National Education Technology Plan Includes Adult Education

Date: November 11, 2010

By Heidi Silver-Pacuilla

The final version of the National Ed Technology Plan (NETP) was released November 9, 2010.

This spring, during the call for input, the National Coalition for Literacy coordinated an adult education response to the draft. That document attempted to articulate the role that technology could play in adult education for teaching, learning, and program infrastructure. The document was subsequently adopted by NCL as a policy position.

The final version of the NETP preserves the main categories presented in the draft version: teaching, learning, productivity, assessment and infrastructure. Many of the points and examples are not changed from the draft.

However, some of the examples submitted by NCL’s Technology Task Force made their way into the final version. For example, Learner Web and USA Learns are offered as sidebar examples of high quality learning opportunities for busy adult learners (see pg 22). Additionally, the scale of the adult literacy and English proficiency need in America is represented in the general scope on (see pg 2).

What does this mean for us in the adult education field? NCL would like your thoughts on how you might use this new Plan or the NCL priorities. Here are some starter ideas:

Make a case to your leadership for updating, improving, or leapfrogging to the next level of technology in your program.
Open a discussion about (re)calculating “seat time” in your program – see “Rethinking Basic Assumptions” on page 12.
Distribute to grantmakers and policymakers with an ask for specific funds for specific purposes.
Host a study circle with some of your program staff to brainstorm ideas to bring your teaching, learning, and productivity to the next level.
Participate in a state-coordinated response to the NETP, clarifying how your state can act on ideas and set timelines, goals, roles, and targets to achieve them.

Share your ideas and questions below, we welcome your comments!

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Tags: advocacy, News, technology

Comments RSS TrackBack 9 comments

Kelly Walsh

in November 12th, 2010 @ 09:23

One part of the 2010 NETP document that I found to be informative and immediately useful were the examples of technology-enabled assessments that combine learning with assessment. These real world cases can spark a lot of ideas, and show that’s its entirely possible to take assessment well beyond the traditional test-based approaches. I wrote this article summarizing many of the cases shared in the 2010 NETP document: http://www.emergingedtech.com/2010/09/5-examples-of-improved-approaches-to-assessment-from-the-2010-netp-draft/. I hope readers find it informative!

[Reply]
Jackie Taylor Reply:
November 21st, 2010 at 11:49 am
Thanks for highlighting these examples, Kelly, I look forward to exploring them in greater depth!

Jackie Taylor
Virginia Simmons

in November 15th, 2010 @ 09:28

Thank you so much for the team that worked so hard to include adult education in the National Education Technology Plan. The rest of us will certainly reap the benefits of your efforts. One of my close friends always says, “When you are on the cutting edge, you tend to bleed alot.’ I know that as a team, you had to suffer many times of bleeding just to make all of this happen. Those of in the field appreciate you so much.

[Reply]
Glenn Young

in November 18th, 2010 @ 13:19

Thanks for the hard work in getting us included … I participated in one of the conference calls and was pretty frustrated by the process … glad someone had more stick to it then me …

Now you ask what we need … and what we need to try to do is to create working models of a new approach to adult literacy that is based in technology … (smart phones, etc) and that can be used to make people functionally literate in a matter of weeks or months not the current model that takes years — of course they won’t be independently literate – but would be about to access needed information by using the new technologies – this approach which I call “virtual literacy” is the wave of the future – and has already been mostly mastered by the blind community – We need to be promote and model this approach …

We can not just go in and ask for more money to do the same thing that we’ve been doing since 1910 (if not way before) … but we need to ask for money to create working models that take advantage of all the new technology and capacities that will allow people to receive almost all knowledge orally through technology … as they learn to master language in the work place not in an isolated classroom

In addition this type of approach would create a whole new class of jobs (technical assistance for adult learners in technolgy and its use) for young tech savvy workers who are desperate for new employment ..

So we can create the plan from a real cost benefits position of -

reducing the time in classrooms
making the adult learners more competitive by learning the use of technology and
creation of thousands of new jobs for younger workers ….

So … until we have working models that shows that virtual literacy can work … we can’t go very far … so we need seed money for these projects

I have developed proposals for such efforts if you all are interested

Again thanks for the work

[Reply]
Jackie Taylor Reply:
November 21st, 2010 at 11:40 am
Hi Glenn,

I’d be interested in seeing your proposals. Can you post them here? If it’s a document that’s not online, just email it to me and I can send you a URL for inclusion in your comment.

Jackie Taylor
jackie@jataylor.net
David J. Rosen

in November 18th, 2010 @ 20:35

I would be glad to try to answer questions about the Learner Web, one of two adult education examples featured in the plan. The Learner Web is an adult learner support system integrating online and face-to-face learning resources, now used in California, Oregon, Texas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C. It enables state agencies, regional agencies, libraries, adult education centers, employment and training centers, community colleges and other organizations to offer services to adult basic education learners and to college students in a seamless system of adult learning.

[Reply]
Heidi Silver-Pacuilla

in November 20th, 2010 @ 23:06

Hey all, news flash: Karen Cator accepted our invitation to be a “guest celebrity” and kick off the 21st Century Classroom inquiry area during the 2011 COABE conference in San Francisco. This session will be April 18 from 10:45 – 12:30. (See COABE schedule @ http://www.ccaecoabe2011.com/schedule.html.) She accepted immediately, thanking the adult ed community for our input and guidance to the Plan authors for thinking broadly about learning across the lifespan. Hope you can join us there, and consider putting in a proposal to COABE to help teach others about the power of technology for adult learners. The call for proposals is open until Dec 1, see http://www.ccaecoabe2011.com/call-for-presenters.html.

[Reply]
Jackie Taylor Reply:
November 21st, 2010 at 11:45 am
Hey that’s great news! Congratulations; this should be a great session with her.

Nell Eckersley and I are submitting a proposal to help practitioners use social media in teaching and program management.

NCL is also submitting a preconference on using social media in advocating for adult education, based on the social media research we are conducting with Fission Strategy. Both should be lots of fun and offer practical ideas participants can use immediately. This is, of course, assuming the proposals get accepted!

I’d be interested to learn what others are submitting in the way of tech sessions and the 21st Century Classroom.

Jackie
Heidi

in April 13th, 2011 @ 22:56

An update: Steve Midgley, Deputy Director of the U.S. Dept of Ed, Office of Educational Technology, will be the keynote speaker at the COABE conference’s 21st Century Skills Inquiry Area, Monday April 18.
Read his bio: http://mixrun.com/steve_midgley_bio.html
An interesting factoid: Steve volunteered to teach adult computer literacy classes at Glide Memorial Church in the Bay Area way back when!

[Reply]

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National Education Technology Plan Includes Adult Education

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Comments RSS TrackBack 9 comments

Kelly Walsh

Virginia Simmons

Glenn Young

David J. Rosen

Heidi Silver-Pacuilla

Heidi