Sign up for Lincs Discussion Today -- This week's discussion on badges and adult literacy

Sign up for LINCS -- Your resource for adult literacy https://community.lincs.ed.gov/home I have heard about badges but really didn't think much of them until I saw this discussion thread.  It reall does look like this could be used for achieving small goals for adult literacy students or for digital literacy training provided by the public library. Post a comment if any of you are currently using or considering using badges! Here is more about this week's discussion from their site ----------------------------------------------------------------- Digital Badges Discussion Starts Today! Join the conversation here. This event runs through December 9 in the Technology and Learning group and will consider the following questions: Question 1. How are badges different from credentialing methods used in the past? Adult education examples may include career pathways, certificates, and stackable credentials.  How are these similar and different from digital badges? (Tuesday, December 3) Question 2. If “the technology for issuing badges is available to anyone with access to the Web,” what then are the roles for quality & content standards (in awarding badges)? Of accreditation?  What are the bottom-up or top-down processes needed for developing badges? (Wednesday, December 4) Question 3. Where do badges derive their value, what is their value, and how might it evolve? (Friday, December 6) Question 4. What adult education issues may arise for public sector (local, state, federal) involvement in badges? For private sector involvement? (Saturday, December 7) Discussion overview: What is a digital badge and how is it different, or similar, to the credentialing systems now in use in adult education? What is the value of digital badges for our education field and how can we use this emerging electronic system to measure or validate individuals’ knowledge and skills? What would an adult education digital badge system look like and which individuals and programs would offer badges? Follow this link http://lincs.ed.gov/professional-development/resource-collections/profile-716 to read The Potential and Value of Using Digital Badges for Adult Learners, a report recently released for public comment by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, through a contract with the American Institutes for Research (AIR). This exciting discussion will be facilitated by Steve Reder (http://www.pdx.edu/profile/meet-professor-steve-reder) and David Wiley (http://davidwiley.org/), two researchers who bring combined knowledge of adult education, technology, and digital badges to our forum.

Connecting Learners to Social Services

As you start the school year with adult learners, you may need to refer them to other service providers. This service provider resource available across the state.

The Orange County Public Library received a Library Service and Technology Act Grant to develop this and expand it across the state.  United Way Providers are good resources for referrals.


Providing connections to social and community services are an important part of a successful volunteer adult literacy program, and these services are becoming harder and harder to access.  As Florida continues to close government offices, libraries and information and referral provider are filling the void.

Find out if you have an Information and Referral provider or the location of  your closest library  to learn about your community's social services.  All volunteer literacy programs should share this information to their tutors and students with-in workshops and via tools like Facebook, Twitter, E-mail and more.

Maker Spaces and Libraries

Some libraries are providing more customer friendly services which are accessible to low level readers.  The following summarizes a new trend --where libraries are moving from knowledge preserving to knowledge creation. These places are meant to be fun--even for adults, and since they foster making things--many adult learners may find the library a friendlier place for them to learn. Maker Spaces can also be centers for family literacy activities providing opportunities for Parent and Child Together Time.

There are also maker spaces that are not in libraries.  Some of the spaces provide 3-D printers. A dad recently made a hand for his son using a 3-D printer. There is even a concern about 3-D plastic guns which can be taken through security.

The public library in Orlando is putting together a maker space. If your library or another group in your community are doing this, let us know. Or, you may want to talk with library staff to express your interest in partnering with the library as a volunteer literacy program. These creative spaces make the library's services more accessible to adult learners..

Library of the Future

Here are common mistakes made by newer grant writers....

• Not reading (and following) the grant guidelines. One easy way to make sure you follow the guidelines is to pull in headers of key elements from the application into your outline of the grant. This helps you know what needs to be included. It also shows the grant evaluator, where you covered they kep points.
• Writing the grant in isolation. Pull together a team, including key partners, to plan out the grant activities. One person should write the proposal, but a team will provide you a better set of objectives and activities.
• Not spending enough time doing the needs assessment.

Resources for Using Music for English Language Learners

The following articles were written before the age of smart phones and You Tube, and the Internet was just taking hold.  Even so, the steps described in 1994 would still work today. Now music permeates the Internet and can be used to enhance lessons.  You may not need to buy the song.  Many titles can be listened to on You Tube. You will want to find songs that better fit the age and interests of a tutor and student.

Using Songs to Introduce Poetry to ESL Students,
by Loretta Frances Kasper, The Journal of the Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching. Volume II - 1994

http://www.njcu.edu/cill/journal-index.html

This article describes how to use songs to learn how to speak and

read English and be introduced to poetry. It uses the song, At Seventeen, and contrasts it with the poem, Beautiful Old Age, by D.H. Lawrence. It walks you through the process step by step, using the four stages often used in any basic reading exercise; 1. The prereading stage, 2. the factual stage which includes listening to and reading the song or poem 3. The discussion and analysis stage on the themes and literary techniques and 4. Writing an essay around the theme, which, in this case is youth and old age. It includes a number of discussion questions.

Even though this is classroom based, it could be used in a small group or adapted to one on one.  The same steps would be appropriate for a basic reading student, with the exception that the student would know some of the words verbally, even if he or she could not write or read it. The song and poem would build a student’s vocabulary with the words like ravaged and charades. The full text of the song and poem are included in the article.

