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Review of the NALA National Tutors Forum by Sindy Fitzpatrick, Adult Literacy Tutor

The National Forum for Adult Literacy Tutors took place in All Hallows College, Drumcondra,

Dublin 9, on Saturday 29th January 2011. Joan Butler, Tutor Co-ordinator, NALA Distance

Learning Service welcomed us and gave an overview of the day.

The theme of the day was the role that technology plays in adult literacy learning

The panel of speakers included: Inez Bailey, Director of the National Adult Literacy Agency

(NALA) since 1997, Colin Cummins, Adult Literacy Organiser with City of Limerick VEC,

Barbara Nance, NIACE Senior Project Officer, Tom O'Mara, NALA Distance Learning

Coordinator, Aoife Clavin, Adult Literacy Tutor, and two students -Elizabeth, studying

group literacy, FETAC Communications and computers and spelling with Cabra Adult Literacy

Scheme and is also a distance learning student with NALA and Michelle who started her

studying with one-to-one literacy and went on to complete FETAC Level 3 in

Communications and Mathematics. She is currently studying FETAC Level 4 Mathematicsand Communications and computers/spelling.

Inez Bailey gave an update on the work of NALA in 2010 in particular their 3 main

technology sites which have been set up - which included their flagship project

www.writeon.ie free on-line learning at FETAC Levels 2 & 3 (Level 3 was launched in

October 2010) Presently the site has 10,000 users and growing - technology offering

students additional learning opportunities. Inez mentioned that this technology allows

students who couldnt previously access tuition or who wanted extra tuition the opportunityto gain accredited learning opportunities and to give tutors fresh ideas and support. NALA

would love to get feedback from students and tutors on the site so they can develop and

improve the site for all.

www.makingcents.ie EBS Building Society and NALA designed a website for students

interested in learning about money and financial matters. It includes online exercises that

will help you understand how to use and manage money better, a handy A-Z guide to

financial terms and many other handy resources to help you make sense of money and

finance.

www.healthliteracy.ie The MSD/NALA Health Literacy Initiative is a partnership between

healthcare company MSD and the NALA that aims to increase awareness about the issue of

health literacy in Ireland.

There are links to all 3 websites from the NALA website atwww.nala.ie

Policy Inez spoke about how the Department of Education and Skills (DES) are working

through 2011 on the skills agenda, to close the gap between further education and training.

There has been no increase in the budget for literacy but also no significant decreases. The

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DES will be looking this year at the amalgamation of VECs and the Back to Education Forum

is to be set up during 2011.

Student Development - There are Regional /National Events for students Adult Literacy

Student Days - these days are organised for and by students.

Dates:

Dublin -Saturday 19 February - The Gibson Hotel, Dublin

Cork on Saturday 2 April Clarion Hotel, Cork

(go towww.nala.iefor more info and to register)

Literacy Research and Practice Development A lot of work has gone into family literacy

over the last years, in particular childrens literacy. Results from reports show that there has

been no improvement in child literacy problems in the last 30 years. It has shown that 15

year olds are underperforming in literacy and numeracy compared to past years. Family

literacy programmes helps the family to support their children in developing their literacy

and numeracy skills. For tutors who would like more information on family learning WIT

(Waterford Institute of Technology) have planned information/training sessions during the

year(more info go tohttp://www.nala.ie/family_literacy) or call NALA at 01-4127918.The

NALA AGM will take place inMarch 2011.

Colin Cummins gave an inspiring introduction to the Creativity, Information and

Communications Technology (ICT) and the learning experience: How attitudes to technology

influence its value. He spoke about how students can benefit from technology compared to

students who didnt (findings from survey in Limerick). He stated that our attitude to

technology matters if we are to accept change. For tutors, technology may be a tool we use

but it is beginning to have an influence on how we teach. Colin spoke about how technology

changes and we need to think about how our students will use technology in the future.

