Updated: December 16, 1996
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.
Check out the many interactive news stories on the "Interactive Learning Resources" Web site. The learning modules are based on CNN San Francisco bureau's broadcasted news stories with the text and the actual video clip. A learner can read the story, view it, then take a vocabulary, mutliple choice and true and false test that is immediatley scored. A good resource for learners for improving English skills and for instructors in developing curriculum.
Literacy resource centers and literacy programs in Palau, the Northern Marianas, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands have reestablished a Micronesian literacy coalition called the Pacific Islands Council on Adult Education and Literacy (PICAEL). PICAEL by-laws state the Council's purpose is to facilitate "wider sharing of information, data, research, expertise, and literacy resources"; coordinate "literacy services throughout the region"; serve "as a repository of locally, nationally, and internationally developed literacy material..."; and "serve as an advocacy group for Adult Education and Literacy in the region". The Council decided to reactivate after the Hub IV visit in August. With the assistance of the Hub IV Project in developing Web sites, databases, Internet connectivity and communication links among the islands, PICAEL will be a force for literacy in this vast region of the Pacific.
The Micronesian Islands were visited by Paul Heavenridge, National Institute for Literacy Region IV Hub Project Director, and Carole Talan, SLRC of California Director during the month of August. They were promoting LINCS and the National Institute for Literacy Hub Project by conducting workshops on Web resources for literacy providers. They also met with adult literacy programs to help forge regional collaborations. Paul also meet with telecommunications companies to acquire Internet connections for the Islands' literacy programs. Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands are just now getting the capability of having an Internet gateway. Because of these discussions, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands Literacy Resource Centers will be the first programs on their Islands to have Internet access. The Hub IV Project will also provide literacy information and complete Web sites on CD ROMs for outer islands that have no Internet access. Most have computers with CD drives that are often powered by small gas generators.
The 13th Annual Pacific Educational Conference was held August 6-8, 1996 in Pohnpei. Attended by over 1,000 educators from all over the Pacific, this year's theme was "The Pacific Family: Navigating to Excellence!". Co-hosted by the Pacific Region Educational Laboratory (PREL), the keynote address was delivered by Father Francis Hezel S. J., Director of the Micronesian Seminar and a long time educator in the Federated States of Micronesia. Father Hezel's address spoke to the need for English literacy in promoting regional economics and stability.
If you don't have the
VivoActive Player to watch this...
VIEW A PORTION OF
FATHER HEZEL'S ADDRESS
A goal of the NIFL Hub Project is to gather and make accessible locally produced literacy material. To this end, the Hub IV Project has designed and is hosting an instructional Web site called Focus on Learning Strengths and Styles. The Web site is based on the kit and book of multi-intelligence instructional materials for adult basic skills classrooms called Honoring Diversity: A Multidimensional Teaching Model for Adults. The kit was developed for North San Mateo County (California, U.S.A.) Public Libraries by Project Read Director Leslie Shelton and the Project's staff. Leslie is currently completing a NIFL Literacy Leader Fellowship project to develop new multisensory and multimedia materials for the classroom and adult literacy programs. Material from this Fellowship are included on the Web site as will be new materials as they are developed.
In the second year of the Hub Project, Hub IV will concentrate on producing more interactive hypertext multimedia Web pages based on locally produced written materials such as the "Honoring Diversity" Kit. If you have instructional materials that you would like developed into a Web site, contact Paul Heavenridge or Caroline Dobison for more information.
The Arizona Adult Literacy and Technology Resource Center has provided two new sources of locally produced materials to the Hub IV database. Teaching From a Hispanic Perspective: A Handbook for Non-Hispanic Adult Educators is geered toward non-Hispanic ESOL teachers who teach Hispanic adult education students. The issues addressed in this handbook are intended to ease the tension caused by the cultural misunderstandings between the Hispanic adult student and the non-Hispanic teacher. ESOL instructors and other interested readers are invited to add to the individual topics, since this handbook is presented as an evolving document.Teaching and Learning with Native Americans: A Handbook for Non-Native American Adult Educators. The handbook provides educators with a connection to the culture, values and attitudes of Native Americans which may enable them to learn more easily in the classroom.
Is there a literacy question that's keeping you up late at night? Questions about literacy manners, literacy relationships, literacy trivia? Caroline has the answers! Email her at cdobison@literacynet.org
Dear Caroline:
I am an adult education teacher who wears many hats a few of which include teaching ESL and basic literacy, heading up our curriculum committee, and administering all of the literacy programs at our school. I have little time to read all the professional journals and attend all the relevant conferences. I need quick answers without spending time on researching the best resources. My question is: Where can I find groups of people on-line that are concerned with the same issues I deal with daily that I can communicate with and share ideas?
Signed,
Too Much to Do, Too Little Time to Do ItDear Too Much to Do, Too Little Time to Do It,
One good way to stay on top of what's going on in literacy is to subscribe to a Literacy Listserv. Listservs (or listservers) are a service providing distributed messages that form conferences and allow the archiving of files and messages which can be searched and retrieved. That means you can send email to the group of your particular interest and ask and answer questions. The most common form of a listserv is a Maillist (or Mailing List) which is an automated system (usually) that allows people to send e-mail to one address, whereupon their message is copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the maillist. In this way, people who have many different kinds of e-mail access can participate in discussions together. To access one of these mailists, you must subscribe to it.There are many Internet Literacy Listserv discussion groups you can subscribe to with some great information. Here are some Web sites that provide more information.
Hub IV listserv page
National Adult Literacy Database Inc. (NALD) Listserv page
Colorado SLRC - Resource Notes, February 1996
