I would like to introduce myself, especially for those whom I have not had the pleasure yet to meet.
I have worked for several decades in the field of adult basic education (defined broadly, from basic literacy through transition to post-secondary education and including English language learning) as a teacher, program manager, curriculum developer, professional developer, program evaluator, researcher, advocate, consultant and advisor. For over a decade I was the Executive Director of the Adult Literacy Resource Institute at the University of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts SABES Regional Support Center for adult basic education programs in the greater Boston area. Since 2003 I have been an independent consultant providing professional development and training, research and evaluation, curriculum development, and technology integration advice for adult basic education and out of school youth education and workforce development programs in the U.S. Canada, the Caribbean, West and Southern Africa, South and South Central Asia.
I have a persistent interest in using free online digital video in face-to-face and online instruction, for example for teaching math, science and writing. With a videographer colleague, I have created an adult education professional development website of short, authentic classroom videos, what I often describe as a video window on other adult education teachers’ classes. In 2015 I wrote a free online guide to blended learning for adult educators. I also have a persistent interest in competency-based education and mastery learning that I see fitting very well with blended learning in a set of strategies aimed to significantly improve adult learning outcomes in this era of rising education standards.
I moderated a LINCS special topics discussion list, when LINCS was part of the National Institute for Literacy. Currently I am also the moderator for a mobile learning Wiggio group, a Flipped Learning Network adult basic education group, a LINCS Science micro-group of evaluators of science teaching videos, and of a group of adult education science teachers who have field-tested a new, inexpensive (under $2) 140-400x pocket microscope with adult basic skills learners.
As Gail Cope, the previous Moderator of the Program Management CoP has mentioned, many topics have been discussed in this community during the years when she was moderator, including: Partnerships, Data-driven Decision Making, Evaluation, Benchmarking, Coaching/Mentoring, Program Models, Adult Learner Motivation, Program Improvement, and others; we will certainly want to re-visit some of those discussions as well as to launch new ones, for example, on Adult Public Charter Schools and others.
Whether you are new to this community or not, please introduce yourself, and tell us about your current program management interests; for those of us reading those introductions, let’s reply indicating how our interests may intersect with theirs. if you are interested in something I mentioned in this introduction and want to know more, please post a reply to ask about it.
David J. Rosen,
Moderator, Program Management CoP