A few weeks ago I did a presentation about Mobile Learning (Mlearning) for low-literate adults with graduate students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Center for International Education.  I made the slides on my computer, uploaded them to my iPhone and projected them from the iPhone to a multimedia projector. You can see the presentation (from your computer or web-accessible mobile device) at:

http://www.slideshare.net/djrosen/mlearning-international-projects-for-adults.

Note: on many of the slides where you see web addresses you should be able to select the link and play demonstration videos. After you look at the slide show presentation, I would be happy to have your comments here, particularly if there are other good examples of Mlearning for low-literate adults that I might include in the presentation.

After I had the phone, I bought a hard case to protect it from possible injury, and a two-year extension AppleCare technical assistance plan.

I uploaded my slideshow to the cloud,

downloaded it to my iPhone, connected the iPhone to the multimedia projector using a VGA cable (I could have used a HDMI/digital AV Adapter cable) and played the slide show. It looked great!

Because I had included videos with sound in the slide presentation, I also needed to connect external speakers that use a 3.5 mm standard cable to the iPhone’s earphone jack.

As I was inserting the cable jack plug I noticed that it fit too loosely in the jack, and I didn’t feel the satisfying snap of a close cable plug fit. When I played the video, alas there was no sound. How could this be? The iPhone 4S must not use a standard plug. If so, I thought,  there must be a convertor cable. I called the Apple store, but the person who answered the phone hadn’t a clue and suggested that I come in and look through their accessory products. I looked up accessories in the Apple online store, but didn’t see a cable that seemed to meet the need. I called AppleCare. The technician I talked with didn’t know, and after doing some research online without any success, suggested I take my iPhone and the multimedia projector to the Apple Store and see if the problem could be solved there. I had my doubts.

This story has a happy – and perhaps instructive – ending. At the store I asked to speak to an iPhone expert, and explained the problem to a perky young saleswoman who figured out right away that the problem was mechanical. Although it had not been an issue for the specially-designed iPhone earphone cable plug, the edge of the hard case was preventing the standard cable plug from being inserted fully. She removed the case and then the standard 3.5mm cable worked fine.

In Japan, since at least 2003, (some claim as early as the mid 1990′s) the keitai short stories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_phone_novel delivered by mobile phone have been very popular, and in 2007 five out of ten of the most popular novels in Japan (not necessarily the best) were written and delivered by mobile phone. There is a fast-growing youth novel industry in South Africa that delivers novels by mobile phone. In the U.K. there is now a “micro-novel” written and delivered on a mobile phone whose purpose is to encourage teenagers to read. Launched by a prominent UK Rapper, Chipmunk, and a well-known writer, Terry Deary (author of Horrible Histories), the micro-novel is called ‘The Perfect Poison Pills Plot’ http://www.music-news.com/shownews.asp?H=Chipmunk-encourages-literacy-with-new-micro-novel&nItemID=44393

Some cell phone novels are interactive. “What makes the cell phone novel interactive is the instant communication between author and reader. Readers can leave comments which the author can respond to. If the author notices less people reading as the story progresses, he can immediately take action to change the plot. Only time will tell if this publishing phenomenon is just a fad or a 21st century obsession that’s here to stay.” http://vicki-f-chavis.suite101.com/cell-phone-novels-for-a-new-age-a152954

In the U.S., which has taken several years to catch up to Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and European countries that have relied on text messaging, cell phone novels arrived late, in 2009. http://vicki-f-chavis.suite101.com/cell-phone-novels-for-a-new-age-a152954

If you want to try your hand at writing and self-publishing a cell phone novel, go to http://www.textnovel.com/home.php

One way you (or your students) can develop a comic short story is by using the free software available from http://makebeliefcomix.com

If you want to learn more about the cell phone novel phenomenon, go to http://www.textnovel.com/story/The-Cell-Phone-Novel-Manual:-About-Cell-Phone-Novels,-What-They-Are-and-more/5579/

It doesn’t mean that this is a math panacea. So far, it’s just an experiment that apparently has some promising results with children. Will it have promising results with adults? Not unless there are adult education classes that try it, and where the results can be reasonably compared with other, comparable, adult math classrooms. Do you know of any adult literacy education teachers who are trying the “flipped classroom” model? Are you thinking about it? What are the considerations in doing so for the use of technology, and for teaching numeracy? Can it be done in adult basic education?

