LINCS Colleagues,
There are many ways you can use the LINCS Integrating Technology Community of Practice. Here are some you may not have considered; I hope you will:
- You are trying to learn about a software tool, product or app on your own, perhaps from the product website, from YouTube videos, or maybe from a borrowed product manual. You need some help. No one in your program, agency, family or neighborhood is familiar with the program, or has actually used it. Post your question(s) here. We are a national community of nearly two thousand people working in adult basic skills education. Maybe someone can help.
- You are increasingly interested in apps for your adult learners. You wonder if anyone in Integrating Technology has reviewed any, and if there is a list of these somewhere. There is both a LINCS micro-group of reviewers, and an Integrating Technologygroup member, Alison Ascher Webber, who has begun a good list of apps for adult learners.
- You wonder if anyone has developed a comprehensive list of websites for adult learners. Indeed, I have.The Literacy List is a large collection of free Adult Basic Education and ESOL/ESL web sites, electronic discussion lists, and other Internet resources for adult basic skills learners and teachers. It improves, of course, when users like you let me know if there are any broken links, or when they recommend websites to consider adding.
- You want to include some professional development objectives in your PD plan this year on integrating technology. You have a rough description of what you want to learn, or maybe some finely crafted learning objectives, but you wonder if there are any resources that LINCS online courses, or the Integrating Technology Community might offer to help you master your PD learning objectives. Ask about this in the Integrating Technology CoP.
- You are excited about an integrating technology project that you have recently developed and are ready to talk about it with an eager, sympathetic, knowledgeable audience of teachers and professional developers. Post a description in the Integrating Technology CoP and ask your questions.
- You wonder what other teachers of adults see as the pros and cons of allowing adult learners to use their smartphones in the classroom, and if others have had success in helping students focusing on learning and avoiding the inevitable distractions, and if so how ??? Ask your question here.
- Your students have said they want to learn about something that is not your area of expertise, for example, public speaking, photography, web design, or math, and there is no class they can take at your program or in your community. You wonder if it is possible that they could learn this online and, if so, how you could suggest they go about this. Ask your question here.
- You have read a post here by someone you don't know, but you whom you would like to learn more about, ask a question or two, or to follow their blog. You don't know how to do that here. You wonder if LINCS users have profiles with their contact information. (They do, although not everybody has completed them) and a LINCS in-mail address (every LINCS community user does)
- You wonder how other LINCS users keep up with technology -- and if they do. You are looking for some tips on what to read that might be especially pertinent to an adult basic skills teacher. Post your question!
There may be lots of other ways to use the Integrating Technology CoP. Would you like to suggest some? Then please reply to this discussion post.
David J. Rosen, Moderator
Integrating Technology CoP
djrosen123@gmail.com