Colleagues,

On Dec 27, 2008, at 3:05 PM, Jackie A. Taylor wrote:

So, a few questions:

What are the considerations for professional development if the $500  
million stimulus for adult education became an immediate reality?

• Massachusetts many years ago decided that 10% of its state and  
federal adult education funding should be used for professional  
development. I think that's a guideline that should be recommended to  
other states in all new federal funding.

• We (professional developers, practitioners) need federal funding  
for a national research center specifically for adult literacy  
education (like NCSALL).

What additional models already exist that we can learn from?

One of the adult literacy education delivery models that has great  
promise, but that will require significant new and additional  
professional development ,is online learning. This is especially  
useful for programs that involve initial face-to-face training and/or  
education and then job placement, where there is still need for  
continued education once the person is working, but because of the  
work schedule there is not much opportunity to attend classes. A  
blended model, that involves some face-to-face, perhaps one or two  
Saturdays a month, and 4-10 hours a week of online learning might be  
an ideal model for some people in this situation. Currently there are  
very few adult literacy education teachers who have been trained to  
do online learning well. If online or blended learning significantly  
expands, there will be a "labor shortage" of these teachers.

How would we get up and running as quickly as possible?

We are now close to having final AALPD standards for professional  
development. Using those standards as a touchstone, and the knowledge  
gained by Project IDEAL, the Health Care Learning Network in  
Massachusetts, The McDonald's Corporation's English Under the Arches,  
programs that have used English for All (and now USA Learns) and  
other online and blended learning models, perhaps we could discuss  
here -- and archive on the ALE Wiki -- some design principles,  
objectives and content areas for training/professional development in  
online teaching. Has someone already done (or begun) that?

If there were a small group of people who were interested not just in  
discussing this, but also working on developing a PD design for  
online adult literacy education teaching, perhaps they could organize  
themselves in an online workgroup (using Officezilla, Community Zero,  
a Google or Yahoo group and/or a wiki). We could discuss that here, too.


David J. Rosen
DJRosen at theworld.com






David J. Rosen
djrosen1 at gmail.com



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