Student-designed Web Sites

Irshat Yusupovich Madyarov asked in a post to the National Institute for Literacy Technology discussion list on December 4, 2003:
http://www.nifl.gov/nifl-technology/2003/0343.html
Has anyone included website design as a part of an ESL/EFL course?I’d appreciate if you could share your experience. Specifically, I’m interested in online services that offer free space for such student-centered website building projects.

I replied: For several years the Adult Literacy Resource Institute in Boston supported teacher staff development mini-grants which were used by some teachers in the Boston area to develop instructional/learning Websites. In some cases, the grants also included support for ABE and ESOL student website design work. Here are some examples:

• Virtual Visit to a Mill in Lowell, MA (Web page design by GED student)
http://hub1.worlded.org/docs/lowell/home.htm
• Homebuying Web pages in which ESOL students created some of the content
and/or designed the pages http://alri.org/fannie/fnma3/FM99a/QuestionPanel.html
• Queens Community College ESOL Class Queen Bee’s Web Page — students made their own pages.
http://easternlincs.worlded.org/docs/qb/default.htm

I added this in a subsequent post:

There are teachers across the world whose students are involved in a
Web-based classroom virtual visit project hosted by Susan Gaer and me.
The classes have a multi-month exchange using Web pages and e-mail.
They introduce themselves, their schools and their communities and
have dialogs. Many are adult ESOL classes but some are ABE or GED,
and some are classes of school children so it can be
cross-generational. For more information, go to:
http://www.otan.us/webfarm/emailproject/school.htm

For more information on project-based learning and examples of adult
ESOL student projects using the Web, go to Susan Gaer’s Online Web Projects http://susangaer.com/studentprojects/

 

Teaching Literacy and Computer Skills Together

Steve May posted some questions to the National Institute for Literacy’s Technology discussion list on June 17, 2003 http://www.nifl.gov/nifl-technology/2003/0166.html

He wrote:
I am writing a grant proposal for a program that will
teach basic computer skills while teaching adult
literacy/life skills. I would like to include a
reference to some evidence that this method of
instruction is more effective than a “traditional”
one-on-one or classroom model.

My questions for the group: is this true? Is
instruction via technology more effective, or is that
a misconception? If it is true, where can I get my
hands on a study to read?

I provided Steve with the following:

Antonia (Toni) Stone’s pioneering work, Keystrokes to Literacy, available, for example, through Amazon.com

and Steve Quann and Diana Satin’s Learning Computers, Speaking English (For more information on this approach see http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~ncsall/fob/2000/quann.html

Their book is available at Amazon.com and will tell you how to effectively integrate learning about computers and basic literacy. However, as far as I know, no research has been done on this approach. If anyone knows of such research, please tell us about it.

Meanwhile, a good summary of adult literacy technology research, what little there is, will be found under Technology at: http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/subj_ind/technology.html

I especially recommend Jennifer Cromley’s article, Learning with Computers: The Theory Behind the Practice at: http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/fob/2000/cromley.html

What is this Blog About?

This is a compilation of postings that I have 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.

I have 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 my resume at http://www.newsomeassociates.com