Digital delivery for low level literacy students

DIGITAL DELIVERY FOR LOW LEVEL LITERACY STUDENTS

CC image from Peter Shanks

Is it so different to what other

learners need?

Michael CoghlanNewLearning5/5/15

WHERE DOES AUSTRALIA RATE?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate

BACKGROUND

• The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that 7.3 million Australians - almost half the adult population - have problems with literacy. These people often struggle to hold down jobs, balance their household budget and just make their way through each day. (Australian, April 9th, 2013)

• The 2006/7 Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey (ALLS) indicated that between 46% and 70% of adults in Australia had “poor” or “very poor” skills across one or more of the five skill domains of prose literacy, document literacy, numeracy, problem-solving and health literacy.

https://ala.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/LLN_paper.pdf

“So many literacies are there!”(Can we list some?)

TYPES OF LITERACY

• Media literacy

• Critical literacy

• Visual literacy

• Information literacy

• Digital literacy

• Eliteracy

• Transliteracy

• Multiliteracy

OVERARCHING TERMS FOR NEW LITERACIES

Transliteracy

Multiliteracy

Transliteracy (pl. transliteracies) is the ability to understand and communicate—i.e., to be

"literate"—across all communications platforms, including sign language, speech, reading, writing,

mass media, and social media. The term was coined in 2005 by the Transliteracies Research

Project

Multiliteracies is a term coined by the New London Group. Because the way people

communicate is changing due to new technologies, and because there are shifts in the

usage of the English language within different cultures a new "literacy" must also be used and

developed.

“For years at school I was asked to do things I wasn’t good at and that Iwasn’t interested in.”

Appointed editor of thenew media based schoolmagazine.

“Finally after several years I wasable to spend time at school doingthings I enjoyed and that I was good at!”

MORE ON MULTILITERACY:

• while eating breakfast, students may be listening and speaking at the table while watching a morning news program that requires them to attend to print, view both still and moving images, interact with a website or view a film clip, and at the same time interpret the behaviour of the news broadcasters interviewing someone from another country on a split screen.

• To learn within this environment, students need to be able to understand and use the grammars of language, still and moving images, music and sound. These grammars are often referred to as semiotic systems. Five semiotic systems have been identified; the linguistic (ie the traditional system of producing shared meaning using sounds, words, sentences, paragraphs etc), the visual (eg line, colour, vector, texture), the gestural (eg facial expression, body position and posture), the spatial (eg the organisation of people and objects in space) and the aural (eg sound, music and silence).

• A 21st-century multiliterate individual needs to have the skills to consume all five semiotic systems. Conversely, they will be required to produce texts that use all five systems such as play scripts, email, video and PowerPoint presentations. The terms ‘consuming’ and ‘producing’ are used here because they more accurately describe the knowledge, skills and processes employed in constructing print and digital texts than the traditional terms reading, listening, writing and speaking.

• Exposure to all these forms of text must go hand in hand with the realisation that all texts are consciously constructed in order to share information in particular ways – that texts can shape attitudes, values and behaviours.

MULTILITERACIES RESOURCE

• Victorian Department of Education Series Videos –Considering Multiliteracies -http://newlearningonline.com/multiliteracies/videos

(thank you Mark Pegrum!)

CODE?

LITERACY OVERKILL?

Is it a case of literacy overkill? Literacy simply has come to mean the ability to do something effectively eg sing (musical literacy?)

Low Level LiteracyACSF: pre-level 1 and level 1

SUPPORT CONTEXT TEXT COMPLEXITY TASK COMPLEXITY

Significant support Works alongside an expert/mentorPrompting, advice and modelling provided

Highly familiar contexts onlyConcrete and immediateExtremely restricted range of contexts

Short and simpleHighly explicit purposeLimited, highly familiar vocabulary

Single step, concrete tasksProcesses include copying, naming, matching, ordering

Works alongside an expert/mentor where prompting and advice can be provided

Highly familiar contexts

Concrete and immediate

Very restricted range of contexts

Short and simple

Highly explicit purpose

Limited, highly familiar vocabulary

Concrete tasks of 1 or 2 steps

Processes include locating, recognising

PreLevel 1

1

“Keep It Real” (ie authentic)

1998

Your students want to discuss real issues

DON’T LOWER (Intellectual)STANDARDS

Language focus here (dog, beach, walking)

Mind focus here

WHAT IS YOUR/THEIR PURPOSE?

