Use Apps in your literacy classroom.
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This package of instructional resources was developed in 2012 and includes sample tasks and learning activities to support practitioners using digital technology in Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) programs within the context of the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework (OALCF).
As this is an older document, you may find the links to resources have become outdated.
The sample tasks and learning activities are organized by theme:
Package 1 (PDF) includes:
Package 2 (PDF) includes:
These instructional resources were developed in collaboration with Anne-Marie Kaskens and Tracey Mollins. Instructors and learners at The Literacy Group of Waterloo Region reviewed many of the tasks and provided valuable feedback. We thank them all for their invaluable support.
This research report is based on the study of the perceptions and experiences of ten adult learners with digital media as they work through small group sessions to create their own digital texts and then reflect on whether and how they think that digital media might help them build digital literacy skills and whether they might be able to apply these skills in their daily lives.
The purpose of this small scale study was twofold:
The report explores the following four themes:
A report on a short-term project conducted in partnership with four self-selected, community-based, adult literacy agencies in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Although over the years we have worked closely with many adult literacy programs across the province, we wanted to look more closely at the realities of using digital technologies for adult literacy teaching and learning.
Specifically, we wanted to:
Social Networking Sites and Adult Literacy Learning: Raising the Issues, explores how educators and adult learners might harness the full potential of Social Networking Sites (SNS) and other social media in the service of adult literacy teaching and learning.
This paper, commissioned by AlphaPlus, is a synthesis of the critical analysis of the issues that we uncovered from the literature, policy documents, web-based sources and, more importantly, from literacy learners and educators themselves.
Acknowledging that informal literacy learning is occurring in the process of using SNS, the paper addresses various factors that influence literacy learners’ use of these sites such as 21st Century skills, social and civic engagement, marginalization, the digital divide, and digital citizenship. Noting the ubiquity of digital technologies in today’s society, the authors argue that literacy programs have an important role in helping adult literacy learners keep pace with others in society. However, the paper also raises important issues that will need to be addressed if SNS are to be incorporated into literacy programs.
“Social networking sites and adult literacy learning go hand in hand, in our opinion, yet the issues and questions we’ve raised require careful consideration if they are to be brought together in non-formal and formal educational contexts.”
This practitioner guide gives tutors and instructors information and guidelines on how to use the workbooks and how to match the materials to the rest of their literacy programming.
Tutors and instructors will find ideas for setting up and using the activities in the workbook, information about Essential Skills resources, and suggestions for using the online activities along with the workbook activities.
Other resources in this series:
Skills at Work: Guide to Workforce Literacy
Skills at Work: Guide to Blended Learning
This resource is a guide to using a blended approach to learning. The guide focuses on bringing the best resources, technology, and practices from the e-learning world into the classroom setting – blended learning combines the best features of face-to-face sessions with the flexibility of e-learning.
Other resources in this series:
Skills at Work: Practitioner Guide
Skills at Work: Guide to Workforce Literacy
This guide provides background information on workforce literacy, ideas on program planning and examples of what other workforce-focused literacy agencies in Ontario have done to support learners who have employment goals.
Other resources in this series:
Skills at Work: Practitioner Guide
Skills at Work: Guide to Blended Learning
This workbook helps learners explore employers’ expectations about reading, writing, and math on the job. They will read about the tasks people do every day in different kinds of jobs.
Developed as part of the Skills at Work set, this workbook explores common entry-level jobs and how literacy, numeracy, and technical skills are used at work.
Other resources in this series:
Skills at Work: Practitioner Guide