Joe and Everyone,

I'm glad we're talking about this, and let's just keep it as the
Wednesday Question. It seems odd to me that the data from various
sources (which several list members shared soon after the Health
Literacy Webcast) is not consistent. Some show high interest and usage
among lower literacy adults, and other sources (like the NALS: National
Assessment of Adult Literacy) suggest that only 80% of the lower
literate folks look for health information on the net.

Regardless...technology and its use among so many is growing at a
lightening pace. What's true today about internet access and usage may
be already outdated in a couple years. So even if a small number of
people with health literacy challenges use computers and the internet
now, we have to lay the groundwork for them to start learning these
skills now so that they can be prepared for the future. If we ignore the
internet now as a mode of teaching and access to health information, we
will likely be sorry later. 

I agree with Andres that face-to-face contact with students is essential
and cannot be substituted with good health information websites. But
teachers and health educators can do their work much better and more
efficiently if they themselves can access heatlh literacy resources
online, such as curricula, funding sources, contacts, guidance and more.
So the use of the internet as teacher and health provider support is
huge. But as we all know, a small percentage of adults who need literacy
services are actually getting that face time with teachers, so we do
have to figure out a way to expand our audience, while still protecting
them forom the "junk" that's out there (and it's not just on the
internet, but in all kinds of advertising: TV, magazines, billboards,
etc.) Down the road, the internet is likely to be a critical mode of
broadening our audience. 

All in all, I see some good strategies developing in current practice:

  - Adult educators are pushing for adding computer literacy at all
levels of instruction.
  - Distance learning is expanding, becoming an important way for a
greater number of adults to learn literacy and other skills at their own
pace online with instructor support.
  - Health literacy curricula are including more about finding and
evaluating health information online.
  - Libraries (public and medical) are coming on board in a big way,
training librarians to help people find health information using the
web, and providing more opportunitites for those who do not have
computer access at home (or skills, for that matter) to access computers
AND face-to-face guidance at their libraries.

I think we need to keep up with all of these good practices!

What do others think?

All the best,
Julie

Julie McKinney
Health Literacy List Moderator
World Education
jmckinney at worlded.org

>>> "Muro, Andres" <amuro5 at epcc.edu> 10/01/08 12:29 PM >>>

I consider the web very critical to some of the work I do related to
health education and health literacy. It is very useful for myself as an
administrator to find information, funding opportunities, to stay
updated in the field, etc. However, the most important and most critical
aspect of health literacy education is live contact with students. There
has to be a live teacher interacting with students as the central
component of our work (education). The web is a very useful support tool
that, nowadays, has become almost essential. I still remember, though,
when we did not depend that much on the web, yet, we still met with
students daily to facilitate instruction.
 
Andres 
 
Please visit my art website at:
http://www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html

________________________________

From: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of joe horne
Sent: Tue 9/30/2008 6:04 PM
To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov
Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2348] Is the web a viable way to improve
healthliteracy?



Hello,

I am a student at Georgia State in the Instructional Technology program.
 I was curious how critical you all (as health literacy professionals)
consider the web to be in your practice?  Is it more important for your
groups, or is some other medium more critical?

Thanks,

Joe

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