July 1999
The "What's New!" page is intended to showcase current news, events, publications, projects, and any other items that concern literacy and the Region IV Hub. Check out past issues under What's New Oldies.
In This Month's Issue of Literally Literacy
"Equipped for the Future: Tales from the Field" by Frank Smith,Northwest Regional Literacy Resource Center and "EXPRESSIONS" - Adult Learner Writings by Learners from "Project Read" in Menlo Park, California
The Northwest Regional Literacy Resource Center (NWRLRC) solicits new software from educational software publishers for preview throughout the year. At the end of each year, the reviews are published in the Software Buyer's Guide. New software is distributed to trained reviewers who use the programs with their students for several weeks, recorded their comments, and rated the software based on the criteria set during the training sessions. Each software program is reviewed by at least two different reviewers. Reviewers rated software programs on whether or not they would recommend it to other adult literacy programs.
The instructional areas listed in the guide include the following: ESL (includes all levels); ABE (appropriate for adult basic skills programs); GED (prepares students specifically for the GED examinations), and DE (developmental education, appropriate for college preparation courses).
The Northwest Regional Literacy Resource Center received funding from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's Northwest Educational Technology Consortium (NETC) to train reviewers and compensate them for their contributions to the Guide. Reviewers are instructors in the region. They participated in training events during which they discussed important criteria and rated software based on their discussions. This guide is distributed free of charge to each ABE program in the NETC six state region: Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming. It is also available on-line at http://literacynet.org/nwrlrc/buyersguide/home.html
VALUE (Voice for Adult Literacy United for Education) held it's 1999 Adult Learner Leadership Institute at the Government Center in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana on June 3-5, 1999. Nearly 100 adult learners from 32 states attended the Institute. VALUE is a national organization of adult learners (current and former participants in adult basic skills programs) in the United States. The Institute was designed to help adult learners from around the United States learn how to:
a. Build and strengthen adult learner leadership at the state, community, and program levels. (In particular, they would learn how to create state-level adult learner organizations.)b. Participate in VALUE as a national organization.
To learn more about the Adult Learner Leadership Institute go to: http://literacynet.org/value/leadership99.html
To learn more about the VALUE organization go to: http://literacynet.org/value/
The 1999 Adult Literacy and Technology Conference will be held at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota on July 29-31, 1999. The conference will highlight research surrounding and hands-on applications of technology uses in adult basic education instruction. For more information, go to the 1999 ALT Conference web site.
