VALF Online August 2010 Newsletter Update
Contents: VALF Membership, Florida Literacy Month, Online Webinars, ACE Conference, Transliteracy and the Florida Electronic Library
It is hard to believe that fall is right around the corner with Florida Literacy Month activities being scheduled for next month. VALF just wrapped up a busy year. We had a successful annual meeting and awarded two grants to our members with programs in Monroe and Hillsborough Counties. We provided a menu of programs at the Florida Literacy Conference, started a new initiative, providing free online programs for our members and continued to provide training on program management,serving the lowest level learners and much, much more. I hope you enjoy our August Newsletter.
by Sandy Newell, VALF President
September will again be Literacy Month. Actually the "official" day is September 8, International Literacy Day but most programs hold events throughout the month. There will again be a partnership between Florida's state parks, literacy programs and libraries. Read more
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| Center for Adult Literacy, Jacksonville Public Library, for Florida Literacy Month in Jacksonville |
If you are new to literacy day, you may want to take a look at this toolkit published by ProLiteracy. It is a pdf and thus takes time to download. It was published in 2006, so is dated, but it does have a variety of ideas to celebrate the month and provides context for the celebration.
Free Online Learning
VALF plans to present a variety of online sessions for another year on topics like family literacy, health literacy, library literacy, program management and more. Our sessions are free for VALF members. Watch this blog for the schedule.We want to hear from you. Please suggest topics you would like to see covered by emailing us at valflorida@hotmail.com
VALF board members, Glenda Norvell, Erika Greene and Sandy Newell presented a series of four online sessions titled, Using the Internet for Studying for the GED. It was our 2nd venture into online learning. Our first was a grant writing session for those interested in applying for VALF grants.
Membership Drive
We are just starting our membership recruitment campaign and want to encourage you to renew your membership today. It is only $25 for an organizational member and $15 for individual members.
We added a membership category for businesses for $100 this year. We are providing special benefits for business members including highlighting them on our wiki and blog. Why don't you become our first business member?
Please renew or become a member today and encourage your volunteers and students to join VALF. It only costs adult learners $5.00 to join. We use our membership funds to pay for day to day expenses and are 100% supported by membership and donations. Go to our wiki for our membership form.
Adult Education Conference in September 2010
The Adult and Community Education (known as ACE) Conference will be in Orlando on September 27, 28 and 29 at the Hilton Orlando. The price for the conference is $290 for members and $355 for nonmembers. You can register for one day for less. This conference is very school and classroom oriented. At this time, the list of programs is not on their website, but you may be able to get a list from ACE.
We have found that one of the best parts of this conference--especially for librarians and literacy program managers are the exhibits, and they are free. So, if you live in the Orlando area, you may want to stop by. The exhibits are open form 8 am - 4:15 pm on September 28 and from 8 am - 3:30 pm on September 29.
ACE actually formed 20 years ago when the adult education association joined with the community education association to form ACE. The sports competitions during the conference came from the community education culture. ACE is celebrating their 20th anniversary of this merger.
New Term -- Transliteracy
Literacy has come to mean many things--computer literacy, financial literacy, ocean literacy and more. When I first got involved in adult literacy in 1975, literacy meant adult literacy. That is how our language and the world has changed.
Here is a new one which really does relate back to volunteer literacy programs -- Transiliteracy.
So what does this mean.....
Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.
I am betting that some of us who grew up before social networking and media aren't very literate in those areas. The old school of thought was that you must be able to read and write to use the computer. Of course, this is still important, but YouTube, flicker and other sites using pictures, videos, music and more have broadened how we learn.
Humm... I can tell you how little I know. I just spelled YouTube like this Utube... I had gone there before but just didn't remember that it is all about "YOU"!
What is your take on this one? Do you use social media and project based learning as part of your lessons? Share your strategies or frustrations with VALF.
by Sandy Newell, President VALF
Florida Electronic Library
Here is a new way you can enhance a lesson. Download articles about topics your students are interested in from the Florida Electronic Library. It is free (actually paid through the State Library and Archives of Florida Library Services and Technology Act grant) Anyone in Florida can search and download articles that you find in magazines that you typically would pay for.
Does your student want to know about a health problem? The two of you can find an article together based on his/her interests. Print off the article and...here is the change, download an audio copy of the article to an mp3. Your learner can listen to the article as homework. Then during your next lesson, the two of you could read the article together with the reinforcement of the taping.
I am sure you will come up with more ways to use this exciting new tool! To get help on using www.flelibrary.org , go to your public library. Also share your strategies by posting a comment here or email us your ideas to valflorida@hotmail.com
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