Hello Integrating Technology and Program Management colleagues,
I want to recommend this February 13th World Education Ed Tech Center blog article, Is Your State Planning for an Equitable Digital Future? by Judy Mortrude, Senior Technical Advisor in World Education's Domestic division, and a longtime adult basic skills state and federal public policy analyst.
I'll assume your interest in digital literacy. I'll also assume that you have an interest in your state's compliance with the federal Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, Title II of the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the major source of public funding in the U.S. for adult basic skills, including ESOL/ESL programs. If not, then this article may not be for you.
According to Judy Mortrude, your state is very likely now preparing its Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) plan for 2020-2023 for submission to the federal government in early March. Do you know if your state is prioritizing digital skills development in its workforce development strategic plan? Many state public policies do not. If not, you have a chance to change that. According to Judy Mortrude, "the current WIOA planning template — the Information Collection Request form that states received from the federal government to facilitate plan development — doesn’t even include the words digital literacy or digital skills or even just plain old DIGITAL." She adds, "No matter. As a community member, you are a WIOA stakeholder and your opinion matters. Find out what YOUR state is planning by checking out your state workforce board or labor department’s website, and then submit a comment — usually as easy as sending an email — asking your state workforce board to include a strategy for building digital literacy skills for your community’s future."
If you have questions or comments about why or how to comment on your state's Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) plan for 2020-2023 or, if you would like to report what happened when you did do this, you can post your comments here or e-mail them to me to post here. This may be a great opportunity, should you wish, to affect public policy in your state to support digital literacy.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com