You can listen to a version of the Seventeen, song on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7kc144yy8Y

Country Songs: Music, Language, and Life
by Judith Diamond and Elizabeth Minicz  The Journal of the Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching. Volume II, 1994

http://www.njcu.edu/cill/journal-index.html

Country music provides adult themes to build lessons around for English Language Learners.

Survey of Adult Skills also Called PIAAC

This was just posted on the Community of Practice for Adult Literacy

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We hope everyone saw that the OECD released the international Survey of Adult Skills or some of the press coverage it has attracted. Because the federal government was shutdown, ED was not able to participate to the level originally planned. This announcement may help clarify what has been released and provide an update on next steps. The web hub for reports, resources, events, and press links can be found at www.piaacgateway.com.  (You may recall that we have used the term “PIAAC” to refer to this dataset, but the OECD is using the term Survey of Adult Skills; it is the same data, collected on adults aged 16-65 in 23 countries.) The findings from this Survey are of great importance to the adult education field, are already being discussed in the Groups, and will continue to inform conversations.  We hope you join in.
Released on October 8:

• The main OECD international comparison report, the data files, and “country notes” for each participating country
• The main report called, OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First Results from the Survey of Adult Skills, a freely-accessible PDF book
• A 32-page international summary called Skilled for Life? Key Findings
• The U.S. country note called Survey of Adult Skills, First Results: United States
• Secretary Duncan’s remarks at NBC’s Education Nation can be found on www.piaacgateway.com
• A one-hour webinar on the 8^th by Andreas Schleicher of the OECD explaining the findings

Released on October 18: ED’s National Center for Education Statistics “First Look” report, which presents the U.S. performance in the international rankings, as well as some U.S. specific data
Upcoming on November 12: the OECD-authored report "Time for the United States to Reskill? What the Survey of Adult Skills Says" will be released. This report was funded by the OVAE. It will:

• Interpret the U.S. main findings
• Offer a detailed profile of low-skilled adults in the U.S.
• Identify policy implications and offer broad policy recommendations for the U.S.

A live and webcast event will take place to release the report. More detailed information regarding this event will be posted at www.piaacgateway.com

Tools to Make Your Job Easier

Many of these tools could be useful for program managers of Volunteer Literacy Programs

Tech Tidbits & Free Social Media Apps for the Hurried Admin

I attended the Tech Tidbits & Free Social Media Apps for the Hurried Administrator presentation last Wednesday, October 2. It was presented by Dr. Rob Furman, Principal of South Park Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was interested in this session, because I wanted to learn about new tools that can possibly save me time on tasks and grow professionally.
The session featured over a dozen technology tools that are available on the internet for free. Some of the tools I had heard of before (Evernote, Pinterest), but some were new to me (Flipboard, Author Stream). What is interesting was how these tools were being repurposed for use in education.
Below is a list of the technology tools mentioned in the presentation. In some cases, an example of how an administrator can use the tool in an educational context is provided:

• Evernote: This is a note-taking application (that allows for audio, video, images, text) that can transfer content to every device you own. An administrator could type classroom observations on a laptop or tablet and the content will automatically transfer to every device you sync the application to, including your office desktop computer. https://evernote.com/

• • Original text from the Discussion: Connected Educator Month: The Adult Education Connection 
    
  • I-Fang Cheng's comment on the Discussion
    
    
  
  See more tools on future posts.....
  
  Share your ideas of how this App could make your job easier or could be used in a literacy program....
  

New GED 2014 Test Practice Test Post

VALF is following some of the discussions on the Connected Educator LINCS site. Here is a recent post with a link to a new GED 2014  Practice Test

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A free 2014 GED practice test from GEDTS
Yesterday, the GED Testing Service released a free 2014 practice test on their website.  Have you take it? What did you think?
A few things to note before diving in for the first time:

• About quarter-length, so half the length of the GED Ready (OPT).
• It's web-based, so probably not something programs can print and use as an skill assessment.
• Gives an alignment of the problems to the 2014 GED Assessment Targets.
• It's not predictive of passing 
• GED Ready will be released in late-November.

A couple observations:

• Working through this practice test was not the strenuous (humbling) exercise that I experienced going through the Item Sampler this past spring.  That test was not representative of the level of rigor that testers will encounter in 2014, but this one seems to be the result of a norming process. Do you feel like 60% of graduating high school seniors could pass this free practice test? 
• The test seemed to lean slightly toward word-problems and text-based content (and maybe standard multiple choice questions in general) more so than  graphic literacy or overly-complex diagram formats (though the new formats are certainly present).   

Overall, it seems fairly traditional and straight-forward to me.Of course, there's only so much we can infer from a quarter-length test, so please take my conclusions with a grain of salt.  I'm curious to hear from others.
Here's the link to the test again:  http://www.gedtestingservice.com/educators/freepracticetest?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Non%20TT&utm_content=2014+Countdown
(I posted this as a comment in reply to an older question about this, but it could probably use its own thread)
Jason Guard
Essential Education
jason@essentialed.com