Although in Los Altos they use Khan Academy videos, I see no reason why the flipped classroom should be limited to Khan videos. If there are better instructional videos for adults, teachers could use those. Some of these video resources are listed under “Instructional Videos Useful for Adult Learners” on the Adult Literacy Education (ALE) Wiki at http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Using_Video_with_Adult_Learners_-_Links_%26_Resources .
If you know of other numeracy/math videos that you think would be useful for adult learners, please add them to that page. (There are simple instructions for how to do this at the bottom of the wiki page.)

To read the Boston Globe article, go to http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/09/18/flipping_for_math/ .

In many adult education classes today, collectively the students know more about using technology than their teacher. The best solution is for teachers who do not feel comfortable is to wade in with their students, admit that while they are experts in teaching English they may not be experts in digital literacy, learn along with and from their students. This is a very different teaching paradigm, one that takes getting used to (a “we are all in this together” model instead of a “sage on the stage” or even a “guide by the side” model), but there are ESOL/ESL teachers that have mastered it. If you want to see some examples of classroom teachers doing this, go to these two OTAN (Sacramento County California Office of Education) web sites:

1) OTAN Video Gallery http://www.otan.us/browse/dsp/dsp_videotechintegration.cfm Registration (free) and log-in are required.
2) Captured Wisdom videos http://www.otan.us/browse/dsp/dsp_CapturedWisdom.cfm These videos are now on the OTAN web site. To see them, register (free), then sign in to OTAN to get to them. From the OTAN home page the path would be Ed Technology & Media > Video Gallery > Technology Integration Videos.

The Sacramento County Office of Education (and the Project IDEAL Support Center at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research) are responsible for the U.S. Department of Education initially-funded USA Learns ESL web site http://usalearns.org . It’s a good example of how English language learners can supplement their classroom learning at home or improve their English on their own. This kind of online ESL learning will also help them feel comfortable and competent if asked to do online learning at work.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/09/19/watch_and_learn/

In many parts of the world low-income people watch these popular videos, including on their (inexpensive Chinese-made) mobile phones capable of showing broadcast TV.

This is not an endorsement of these phones, but here is a web page of some examples.

http://www.mbcellphone.com/Wholesale-chinese-cell-phones_c177?min_price=15&max_price=86

Along the same lines, below is a post from the LINCS Technology list about Tunewiki, on subtitling songs on mobile phones:

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 11:35:20 -0600
From: “Van Gravlee”van@cyberjoes.com>>
Subject: [Tech & DL 2971] ESOL
To: The Technology and Distance Learning Discussion

I just stumbled on what I think is a promising tool for ESOL and other literacy instruction –

see it at http://tunewiki.com

The program displays lyrics as a song is played — the lyrics can be in one of 40 languages — the songs can be of any language — more obscure songs will not have lyrics available — but it did great with my eclectic collection

There is an app for almost any cell phone (must be able to use JAVA for the lower end phones) — or for desktop browsers.

There is an iphone / ipad / ipod game — lyric legend in which the user clicks on words as they are being sung to get points. – app is free, have to buy the songs from them – @ 99 cents each

I will use the tunewiki to listen to Spanish broadcasts on my iphone toggling to see the English and Spanish versions of the lyrics — I think this could be far more immediate and motivating than subtitled movies for learning English, or in my case Spanish, or maybe Serbian

Van Gravlee

Adult Literacy Practitioner Blogs

1) Adult Literacy Education (this blog)

http://davidjrosen.wordpress.com/

A compilation of postings that David J. Rosen has made, over the years, to electronic discussion lists and wikis. The topics all have to do with adult literacy education and technology, primarily in the U.S.

