Region IV Hub Project

State Literacy Resource Center of California

Sacramento County Office of Education

Name of Organization: State Literacy Resource Center of California

Region: Hub IV

Reporting Period: October 1, 1995 through January 31, 1996

Name of project director/coordinator: Co-Directors: Carole Talan & John Fleishman

Coordinator: Paul Heavenridge

Name of person preparing this report: Paul Heavenridge

1. State your goals and objectives for the past quarter:

Primary objectives for the first quarter:
1) Establish a regional hub for LINCS
2) Connect to the Internet each SLRC in Hub IV
3) Provide Internet trainng for all Hub IV SLRCs
4) Initiate creation of an online database of unpublished materials using Starting Point standards
5) Initiate creation of an online database of local programs for each SLRC in Hub IV

a. Management and Coordination:

Major activities planned for the first quarter:
1) Hire project staff
2) Plan and conduct Region IV Hub Advisory Board meetings through electronic and face-to-face meetings.

b. Electronic Connectivity:

1) Conduct connectivity needs assessment for each State and Island Literacy Resource Center
2) Purchase equipment including 28.8 modems for each Center
3) Plan and conduct a Hub IV training workshop
4) Initiate electronic connectivity over the World Wide Web by providing Internet Service or connecting to a local provider
5) Provide telephone and on-site technical assistance

c. SLRC Web Home Pages

1) Train and assist State Literacy Resource Center representatives on World Wide Web technology and Web page design
2) Begin to obtain home page content from each Center
3) Begin to convert each Center's content to HTML format
4) Begin to prepare each Center's documents for electronic publication.

d. Program Records

1) Build awareness of and achieve consensus on the use of Starting Point standards among the Hub IV Centers
2) Establish procedures and policy concerning responsibilities for record collection
3) Begin the collection of local program data

e. Literacy Material Records

1) Build awareness of and achieve consensus on the use of Starting Point standards among the Hub IV Centers
2) Establish procedures and policy concerning responsibilities for record collection

f. Evaluation and Reporting

1) Submit the first Quarterly Report to NIFL

g. Establish and Maintain Connectivity for a minimum of 21 Local Literacy Providers within Three States or Islands

1) Determine potential scope of activities
2) Develop an action plan with the Hub IV Advisory Board
3) Establish an equitable sharing of funds among Centers
4) Begin the development of an assessment tool for review of local provider use of Centers Home pages.

h. Training and Technical Support for Centers Local Provider Linkage

1) Determine Centers needs
2) Schedule training sessions for each Center
3) Begin training local providers

i. Document Center Activities and Create Model for Replication

1) Begin on-going data collection on Center activities.

a. Forming the consortium with all other SLRCs in the region

The Hub IV Project Centers cover the OVAE Region IV: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.

The Hub IV staff planned and conducted a three day training workshop on November 12-14, 1995. The workshop and meetings consisted of :

1) Reviewing the Projects goals and objectives;
2) Advisory Board policy and procedures planning sessions
3) Training on:

• the Internet
  
• OTAN Online use
  
• messaging with email
  
• file transfer
  
• conferencing
  
• software and hardware set-up
  
• Web page design
  
• data transfer
  
• WAIS review
  
• Starting Point manual review
  
• document and provider directory data collection
  
• forms using MARC
  
• hands-on record entry
  
• Web Resources

The training provided an opportunity not only to learn the skills needed to connect each State and each Island's home page to the Hub but also to establish a sense of identity and excitement among the participants for the Project. Each participate left the training determined to support the Project and provide content for their Center's Web site.

b. Developing formal agreements delineating roles and responsibilities of all consortium members and a regional plan of action with timelines of tasks to be achieved

It was agreed on that each State and Island would formally submit content by January 31 for a Web page hosted by the Region IV Hub site. An Advisory Board was established which agreed to meet electronically on a quarterly basis and in order to establish the policy and procedures that would govern the Centers participating in the Project. The first action of the Board was to request an Addendum change that would divide the additional funding for connecting Local Service Providers to the State or Island Literacy Center Home Page evenly among the Centers. It was felt by the Board that this method would connect more than the twenty-one local providers requested by NIFL. The Board also agreed to establish monitoring procedures for each Center to use for reporting and oversight purposes. Each Center agreed to submit up-dated Web page content including database information and locally produced material. Each Center also agreed to determine how many local providers could be trained and connected to their Web page by the end of the second Quarter. Each Center will contract with the Project to do training and support.

c. Establishing mechanisms for organization and management of the project, i.e.:

1) forming an advisory group: An Advisory board consisting of every participating State and Island was formed at the November training session.