Emerging technologies are making it more and more accessible for all to use. He spoke

about how to date the Internet has been like an online library to us all but in the future it

will be the collaborative learning space we use and how technology has allowed our

students to cross global boundaries and technology has changed the role of the tutor from

information giver to information facilitator. Some examples of technology were discussed,

for example using the Nintendo can be used at class as an innovative way to do Maths. To

tutors, he said find technologies that work for you and use them. Some of the websites

mentioned:

http://itabe.blogs.ie For Level 2 groups to blog

http:/altiweb.ning.com Adult Literacy Forum

http://www.twitter.com Great Literacy tool

http://alsion.com Free Resources

www.surveymonkey.com Making a Questionnaire

www.doodle.com

www.blogspot.com

http://www.nala.ie/http://www.nala.ie/http://www.nala.ie/http://www.nala.ie/family_literacyhttp://www.nala.ie/family_literacyhttp://www.nala.ie/family_literacyhttp://itabe.blogs.ie/http://itabe.blogs.ie/http://www.twitter.com/http://www.twitter.com/http://alsion.com/http://alsion.com/http://www.surveymonkey.com/http://www.surveymonkey.com/http://www.doodle.com/http://www.doodle.com/http://www.blogspot.com/http://www.blogspot.com/http://www.blogspot.com/http://www.doodle.com/http://www.surveymonkey.com/http://alsion.com/http://www.twitter.com/http://itabe.blogs.ie/http://www.nala.ie/family_literacyhttp://www.nala.ie/

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When Colin was asked what key investments should we make in technology he replied he

sees Cloud Computing(location-independentcomputing) and E-beam (Interactive

whiteboards)and the Smartphone being part of our future.

Barbara Nance gave a talk on Integrating ICT into adult literacy and numeracy and what

evidence is there to show the benefit of teaching with technology. Barbara spoke about

various research projects published to show there is a benefit to the learning of all students

when teaching with technology. In the U.K they are looking at a national project at the

teacher training to how you can use technology effectively. A question was asked what if

you dont have access to computers. Barbara answered you dont always have to have

access to computers, for example you can use video games, audio recorders, or use one

laptop with a wireless keyboard which a group could share. Another idea was the mobilephone (looking at new apps on them). She said to try find out where your students are at

with technology and then build on that platform. Another idea was to use moodle a free

virtual learning environment for tutors/students.

Tom O'MaraThe Future Is Now! Technology that is in use today Joan spoke to Tom via

Skype on the day to show the use of phone technology. Tom spoke about how web

technology is so important and when asked what technology plays in literacy learning, he

said he feels with technology learners are learning up to date, integrating technology more

like reading, writing and numeracy so students are getting these skills and technology skills.

For tutors Tom says that technology offers so much more ideas and work access. He finished

with a very interesting quote if students are not afraid then we should take this as an

example to us as tutors and embrace technology.

Aoife Clavin, Adult Literacy Tutor with Cabra Adult Literacy Scheme and students Elizabeth

and Michelle spoke about how learning to use the computer has been great for the

students confidence. Aoife is presently delivering FETAC 3 computer literacy and bases her

Learning Outcomes around spelling. For example in Microsoft Word they set up a personal

dictionary and use Cloze Exercises for their evidence of that unit. It demonstrated how

easily you can integrate spelling and technology.

Michelle spoke about how nervous she was when she joined Aoifes class but now feels so

much more confident. When people asked her what she was doing she would say a

computer class and would feel no embarrassment at this. Also she mentioned if she had to

miss a class the tutor would email her the work she has missed so she never felt as if she

was falling behind in the work.

Elizabeth spoke of how she first rang NALA (after many years of being too embarrassed

about asking for help) and did the distance learning which works great for her. The NALA

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distance tutor rings her every week and posts work to Elizabeth to complete. She says this

has changed her life so much.

The morning ended with a short question and answer session.

The afternoon was dedicated to 6 different Workshops: - providing information on

technology for the adult literacy sector.

1.What is a wiki and how to use one in an adult literacy setting? Joan Butler2.Using digital tools for literacy and numeracy assessment for learning - Barbara

Nance

3.Howwww.writeon.ie(NALAs interactive learning site) can work for you and yourstudents Adult literacy tutor and student

4.Podcasts and interactive websites: Innovative and fun ways of working on literacy Fiona Murphy, Adult Literacy Tutor, South Westmeath VEC

5.How to use Photo-story with your students Joan Hughes, Director, LibertiesComputer Training

6.Language, speech development and sensory skills: Technology and software forworking with students with special needs David MacCallum, Adult Literacy Tutor,

Sligo VEC

http://www.writeon.ie/http://www.writeon.ie/http://www.writeon.ie/http://www.writeon.ie/