Many public libraries in Florida provide free online training for adult education. As students gain very basic skills with help from a volunteer tutor, their lessons can be enhanced if they add independent learning strategies. They can take courses online free at some libraries. Or if they are lucky enough to have access to the Internet in other locations via a wireless hotspot or from home--though their library. Larger libraries tend to be able to afford these programs. Ask your library if they have a free program or are considering getting a program. Tell them that you will help promote the program to your clientele if they purchase it.
Tutor.com is one libraries provide. It provides free tutors for all ages. Learning Express is another online tool. Tutor.com can be accessed through an I.Phone which extends access as many students have smart phones.
If you are a tutor or program manager, share how you introduce these free resources to students in comments below. Most require a library card to sign in. I know alot of programs, help students get a library card early in their tutoring sessions. What do you do?
The programs need to be used to make it worthwhile for a library to pay for them. I just learned that Learning Express only provides data on students who complete a full test --not those who go in and only go part way. If tutors promote these online tools and share their success stories of their students with library staff, libraries may be more likely to keep paying for them--even as the collection budget shrinks.
As a tutor, you can be the cheerleader for students who complete a course.
Continue to share your student outcomes--with funders and with your library partners too. Libraries need stories like these, to convince the politicians that libraries are important in the 21st Century!
Have a good Labor Day weekend and Happy Literacy Month.
Thanks,
Sandy Newell, President, VALF
Jacksonville Public Library offers links to free GED prep practice exams on their website, www.jpl.coj.net. Go to the "Resources" -> "E-Research" -> "Testing and Reference Center With Career Module" tabs, and students can access free test prep matrials after creating a login for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a great resource we have a high demand for GED materials and cannot accommodate the need. We are trying to hold onto to more of the test booklets but they are checked out so quickly.
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