David J. Rosen has been working in adult literacy education as a teacher, program administrator, education professional developer, trainer, curriculum developer, researcher and consultant since 1982. You will find his resume at http://www.newsomeassociates.com

2) National Coalition for Literacy advocacy

http://blog.ncladvocacy.org

The National Coalition for Literacy has an online blog forum to engage NCL members in cultivating and supporting public policy advocates, assisting advocates with questions asked by the press and the public, and expanding the number of active advocates in support of adult and family literacy.

The NCL posts frequent public policy updates, as well as key information and resources pertinent to the current federal public policy landscape. Additionally, they plan to host  2-4 blog discussions with NCL members who are federal advocacy experts (http://www.ncladvocacy.org/abtnclmembers.html) during critical times for advocacy.

3) Adult Education Matters

http://adultedmatters.wordpress.com/

Martha Rankin, the author of this blog, is the assistant principal at the Newport-Mesa Adult School in California. Since the fall of 2007 she has been writing a  “professional-learning-community blog focused on the matters of adult education” such as (from the blog):

* Increasing student motivation, retention, and persistence

* Identifying and meeting student goals

* Guiding students to the appropriate programs, courses, and levels

* Sharing best practices

* Collaborating to increase student achievement

* Providing literacy and job-skills training

* Helping working-age adults get high school equivalency and  enroll in postsecondary programs

* Using innovative delivery systems like distance learning

* Sustaining professional learning communities

* Delivering professional development for adult education

and others.  The blog is tailored to the professional development needs of the Newport-Mesa adult school staff, but many of the blog articles will be of interest to a broader audience.  These include: designing site-based professional development; resources for family literacy, ESOL; GED prep; nutrition education; formative and summative assessments; integrating technology in the classroom; how to create your own (free) blog; Paolo Freire’s vision of education, and others.

This is a great example, for other program professional development leaders, of a blog designed for an adult school or program that provides leadership in professional development.

4) Adult Education and Technology

http://Marianthacher.blogspot.com

Marian Thacher is the Director of OTAN in California, the Sacramento County Office of Education project that is responsible for adult education technology professional development across California. According to one of the articles on Marian Thacher’s blog, the secret to getting good help in learning technology is cookies, not the kind you turn on our off in your browser, the kind you bake for the tech support person at your school or program. Marian looks at new technology applications with the eye of an adult ed teacher or administrator: would this be useful in the classroom or program, and how could it be best used? Marian’s blog introduced me to a.viary, for example, a free web site that allows you to edit images. I recommend this to all adult ed practitioners who what to sue technology better.

5) AlphaPlus Blog (Canada)

http://blog.alphaplus.ca/ The AlphaPlus Centre is an organization in Toronto, in Canada that focuses on adult literacy in the province of Ontario. They have been “providing information, research, and print and electronic resources to the Adult Literacy field in Ontario for over 15 years” and havedone many wonderful projects with distance learning. The AlphaPlus Blog might be of interested to U.S. Educators, as well as other North Americans. It includes short articles, for example, resources for International Womens’ Day, the Adult Literacy Education Wiki, the New Zealand Literacy Portal, Google Calendar and Google Notebook, Learners’ Perspectives on progress, and more.

6) Tech4ESL

http://tech4esl.blogspot.com/ and http://www.pacoimaesl.blogspot.com/ These two blogs are by California adult ESOL practitioner, Barry Bakin. Who teaches at the  Pacoima Skills Center, part of the Division of Adult and Career Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The first is for teachers, the second for students in an ESOL low intermediate class.

Student Blogs

Here are two examples of adult learner blog sites. Both have interesting articles by students. I am sure the students who wrote these articles would love to have other students read and comment on them. Maybe that activity would spark some interest in your students writing their own blog!

