Technology and literacy and Professional Development colleagues,
In his remarks announcing a new digital literacy initiative this week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said, "The good news is we’ve narrowed the [broadband] adoption gap over the past 4 years. Since 2009, the adoption rate has increased from about 60% to about 70%. Progress has been faster for mobile broadband. Smartphone ownership has increased from 16% to over 55%, and minorities are adopting mobile at a faster rate than the general population." http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2013/02/fcc_federal_housing_agency_col.html
A small but important part of the broadband access effort, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), has funded state and local libraries, community computing centers, adult literacy programs, community colleges and other organizations involved in providing digital literacy and broadband consumer awareness. I have been involved with this effort through Portland State University's national Learner Web Project http://learnerweb.org . Through the Learner Web BTOP projects and library digital literacy projects I have seen remarkable progress in adult learner digital literacy. However, in our field as a whole I don't see nearly enough. At a time when:
- 80% of Fortune 500 companies post job openings only online
- Most good jobs and many others are posted primarily online
- The major high school equivalency credential assessment (in January 2014) will be available only on a computer (at an approved testing center)
- Most jobs and nearly all careers require or assume digital literacy skills
- Parents who want to keep up with and help their children with their learning
- Cost-saving shopping opportunities are often online, and
- Banking without fees is online
is there any question that adult learners need digital literacy skills and broadband access? The lack of access to state-of-the-art technology at adult literacy centers is -- I'll be blunt -- holding adult learners back. Even when adult learners do have access to the Internet at home -- and increasingly through mobile devices, if adult learning centers do not have internet access and easy access to computers or tablets in the classroom, and if adult education teachers do not have this access and these skills themselves -- they are holding adult learners back.
I believe it is time for the U.S. Department of Education to require that adult literacy education programs that receive public funding offer all learners access to opportunities to learn digital literacy skills, and make it clear to states and programs that time spent on these learning opportunities can be counted as basic skills instruction. It is also essential that programs have significant new public funding (through Education, Immigration, Labor, Corrections, Housing, Commerce, Agriculture, and other federal and state agencies) to enable purchase of digital hardware and software, and to provide training for adult literacy education teachers and tutors who will then be capabable, comfortable and eager to enable adult learners to acquire digital literacy and broadband consumer awareness skills.
Many years ago when Governor Dukakis in Massachusetts created the Commonwealth Literacy Corps and appointed a former Chair of the state Senate Education committee as it chief, and when he started to learn about adult literacy programs for the first time, he told me he was shoocked, that many of the programs he saw were just "education soup kitchens." I am glad that while that has largely changed in my state, "digital education soup kitchens" sadly describes many adult literacy education programs across the country. I hope that with federal agency interest in expanding broadband access that state-of-the-art technology for at least all publicly-funded adult literacy education programs, will be a goal.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
Comments
David,
I think your bullets hit the nail on the head, and I have an idea that I've been sharing with some programs. In your second to last paragraph you say, "I believe it is time for the U.S. Department of Education to require that adult literacy education programs that receive public funding offer all learners access to opportunities to learn digital literacy skills, and make it clear to states and programs that time spent on these learning opportunities can be counted as basic skills instruction." I agree wholeheartedly, but what can we do now?
So here is the idea: what if a program were to use e-mail, Web 2.0, and "The Cloud" as a marketing tool to recruit students. It will open a whole new market. Market that your program will teach people how to (1) get an e-mail and (2) e-mail (an ad executive in my area thought this was a great, novel idea). From this e-mail address (Gmail, Hotmail, whatever) you can teach the person about business appropriate e-mail addresses (I'm on a campaign to stop inappropriate email addresses from existing). Teach the student how to send you an e-mail, it might be the first they have ever sent! Using Gmail or Hotmail the user has further access to "the cloud" and can use online productivity software like Google Docs. Once these two things are accomplished a program could teach a student web 2.0 skills with LinkedIn and give the student a highly portable, highly transferable resume.
From the session student will feel more comfortable with typing - yes the student does the typing. Registering for the initial e-mail will be hard, but by the time they get to LinkedIn it will be easier - plus the student will see the commonalities between the two programs. The skills will transfer to filling out online applications, and you've given them a network to start looking for other jobs of interest.
During the training you can also have larger discussion about what an online profile says about a person. I recently had the opportunity to advise a former student who liked inappropriate pages in a FB group . She had no idea I was able to see her likes, and she was quite embarrased. Part of our conversation was that idea of work appropriate, and strangers making inacurate decisions about a person based off how that peson chooses to represent themself.
Beyond these perks a person can't apply to Lowe's or McDonald's without applying online, some of our students need those jobs and we can help get their. I am talking about the dropout who needs to make ends meet, and I am also talking about the 30 year factory worker who retired but wants a job that gives them something to do. That retiree might have a strong work ethic, not taken many sick days but still not be able to apply for a job because of a technological barrier. Even if that person doesn't count towards the goals, the positive assistance would go a long way to benefit the program in the community.
I believe the project is replicable, can be made part of an orientation process, and if I were a grant writer I would argue it was a transition program to boot! For our students who are working towards CBT and the 2014 GED(R) this activity will help break them into the skill.
David, thanks for your insight. Kentucky Department of Education just released a study that says 75% of Kentucky's students have access to the internet at home with ~80% of those by cable or DSL. I think that shows there is still work to do (its hard to get internet to the hollers) but I think it equally shows how far we've come.
Barry Burkett