2) hiring or designating appropriate staff; determining their specific roles, and the number of hours required to carry out their tasks: A Project Coordinator, Paul Heavenridge, and a Management Information Specialist, Caroline Dobison, were hired as Project staff. Following the timeline stated in the proposal, Project Directors Carole Talan and John Fleishman developed Mr. Heavenridge's job duties and responsibilities. Mr. Heavenridge in turn established Ms. Dobison's job description and duties. Both Mr. Heavenridge and Ms. Dobison are full time employees.

d. Establishing the regional hub on the Internet with a seamless interface between SLRCs in the region and LINCS .

The Project established a Web page in December which can be found at http://www.otan.dni.us/HubIV/home.html. This page provides a host base for the Regions Web pages to reside. It also provides links to NIFL and LINCS.

e. Coordinating the installation of equipment and software.

OTAN and the Projects staff provided technical training, coordination, and support for the installation of 28.8 modems and OTAN On-line software to all the Centers. This support is on-going.

f. Providing technical assistance, training, and expertise to consortium members.

The Region IV Hub technical training was conducted November 12-14. All participating States and Islands attended by sending their technicians. OTAN and the Projects staff will continue to provide technical training, coordination, and support to all the Centers on an on-going basis.

g. Providing continuous on-line access to resources and communication for consortium members (level of connectibility).

All Centers except the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa have Internet connections and can access the Hub IV Web page with all its resources. The Hub IV page is reviewed and up-dated daily. Every Center has OTAN On-line installed and can communicate by email.

h. Expanding LINCS to local service provider level--local site selection procedure and criteria, number of sites that will be participating in this project, and their focus area.

Each Center will conduct a Statewide/Islandwide training for their local literacy service providers with the intent to link each to the Centers Web page. This in turn would expand LINCS to the local level. Each Center is in the process of listing local providers and establishing the feasibility of linking to their Web site. Each Center is estimated to link-up two to five providers totaling between thirty-four to eighty-five sites. Providers include, among others, libraries, adult schools, community colleges, departments of Corrections, and CBOs.

i. Collecting and organizing locally-produced materials and program data (applying NIFL standards and guidelines as presented in the Starting Point manual).

The Project has worked hard on training and developing a format that can be mutually used by the Hub's Centers. OTAN staff, particularly Linda West, has communicated with the other Regional Hubs in an attempt to design an electronic format that the Centers can submit data on. A form has been developed and will be part of Hub IV's Web page. Collection of data will begin in the next quarter.

j. Planning partnerships with other state agencies and public and private entities, including business and industry.

The Hub IV Project is negotiating with Sprint to supply a T1 line for low cost Internet access to the Hub Web page and OTANs server. Sun Microsystems and IBM will be contacted for equipment support. The Project has also been working closely with the California Distance Learning Project and OTAN to develop CNN San Francisco's Web site so adult literacy instructors and learners can access lesson plans and hypermedia content over the Web. The CNN site will be linked to the Hub IV Web page. Also, the Project has conducted meetings with the Pacific Regional Education Lab (PREL) and PEACESAT at the University of Hawaii to establish a digital link to the Pacific Islands. This is necessary for the Hub's Pacific Island Centers to access the World Wide Web.

The Project is taking the lead in helping all the region's Centers establish collaborative relationships with private business, start agencies, and CBOs.

k. Collaborating with any other related electronic information exchange efforts in the region.

As previously mentioned, CNN, PEACESAT, and PREL are entities that will be sharing electronic information with the Project.

l. Publicizing LINCS and its services, including NIFL listservs.

The Project has submitted its URL to all the major Web browsers and search engines. OTAN On-line and its First Class BBS also maintain NIFL listservs that are accessible to all Centers and linked local providers.