After searching over 100 resources collections and lists from Canada, the U.S., U.K. and Australia, we have developed a fully vetted collection of workbooks, modules and activities that address a range of instructional topics in our Open Educational Resources and Instructional Materials Collection.

To build the collection, Christine and Guylaine assembled a group of instructors from school boards and community groups, representing urban and rural communities across the province. Members work in program areas ranging from workforce development to academic, with diverse learner groups. They provided guidance to ensure the materials are

• Free and ad-free
• Shareable and reproducible
• Mostly modifiable for use in different formats and to change content
• Ready-to-use with instructional activities
• Accompanied by tips, ideas and strategies for educators to implement.

Take some time to explore the collection. You’re sure to find some gems that you can use right away.

Happy December!

Here are some activities that you can do with learners before or after the winter break: Winter Break Activities from AlphaPlus

Plus one Christmassy activity for those who celebrate.

Winter Animals is made in Google Slides and gives learners a choice of stories or songs to listen to:

• Deer: A song called Deer Dancing Round a Broken Mirror by Bruce Cockburn and Rik Emmet.
• Owl: A TVO short about Kenojuak Ashevak and her painting, The Enchanted Owl.
• Raven: The Raven and the Owl, an Inuit legend put to song. There are two versions: one by The National Film Board of Canada and one by Becky Han.
• Fox: The Fox and the Whale, a 2016 Canadian animated short film directed by Robin Joseph.
• Skater: a 1980 animated film from the National Film Board of Canada narrated by the author of the story, Roch Carrier. There is a link to a 2023 riff on this story called the Hockey Jersey.

There are follow up activities in a Google Form and a Jamboard.

Winter Break is a drag-and-drop and Answer Garden conversation starter where learners can think about what they will do on the break.

Winter Poem is a poetry activity based on the poem Dust of Snow by Robert Frost. Learners can read and listen to the poem and then examine the rhyming pattern (ABAB). They can then compare that rhyming pattern with the rhyming pattern in Catch a Little Rhyme by Eve Merriam (AABB).

Christmas Songs is an advent calendar of Christmas songs. You can see the whole playlist and links to the lyrics or play the songs one by one and look them up. If you want to make your own calendar, contact Tracey.

Here’s what you need to know about our new open educational resources library

• You can access the materials with one-click. 
• All materials are free and reproducible for your learners and most are modifiable. 
• Each resource has a description along with information about allowable uses. 
• The first four of ten topics are now available. We’ll release more topics in the upcoming months.

Half the planned topics in the library are focused on developing overall literacy and numeracy capabilities, many of which introduce innovative instructional approaches. Other topics will address learner interests and goals such as supporting children with their learning or preparing to write the food handler’s test to gain a certificate.

You’ll be able to supplement published workbooks with PDF workbooks, interactive digital activities, online courses and lessons presented in Slides. Modifiable resources allow you to change the content to reflect an Ontario context and better reflect student experience and interests.

We’ve also made it easy for you to build your collection by setting up folders in Google Drive that contain many of the resources. You’re sure to find at least one new gem that you can add to your personal collection. 

On this site you can read our Position Paper on Blended Learning online and browse a collection of resources to help you and the audiences you communicate with learn about blended learning as an approach.

What else you will find on this site

• Presentations  – AlphaPlus webinars about the position paper and the eNet introduction to blended learning.
• The Blended Learning Field Guide – a reflective practice tool about blended learning models and approaches.
• Blended Learning Overview – from the AlphaPlus Digital Technology for Learning site.
• The Blended Learning Toolbox – resources for applying a Blended Learning approach from the AlphaPlus Digital Technology for Learning site.
• The ProLiteracy Blended Learning Guide – and how it aligns with the AlphaPlus position paper.

and graphics you can share with staff, learners, volunteers and community partners

• Definition – the definition from the position paper
• My Life as a Blended Learner – how we Create, Communicate, Collaborate and Think Critically as lifelong learners
• Benefits – the four benefits of blended learning: Blended learning is supports self-confidence and self-reliance; encourages social connection and collaboration; provides flexibilities; and is helps manage systemic inequalities.
• Principles – the three principles of blended learning: Blended learning is learner centred; relevant and useful; and is enhanced by a strong teaching presence
• Blended Learning Infographic and the 4Cs – an infographic about the 4Cs: Be Creative, Communicate, Collaborate, and Critically Analyze

If you’d like a copy of this site to use as a starting point to adapt and expand for use in your program, please get in touch. AlphaPlus can give you a copy and support you in learning how to use a website builder such as Google Sites or Weebly as online learning spaces for learners, staff and volunteers.

Blended Learning Research

Blended Learning Resources

The Digital Inclusion Playbook is 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. 

When students receive their own computer — and it’s really theirs — it sends a strong message. You don’t just own the computer; you own your education and your own future.

Alison Canning, executive director of Let’s Get Together

Access to Technology

Literacy practitioners know that limited access to technology can create insurmountable barriers for lifelong learners in Ontario.
Learn more about the issue of access to technology

Blended learning models

“I’ve always found this compilation of models quite mind-boggling. I find it very difficult to keep all the permutations of a blended learning approach straight. In a conversation with some very wise literacy practitioners from Ontario, I suddenly realized why. I think that instead of reading these models of prescriptions of how to design the delivery of blended learning, we should read them as descriptions of all the ways that educators have developed and adapted a blended learning approach to specific contexts and to meet the needs and circumstances of specific learners.