Why do they want to read and write? What do they want to accomplish? AND … what are YOU trying to achieve?

The Question of Values

Our philosophy determines how we perceive and deal with our preferred teaching methods –which includes how (or if) we choose and use e-learning technologies. (http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/04_Anderson_2008_Kanuka-Online_Learning.pdf)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/konarheim/4073209881

TEHRAN

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kamshots/6299604013/

19682010

PEOPLE NEED A PURPOSE AND THEY MIGHT NOT KNOW

WHAT THAT IS - YET

GOALS/PURPOSE – why do I want toimprove my literacy skills?

NOW

GOALACHIEVED

STEPSHow many?How long?

What’s required?

(thank you Mark Pegrum!)

What’s this?

What’s this?

What’s this?

What’s this?

MANY CHANNELS

How I communicate with people I know:

• Person B – SMS OR Facebook

• Person C – Facebook

• Person D – email or SMS

• Person BE – FB or email

• Person T – SMS

• Person A – SMS or Facebook

• Person J – email

• Person E - phone

TARGETED LEARNERS

WHAT DO

NEED?

ALL ‘TARGETED’ LEARNERS REQUIRE:

• Clear context (why am I here?) • Clear purpose (why am I doing this?)

• Opportunity to create, interpret (make meaning)• That they be given a voice > a sense of self-worth/value

= feeling successful > motivation

• Support• Patience

CONDITIONS THAT PROMOTE LEARNING

• Experiential learning in which concepts and language are closely linked to students’ own experiences

• literacy tasks that are related to students’ concrete experiences

• the use of visual, concrete and tactile materials

• frequent repetition and recycling of learned material

• frequent breaks and changes of pace

• group and collaborative learning

• course hours aligned with students’ availability and learning needs

• the grouping of learners with similar needs together, rather than mixing levels and abilities in one class.

(from http://www.ameprc.mq.edu.au/docs/fact_sheets/Teaching_Issues_Fact_Sheet_10.pdf)

CONUNDRUM:

AM I A LANGUAGE OR TECHNOLOGY TEACHER?

urlTagHashtagApp….

?

AM I A LANGUAGE OR TECHNOLOGY TEACHER?

CONUNDRUM:

AM I A LANGUAGE OR TECHNOLOGY TEACHER?

urlTagHashtagApp….

?

AM I A LANGUAGE OR TECHNOLOGY TEACHER?

POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES

• Streets of Tehran (or similar)

• Bruce’s students – cleaning up vacant lot/planting stuff > website (tactile, concrete)

• Solving authentic problems (keeping it real/relevant; linked to students’ own experiences)

• Working with community (“take the classroom to the world OR bring the world into your classroom”)

• Flickr (for tagging)

TEACHING ABOUT TAGS WITH FLICKR (or Instagram)

• Choose an image

• Brainstorm possible tags

• Search for other images with these same tags

• Have students create images and tag them

• Upload to Flickr via class account

Skills: tagging, searching, vocabulary, content creation

DIGITAL STORYTELLINGDigital stories combine digital images (still or video), a narrated ‘story’ or voice over, and sometimes music or sound effects into a ‘mini-movie’ that usually runs for around 2-4 minutes. They are a wonderful way to capture lives and local history, and are VERY easy to create.

This slide sponsored by Junita Lyon

THE APP WORLD:

• Love Apptually: http://www.takingthelead.com.au/resources/love-apptually-apps-support-learning (VET specific)

Creative Commons image from Wesley Fryer

http://www.spellbetterapp.com/

(idea borrowed from Jonathan Finkelstein)

FURTHER RESOURCES

1. Keystrokes to Literacy: Using the Computer As a Learning Tool for Adult Beginning Readers - http://www.amazon.com/Keystrokes-Literacy-Computer-Learning-Beginning/dp/0844206792 ($10)

2. What is Digital Literacy? https://www.commoncraft.com/video/digital-literacy?

3. Building Strength with Numeracy - http://www.valbec.org.au/building-strength-with-numeracy/

4. SEN Teacher – Free Learning Resources -http://www.senteacher.org/print/literacy/

5. The Body in Audio - http://www.languageguide.org/english/vocabulary/body/

6. Basic English Vocabulary Pronounced Aloud -http://www.languageguide.org/english/

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS?

END OF TODAY’S SESSION

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