The AlphaPlus Web Index is a collection of links to resources relevant to adult basic education. It covers subjects such as digital literacy, the integration of technology in instruction and mobile learning.

The Discover Online Integrated Information Technology (DOI²T) program is a solution by Sioux Hudson Literacy Council created to meet the growing need for exciting and quick digital literacy learning opportunities for adults. 

DOI²T practitioners apply creativity-based digital technologies to teach learners everyday life skills as well as the practical skills needed for contemporary jobs.  Learners can, for instance, complete a two-hour Cricut design session that teaches:

• Measurement
• Project planning 
• General computer skills

The Cricut design session also teaches learners:

• How to find, access, and use information from websites and videos
• Software navigation
• Computer-assisted design
• Time management
• Budgeting
• Digital hardware manipulation
• Troubleshooting skills

DOI²T Goals

DOI²T fills the need for contemporary and exciting digital literacy learning opportunities in LBS programs and seeks to expand it. The project aims to create a network of practitioners who share lesson plans and challenges and support other LBS programs in implementing their own DOI²T learning opportunities.

DOI²T Benefits for LBS providers and learners

The DOI²T learning program benefits LBS providers by increasing learner traffic and supports them in learning easily implemented digital literacy teaching methods. For learners, the program provides a soft and exciting introduction to digital technology and creative technology use.

For SHLC, the program also meets an important cultural need. Crafting and creativity are important aspects of Indigenous culture. Linking creativity and technology is a new opportunity for learning providers to attract new learners and to provide culturally relevant and contemporary learning opportunities.

Working with partners

The SHLC has worked to expand the scope of the DOI²T program by helping other learning centres around Ontario fund and facilitate DOI²T programming. To date, they’ve built a valuable sharing and support network through their province-wide partnerships.

Honourable Mention: Canada Life Literacy Innovation Award

This autumn, the SHLC DOI²T program received an honourable mention from ABC Life Literacy Canada’s 2019 Canada Life Literacy Innovation Award (LIA). The annual award recognizes organizations that develop and implement innovative adult literacy and essential skills programs in communities across Canada. Winners of this award have demonstrated that their program has made a positive contribution to the lives of their adult learners as well as the community, and that they serve as a model for other organizations to adapt.

Congratulations Sioux Hudson Literacy Council!

Learn more about the DOI²T program.

YouTube’s autoplay function can pull users down the internet rabbit hole for hours on end. But a constant stream of autoplay videos can cost users more than a few hours of lost time. As we watch videos, YouTube’s algorithms work to generate video recommendations, and autoplay plays those recommendations in a steady stream.

Recommended videos that appear on our feed are derived from algorithms that are highly targeted to specific users and optimized to make sure highly engaging content is up next. But what’s next isn’t always what’s welcome. In Mozilla’s #YouTube Regrets project, users said the platform often directed them to extreme content that was very different from what they originally searched for.

Here are a few examples from Mozilla:

“I’m a teacher and I watched serious documentaries about Apollo 11. But YouTube’s recommendations are now full of videos about conspiracy theories: about 9/11, Hitler’s escape, alien seekers and anti-American propaganda.”

“Any search for positive LGBT content results in a barrage of homophobic, right-wing recommendations. I can only imagine how harmful this would be to people still figuring out their identity.”

Turning off YouTube’s autoplay allows users to actively select the videos they want to watch and helps them to avoid videos that may be harmful, extreme or simply irrelevant.

How to turn off autoplay on a computer:

1. Open YouTube.
2. Select a video to watch.
3. On the video page, click the blue dot next to “Autoplay” in the top right corner of the screen.
4. To turn autoplay back on, click the blue dot again.

How to turn off autoplay on the YouTube app:

1. Open the YouTube app on your device.
2. Tap on your profile image or avatar in the top right corner of the screen.
3. Tap “Settings” and scroll down to “Autoplay next video.”
4. Tap the blue slider bar button to turn off autoplay.
5. To turn autoplay back on, tap the blue slider bar button again.

Multifangled specialises in adult and youth education with a focus on literacy and numeracy and applied learning. Experts in educational practices appropriate for non-traditional education settings, community education, and/or disadvantaged groups.
http://multifangled.com.au/wp/

Yes I Can- A Mental Health Guide for Adult Literacy Facilitators – Written by Jennifer E. Hewitt. Published by Project Read ( Kitchener-Waterloo)
Webinar:

Mental Health Guide Q & A

In a recent technology coaching session with LBS program staff, technology consultant Matthias Sturm worked with a client to create a lesson plan and digital skills assessment tool.