There is a lot of professional knowledge and wisdom here and, perhaps more importantly, demonstrations of how that wisdom and knowledge is applied in the real world. These models are the curriculum planning frameworks in action.“

Tracey Mollins.

Contact me at tracey@alphaplus.ca to talk about blended learning delivery models.

Here are the models described on the website:

• Four Project-Based Learning Models
  • Project-Based Blended Learning
  • Inside-Out Blended Learning
  • Outside-In Blended Learning
  • Self-Directed Blended Learning

• Five Rotation Models
  • Station Rotation Blended Learning
  • Lab Rotation Blended Learning
  • The ‘Flipped Classroom’ Blended Learning
  • Individual Rotation Blended Learning
  • The Playlist Model

• Two Hybrid Models
  • Supplemental Blended Learning
  • Mastery-Based Blended Learning

• Three Remote Learning Models
  • A La Carte model
  • Remote Blended Learning (also referred to as Enriched Virtual)
  • Flex Blended Learning

Blended Learning Research

Blended Learning Resources

Blended learning curriculum frameworks

These frameworks were developed to help educators design and develop technology-rich learning environments. The frameworks help us determine the level of technology integration in the learning environment and evaluate if the technology is enhancing, extending and/or transforming learning.

Tracey Mollins

Contact me at tracey@alphaplus.ca to talk about blended learning delivery models.

These are the Frameworks described on the website

• Designing for Learning Outcomes
  • A blended learning framework – ISTE Standards for Students
  • A computer basics framework – Northstar Digital Literacy Framework
  • A computer basics / blended learning framework – Maryland Department of Labor Digital Literacy Framework for Adult Learners
  • A roadmap to reach the City of Seattle’s vision to become a more digitally equitable city, where technology’s opportunities equitably empower all residents and communities – Seattle Digital Equity Initiative Digital Skills Framework

• Designing for Learning Experiences
  • The Technology Integration Matrix
  • The Triple E Framework

• Thinking about Teaching Innovation
  • The SAMR Model – SAMR = Substitution – Augmentation – Modification – Redefinition and describes a way to think about the result of integrating digital technology for learning into a curriculum.
  • The LoTi Framework – Levels of Teaching Innovation – This is a Teaching Innovation Framework that is similar to SAMR but includes a resource for reflecting on how different learning activities fit into the framework.

• Designing for Modes of Learning
  • Bloom’s Taxonomy – Some people have done some work to align the Bloom’s Taxonomy learning domains to SAMR.
  • HEAT – H.E.A.T Framework = Higher-order thinking – Engaged learning – Authentic connections – and Technology use is a student learning framework that describes what learners are doing at different levels of digital technology integration with reference to Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Blended Learning Research

Blended Learning Resources

AlphaPlus has collected a set of interesting frameworks, approaches and theoretical foundations that are relevant to adult literacy practice and can inform planning, designing and decision-making.  

We’ve included a blended learning toolbox, an annotated bibliography of tools, apps and websites curated using the framework principles.

If you’re interested in exploring blended learning options for your program, please get in touch. 

• AlphaPlus coaches will work with you to create an individualized plan and develop blended learning solutions for the learners in your program. 
• As an Educator Network (eNet) participant, you’ll join a cohort of Ontario literacy practitioners in a reflective practice process and have access to both AlphaPlus knowledge and peer experience.
• If you get stuck while trying something new, the AlphaPlus Quick Tech Help option can help. 

The role of resource curation is an important one and can be overwhelming and time consuming.

AlphaPlus developed this site to help literacy practitioners 

• develop curation strategies
• work with learners to develop curation strategies
• adapt literacy learning starter kits

There are three sections.

• Curating Resources
  • Tips on finding and choosing resources to use with learners and co-learning resources for working with learners on curation strategies.
• Curated Lists
  • Lists created by literacy programs and other educators. This set of learning resources can be a starter kit for literacy practitioners curating a set of literacy learning resources.
• Places to Learn
  • e-Learning lessons, activities and learning pathways that literacy learners can work on independently. The resources are organized by topic. This set of learning resources can be a starter kit for learners curating their own set of literacy learning resources.

If you’d like to learn more about curating resources, contact Tracey, sign up for an Educator Network program or sign up for one-to-one support through Coaching.

• As an Educator Network participant, you’ll join a cohort of Ontario literacy practitioners in a reflective practice process and have access to both AlphaPlus knowledge and peer experience.
• AlphaPlus coaches will work with you to create an individualized plan and develop digital learning solutions for the learners in your program.
• If you get stuck while trying something new, the AlphaPlus Quick Tech Help option can help. 

If you’d like a copy of this site to use as a starting point to adapt and expand for use in your program, please get in touch. AlphaPlus can give you a copy and support you in learning how to use a website builder such as Google Sites or Weebly as online learning spaces for learners, staff and volunteers.