1)    The first is a blog for ESOL students, developed in Sydney, Australia http://ourenglishclass2.blogspot.com/ It is rich in text, images, slide shows and other media.

2)    The second is from Ontario, Canada. http://alphastory.blogspot.com/ I especially like the Hemingway-inspired 6-word memoirs.

It’s a free, web-based information resource by and for the adult
literacy education community in North America. Practitioners
help to make it useful, engaging and up-to-date. The ALE Wiki is an
entirely volunteer effort. Some of the topic areas are very well
developed and updated regularly; others need someone to mind and
improve them.

For a list of available topics to lead, go to
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Topic_Leaders .

To find out more about what is involved in being a topic leader, look at
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/AleAreaLeader
and then email me at djrosen@theworld.com to let me know of your
interest.

Here’s a list of ALE topics:

Adult Literacy Education Wiki Topics

1. What are effective models for teacher training/professional development that help adult education teachers to effectively integrate the use of technology in their classrooms? Anyone know of any research that answers this question?

2. Does integrating technology in the classroom provide improved learning gains?
We do have some pre-post evaluation research that using supplementary videos outside class (videotapes, dvds and/or online) enables adult ESL students, at least in California, to make better progress than students who only attend class. For more information see:
http://tinyurl.com/9pq4d However, we need a lot more research in order to answer this question with confidence.

3. Specifically, is there good evidence that using CAI or CALL with adults results in improved learning gains?
This is the only evidence-based study I am aware of that shows gains for adults who used supplemental CALL software. Computer-Supported ESL Instruction For Adults: A Quasi-Experimental Study Of Usability, Listening Skill Gains And Technological Literacy, a study by Dawn Hannah, Ricardo Diaz, Lynda Ginsburg, and Christine Hollister, NCAL (2004) “was conducted with a group of adult English language learners at the intermediate level (although a ‘relatively well-educated sample,’ based on years of schooling, who valued independent learning and technological literacy skills), nearly half of whom had never used a computer to learn English before. A quasi-experimental design was used, and though substantial data were collected, the sample size was small enough to limit this to what would be termed an exploratory study.”
The findings from the study by Hannah et. al show that those ESOL students who used any of the three listening software programs (whose costs ranged from high-end to free) made greater gains than those who only went to class.)

4. With what groups of learners, under what conditions, is adult basic education/ESOL distance learning effective?
A study I conducted with Paul Porter in Massachusetts showed that adult learners in a blended model, with lots of face-to-face and telephone support was as effective or more effective (measured by retention and learning gains as reported by standardized pre-post tests) than classroom learning. However, the cost of providing these services as distance learning was greater than providing classroom learning. We didn’t have the opportunity to study what the minimum level of support might be to make these gains.

5. What are effective strategies for introducing adult learners to assistive technology that result in their using the technology on their own, and their making progress toward reaching their goals such as h.s. completion or attaining work related certificates?
VALUE, the national adult learner organization is advocating for funding for demonstration projects in which adult learners learn how to use assistive technology such as text to speech to help them get meaning from text (what researcher, Tom Sticht, calls “auding” text, listening to text (from hard copy documents and/or electronic text) read out loud.

Online Instruction Offers Advantages; Blended Approaches Appear Best

Online instruction can offer key benefits, a new ED statistical meta-analysis shows. The analysis discovered that the best strategy appeared to be “blended” instruction─ combining elements of online and face-to-face instruction ─because it offered a larger advantage over either strategy used alone. Blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions, according to the study. The study indicated that instruction conducted wholly online was more effective in improving student achievement than was face-to-face instruction for adults in medical, career, and military training, and postsecondary education.

http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/06/06262009.html

I wonder if this finding about blended learning would also be true for adult literacy, ESOL, adult basic and adult secondary learners  (and for teachers as learners). It’s too bad we don’t have much research on this in our field. Would that we had enough for a meta-analysis! Here’s a case where I think our field would eagerly use evidence-based practices –  if we had good evidence. It’s another reason why we need a national center for adult literacy research.