The lesson plan and online tool were designed to provide learning opportunities while building the digital and self-efficacy skills needed to complete online forms like assessments and surveys. Take a look at our implementation of this tool.

The Need

• Create an online tool that collects information from learners about their use of digital tools and resources, their online learning preferences, and other data to inform program planning.

The Tool

• We developed a lesson plan that helps learners use online surveys and learn about assessment tools and how to complete similar forms independently.
• The surveys created in SurveyMonkey and Google Forms used common web-based features often found in other online surveys and fillable forms including: radio buttons, short answer, comment fields and the like.

Impact and Outcome

• Prepare learners to complete the online surveys using blended learning activities.
• Learning activities were (and can be) scaled to meet the ability and skills of learners.
• Results can be reviewed individually with each learner or collectively during a group activity, to inform planning for future activities.

Educators can adapt the lesson plan to prepare learners to use online surveys to build the confidence and skills needed to complete work independently. What’s more, the lesson plan integrates customizable surveys in French and English.
For more information about this tool check out our Tech Tuesday webinar archive, or contact Matthias Sturm.

Google Docs and Sheets Are Tools for Activism and Advocacy

Google Docs is more than just a free word processing and sharing tool. It’s a powerful equalizer for advocacy and activism. Yes, you can create, share and edit documents in collaboration with others, but it’s Google Doc’s ability to reach a wide audience instantly that makes disseminating of information and mobilizing a cause easier than ever before.

For example, the now hugely visited document entitled “False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical ‘News’ Sources” (nicknamed the Fake News Bible) was created by a college professor during the last US election and made available on Google Docs to help readers verify which information circulating in the media was factual and which was not.

Google Docs eliminates the higher monetary costs historically associated with organizing and processing, freeing up valuable time to focus on action, policies and instantaneous information-sharing anytime, anywhere in the world.

In the education sector, Google Docs can be used to compile resources or contacts as well as analysis on the policies and funding changes that impact our work or require a co-ordinated response.

Google Docs is free to use, and no account is needed to access or comment on an existing document. Documents can be distributed via social media or email and embedded into a website.

Did you know you can easily create quizzes and surveys for your learners using Google Forms?

Our technology consultant Maria Moriarty created this three-minute video tutorial to show you how to:

• Access Google Forms.
• Create a quiz.
• Create mandatory and optional questions.
• Review and test a quiz.
• Share the quiz with students and view responses.

Online quizzes and surveys are easy to create, eliminate paper, and simplify marking and feedback.

Two-minute video lesson: Create an all-access Google Hangout link using Google Calendar

Did you know Google Calendar can generate Google Hangout meeting access links automatically?
Many people struggle with accessing the video calls. Complicated instructions, links and set-up times can delay calls and sap collaborative energy. In this two-minute Screencast video, Monika Jankowska-Pacyna, AlphaPlus Technology Coach and Consultant, teaches you to set up a meeting and create a simple access link for participants.
Avoid technical hiccups and use Google Calendar to:

• Create and schedule Google Hangouts.
• Automatically generate a single access link for participants.
• Send your meeting invite link to participants.
• Easily access the videos calls.

Check out the Screencast video here!

LiveBinders is a digital classroom organizer that helps you package and share information in a single place. Information is packaged like a binder or book, which makes it intuitive to navigate. Instructors and program coordinators can curate digital resources, store them in one easy-to-access place and share them with learners using a single web link.

Use LiveBinders to create a customized textbook that includes videos, text content, images, PowerPoint slides, Google documents and spreadsheets — all organized with tabs and subtabs. Make the entire binder available to students at once or in sections as lesson plans progress.

Organizations working with AlphaPlus technology consultants use LiveBinders to:

• Create a binder from their bookmark lists.
• Capture websites directly into the binder.
• Collaborate with other instructors and learners in real time.
• Collect, organize and share learning tools for classroom and student use.
• Annotate resources with key points, teaching instructions or other notes on delivering the material.

LiveBinder It!
Install the “LiveBinder It” button on your web browser’s menu bar to add web pages directly to your binder. Simply click the button when you visit a site you like and LiveBinders will ask you to add it to an existing or new binder.

Never lose an assignment again
Learners can access the binder and revisit information whenever they like. They can also complete assignments and tests within LiveBinders, which means no more keeping track of multiple files and papers.
To bring LiveBinders of other teach we love to your organization, contact our technology consultants.