Category: adult literacy

digital literacies ..book arrives

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, professional development, research

Very exciting news for me: a book landed on my doorstep. “Digital Literacies” edited by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. Lynne and Sarah from Valbec’s “Fine Print” very kindly asked me to review it. The introduction sets out their agenda: Colin and Michele were looking for writers who would expound upon the notion of digital literacies as social practice, because: there is a huge diversity of understandings of “digital literacy”, which has an impact on policy around digital literacy; socio-cultural perspectives on “literacy as practice” are strong and useful, in Read More …

a literacy class goes well

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, classroom

We’ve been studying the local shops and businesses. The other day, students used (digital) cameras to photograph some of the shops. We brainstormed a huge list of all the shops in the area. Then people wrote short descriptive pieces about some of the shops. They could work in ms publisher, powerpoint or on paper. As a group, we created texts on the big screen in powerpoint, and then added audio to the powerpoint slides. Most of the learners were not game to put their voice on record, so i recorded Read More …

Fill in forms .. on CD

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, classroom, e-learning

Chris couldn’t do the whole research project, but i still wanted her to be involved; so we talked about how to use audio technologies with her very beginner, low literacy ESL learners. Filling in forms is a crucial survival skill, but the language is reasonably advanced. Chris’ students find it hard to remember written text or even recognise words on the page.. so we decided to prepare an audio CD allowing the text to be both on the page and on the CD player. She would have them do the Read More …

A pen that reads aloud?

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, technology

So Pauline mentions, on her way out of the office, that she once saw a “scanner pen” that would read aloud printed words from the page. “Stop right there!” i leapt up from my seat. (Actually, i gazed up in a web-induced stupor, “Hmm?”) At a conference for adaptive technologies a couple of years ago, she saw one of these things being used. A pen, that scans the page and reads aloud. i want one. i want several !! How useful would that be for literacy learners?! .. could be Read More …

Ceres, goddess of excursions ..

Michael Chalk2 Commentsace, adult literacy, classroom, community

Way back in February, Leigh Blackall wrote about his journey to Melbourne, and to Ceres Environmental Park. He raved about the luxury of having such a wonderful site so close to the city – and recorded a couple of interviews with the locals there. Yes Leigh, we’re lucky here in Melbourne. i’m really lucky, i can go visit Ceres any time i like, and often buy my organic vegies there. They also have a second-hand market on a Saturday morning, and let me tell you i’ve found some real bargains. Read More …

Issues for '08

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, classroom, e-learning, innovation

Over in the AFLF Networks Forum, Coach Carole has suggested discussion around our “top Ten list of issues and technologies would you like to explore in 08 (and why)” Link to the Forum here (login req’d .. but i was too slow to respond.) These are the ideas that fascinate me at the moment: Issues: Digital literacies and participatory digital culture, Development of professional expertise within the ACE sector, Shared writing spaces for adult literacy learners, Audio books on the web, Sharing resources across adult community education (ACE), Professional development Read More …

Bad Luck can Lead to Low Literacy

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, classroom

Great article in this month’s Literacy Link from ACAL. Steve Goldberg writes about his work running the national Reading Writing Hotline over the last seven years. He’s always inundated with requests for radio interviews, occasionally from shock-jocks who try to make him say that the education system is cracking up, and urge him to name the blameworthy. i love the way Steve tells his story .. these interviews are his favourite, because he gets to challenge all the “loaded assumptions about adult literacy”. And then he’ll tell some real life Read More …

image labelling game

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, classroom, innovation

An interesting idea from Google: they want to improve the quality of their knowledge about online images, so they create a game, the "Image Labeler". Could be difficult to play when people have serious spelling issues, but could be fun for others .. Essentially the program matches you up with another person (you may play as a guest), and you both add words to describe each image, until you come up with a match. This gives the search engine more information about the pictures it has found. Matching two strangers Read More …

infinite thinking mac .. goog .. machine

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, e-learning

Infinite Thinking Machine .. i’ve just stumbled on this one somehow. Very snappy and engaging ideas for teachers. This crowd loves Google in a big way: they’re sponsored by google, but they talk about plenty of other things (social software, mashups, classroom ideas). This episode taken from chapter five of their blog, Calculate This, which has plenty of ideas for using spreadsheets in class. Watch out for the Grade 5 kids sharing their formulas, and getting totally social about feedback on their work. Anyway, their videos are good! Tight and Read More …