Where are the Adult Education Blogs?

Colleagues,

In 2009, I wrote a short blog article about adult literacy blogs. I have just updated the article and added links to a couple more blogs, making the total ten. I will consider adding others if their blog focus is adult basic, adult secondary, transition to higher ed, or adult ESOL/ESL/ELL learning. You'll find the article at http://davidjrosen.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/adult-literacy-blogs/

Why could this be useful to you?

Some of the blogs are written by experienced adult basic education teachers and other practitioners who are also top thinkers in our field. Some include trends, often in technology, but also in other areas. Most of the articles in these blogs are written as labors of love, not for commercial or promotional purposes, as contributions to the thinking in our field. They are a nice complement to some of the conversations here, and many of the writers also contribute to LINCS.

Is there a blog that you think should be added?

If so, please post the web address here or email me and I will consider adding it. I would also appreciate knowing why you like it. I am sure I must inadvertently have missed some important adult basic education blogs and would appreciate your help in learning about them.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

Comments

Good Morning, David, and Happy Thanksgiving (or rather Black Friday :)) to All,

I have to admit that I have not traditionally been a reader of many blogs. I follow any number of professional organizations and publications, but have really just in the past year or so begun to follow the social media feeds that link to respected blogs in specific subject areas. I very much appreciate the link and information you share above.  I think that, much like YouTube and Twitter, the ability of "everyman" to share their insights and opinions is adding valuable "from the trenches" observations to the field of adult education (as well as to many other fields.) I've had finding a few blogs that resonate with me on my list of things to do for a while now, and now I have additional motivation and a bit of help in checking that task off.

-- Heather Erwin, Correctional Ed SME

Colleagues,

The Adult Literacy Education blog  https://davidjrosen.wordpress.com gets annual Wordpress blog data reports. Here are some highlights for 2014:

  • Adult Literacy Education was viewed about 3,200 times in 2014. (“A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. If it were a cable car, it would take about 53 trips to carry that many people.”)
  • The Adult Literacy Education blog articles that got the most views in 2014 were:

1 Adult Literacy Blogs November 2009 *  **

2 Defining Digital Literacy January 2013 *

3 Using Free Online Instructional Videos with Adult Learners  March 2013 *

4 What will U.S. adult basic education look like in the future? Ten technology trends that may be transforming it.  July 2014

5 Competency-based Adult Education in the Cloud Age September 2012 *  **

* These were also among the most-viewed articles in 2013

**These were also among the most-viewed articles in 2012

  • Although most readers came from the U.S., Canada and France were not far behind, and altogether readers came from 86 countries.

 

David J. Rosen

Djrosen123@gmail.com

Hi David, Heather, and All,

Thanks David for refreshing us about the list of blogs in adult education and literacy. Like Heather, I follow organizations both within our field and in broader fields like the nonprofit world. I especially like Social Media for Nonprofits and Beth Kantner's Blog.

I'm wondering to what extent bloggers in adult education and literacy reach out to bloggers in related fields such as education (K12 and higher education), technology, social innovation, etc., and encourage them to read, comment, cross-link, etc. In other words, do adult education bloggers use their articles to raise awareness of adult education and literacy successes and issues with a broader audience? Why or why not?

Jackie Taylor, SME

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Jackie, these are good ones and new to me. I'm looking forward to expanding my reading repertoire. 

I also wanted to reference a couple of blogs that I have come across recently. They are both actually blogs by Prison Librarians who are wonderful at promoting literacy skills and distributing resources in secure facilities. The first is: http://prisonlibrarian.blogspot.com/?m=1, and the second: http://soyouwanttobeaprisonlibrarian.blogspot.com/?m=1. 

I think this actually does the opposite of what you suggested -- broadening the applicability snd raising awareness with a larger audience -- but I think that when the material is compelling, as these and your above referenced blogs are, that subscribers will share them and wider audiences will develop.

 

 

My speciality are the regularities and irregularities of English spelling and their effect on literacy acquisition.

I have written about them on my blogs http://englishspellingproblems.blogspot.co.uk     and   http://improvingenglishspelling.blogspot.co.uk

Over the years I have worked particularly hard on trying to improve my summary of the ins and outs of English spelling and hope that the latest version

http://improvingenglishspelling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/rules-and-exceptions-of-english-spelling.html  

is clearer than any of my earlier attempts.

Literacy teachers might find my recent blog  http://readingandwritingenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/300-most-used-words-in-english.html 

about the 300 most HF English words of interest too.

Masha Bell

Ex English teacher, now independent literacy researcher
Author of ebook SPELLING IT OUT (2012),
'Rules and Exceptions of English Spelling' (2009),
'Understanding English Spelling' (2004),
 

 

 

 

 

The i-Pathways project hosts a blog at https://ipathways.wordpress.com. The topic is not specific to i-Pathways as many posts have included topics on retention, digital literacy, marketing / recruitment of students, using graphic organizers.. to name a few. Feel free to check it out. We are always looking for guest posts so if any of these readers would like to share their expertise, let us know. 

Sincerely, 
Kathy 

The ESL Literacy Network has a professional development blog for adult ESL/ELL Literacy practitioners. There is a wealth of information, resources, classroom ideas and best practices shared on the blog. The blog posts are written by experienced and novice ELL literacy instructors, volunteer tutors and program coordinators.

http://www.esl-literacy.com/blog

Thank you for sharing the list of adult education blogs David.

Shelagh

Shelagh and all:  Thanks, Shelagh, for including the link to the ESL Literacy Blog. It's very useful to have materials for learners with emerging literacy. I looked through the materials on setting financial goals  (https://esl-literacy.com/blog/setting-financial-goals) and found that most can be used in the U.S. with minimal or no changes to spelling or word choice! For example, neighbour  becomes neighbor, spanner becomes wrench and so on.

Unfortunately, the culminating game would need to be overhauled as it it in in pounds sterling!   http://www.barclaysmoneyskills.com/~/media/Files/Schoolchildren%20Resources/Barclays%20Money%20Skills%20-%20Resource%20Pack%207-11.pdf

A great variety of activities on this blog!

Miriam Burt

SME, Adult ELL CoP