills in different contexts and that can be used as a pre- and post-assessments.

If learners find that they need to work on a particular skill or suite of skills, we have collected learning resources to help with that: https://sites.google.com/alphaplus.ca/digitalreadiness/home