The last entry reminded me of a brilliant resource, now out of print but still available (eg via Amazon), called Keystrokes to Literacy by Antonia Stone. Many adult basic educators (and online groups such as the LiteracyTent folk) refer to this when teaching beginning literacy and computer keyboard at the same time.
Here’s an example of the world of technology emerging into the classroom. The BBC reports on a new game called “Keyboard Crazy”, which is a physical, on-the-table game, instructing people in the position of letters on a computer keyboard. Educators in Britain seem to be impressed by this commercial product, judging from a review from the Basic Skills Agency. One teacher claims it helps people learn “mental literacy” (as distinct from your physical, instinctive literacy?).
This year (’05) at PRACE, we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to research computer games in a learning environment. Our group of adults studying literacies with Margery seemed to enjoy playing games in their computer session, so we went off to discover what other games might be useful in a literacy-learning environment. My favourite game was AddemUp, from Blue Bug Games – a number game that really challenged people in the group. We found using the data projector very useful, for making this into a group activity. You Read More …
Found a terrific set of basic images, at a Japanese language teaching site. Basic vocabulary type images – could be useful for low-level classroom. There are so many places online where you can find free images these days. (We've got some more in the AL-T Treasure Trove of Links.) Teachers are sometimes concerned about copyright – and if you're thinking of re-publishing, then it's an essential concern. (You can read up more on this issue at the Au. Flexible Learning Framework, or at the new "Copyright Kitchen", on the
Here at the Eureka! e-volutions in e-learning conference, Ballarat, Vic. an interesting presentation from the South Grampians adult education centre – who have been using digital storytelling as a way to engage their students in the 'disaffected youth' program. "Low literacy levels" are a major issue with the group, and the teachers have found the power of using images and voice to reconnect people with learning.
Found this inventive alphabet on a 'free photo' site, and wondered if it could be a good seed for beginning literacy learners. A teacher could display the letters via projector (or print-out – you can download large copies of the letters), encouraging learners to find the word behind the image.
Launch of new community area Very exciting stuff going on in the new Community Networks area at EdNA. Good to see the Australian Flexible Learning Community having a go with moodle at last. Today’s the launch day – will my computer crash just as i get into Elluminate? Ha ha.
Government Monopoly on ‘dot-edu’ names For a couple of years, educational bodies could get free domain names. Now we have the flip side. Education.au has taken over the running of the .edu domain, and now they’re the most expensive domains you could possibly have. You can buy a .com.au domain for under aud$60 for two years. A .org.au for under $20 if you shop around. But the .edu domain name space has shot up from free, to aud$110. Why should schools pay more than private companies? I guess if you Read More …
Research into Flexible Learning in ACE Currently reading Josie, Glenda and Mary’s research into Flexible Learning in ACE, put together by TAFE frontiers in 2004. It’s a brilliant and thorough piece of research, and i hope it’s getting the attention it deserves – especially now as we have a major review into education in Victoria. From the ‘themes’ page, their research “showed overwhelmingly that flexible teaching and learning is flourishing in ACE – as it has for a long time”. Urban providers could learn to broaden their learner base using Read More …
NetWorking 04 Coming up – the most looked-forward-to online conference in Australia – NW04. Presenting with Frankie Forsyth on ‘free and open source software’ on Friday the 19th November. Were you touched by the DNA swindle? ".. Justice Finkelstein found that various domain name notices sent by Domain Names Australia (DNA) in July and September 2003 were, as alleged by auDA, misleading and deceptive." Our accountant said to me one day, "oh, i paid that invoice for our web something". Wait a minute, our account shouldn’t be due for another Read More …
So, it’s clearly been years since i’ve posted in this place. There’s been a whole lot going on in the meantime, including pandemic etc. Since 2017, my teaching has focussed mainly on technology aka “digital literacy” within adult community education (ACE), and i haven’t done much in the way of language and literacy teaching at all. I’ve been working as a “learning facilitator” aka Tour Guide at the Polly Woodside Museum, with the National Trust. For those who didn’t grow up in Melbourne, Polly Woodside is an old sailing ship, Read More …
I decided to bring posts to this blog from other projects, such as: Digital Learning at PRACE Digital Learning at Lalor Living and Learning ACFE Learn Local Communities of Practice the North-West e-mentor projects from ACFE Learn Local iPad for Seniors at PRACE the 23 Things project from ACFE, CAE and PRACE. Having written nearly all the text in those places, i wanted gather it all together. It was relatively easy to export from Blogger, and then import into WordPress here. Unfortunately, now i’ve discovered several roadblocks, namely: the Read More …
You remember Mark Hopkins, the adult learner from PRACE who told his story so well, not only in our publication, but also on the SBS Insight tv program last year? Well, some of the stories from this Resilience collection have been translated into other languages for the EPALE* site, and the first story to be translated was Mark’s. *EPALE: Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe. https://goo.gl/XqROOX
Last night Tricia Bowen spoke about her experience of reconnecting with the adult learners who have shared their stories in this volume. I talked about how great it was to join with Tricia and Lynne in the whole creative and collaborative process of editing. Then Lynne Matheson invited us to launch the video into the world, so we all made rocket-launching sounds, and the champagne flowed. * It was such a good experience filming and editing these stories with Tricia. I would love to hear any feedback, especially related to Read More …
If you think Australia is a highly literate nation, watch this recent episode of Insight from SBS. This powerful and moving episode features Mark Hopkins one of the students from PRACE. I spoke with Mark as part of the “Stories of Resilience” project, and it’s really heartening to hear his voice in this national forum. All these adult learners show real courage and vulnerability, as they describe their experience for people who have no idea of the extent of this hidden problem. Over 40% of Australians experience some level of difficulty Read More …
If you’re involved with any kind of online facilitation, you may appreciate this article from The Guardian. They’ve done some research into the comment section, finding that much more abuse is directed at female writers than male. (Also, for web designers, some really good layout effects, especially the way they’ve integrated the graphs and the “how would you moderate this comment” bits.) There’s a whole series around this research, articles interviewing people who have experienced the maelstrom of massive online shaming and bullying.. and articles on ideas for making things Read More …
Here’s a copy of the printed materials we handed out during the course. It’s a pdf file that should hopefully open on your iPad. Link here: This post was originally on the site “iPad for Seniors” at PRACE.
Just sent out the latest PageTurners newsletter, letting people know that the new shopping-cart style website is up and running!! It’s taken me much time this year to get the site all updated and e-commercey, so i’m very happy that we’ve finally launched. Woot. You can read the newsletter here. Take a look at the site, tell us what you think. Oh, we need a feedback form don’t we. If you’re not subscribed to the PageTurners email list, you can join via the website.
I wondered if there are any iPad apps that would be especially useful for people over 55, so i searched the web for “best apps for ipad for seniors“. Sure enough, there are many many lists: “16 helpful apps for seniors”, “27 bet iPad and iPhone apps for senior citizens”. But are any of them useful.. and how many of these apps are FREE..? Well, some of them are designed to help people by improving things like: Visual accessibility: Silver Surf is a web browser with “large navigation buttons, dynamic text Read More …
Here’s a basic intro that Michael made – for low level students really (link: pdf stored in google drive). GCF LearnFree don’t have an intro to blogger, but they do have a great section talking about blogs in general, and an intro to Tumblr instead. Tumblr is much more visual than blogger, which can be text-heavy. Google themselves have a fairly decent help section. Grovo has a few videos showing the basics, including this overview. But they’re a commercial mob, and they’ll want you to pay for more. What good Read More …