Resources for Adult Basic Education

MUST READ for those in #openabe. This is a great summary of design heuristics drawn from various learning theories associated with adult learning.

Excellent

"The Northstar Digital Literacy Project defines basic skills needed to perform tasks on computers and online. The ability of adults to perform these tasks can be assessed through online, self-guided modules. Included are basic computer digital literacy standards and modules in nine main areas: Basic Computer Use, Internet, Windows Operating System, Mac OS, Email, Microsoft Word, Social Media, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint."

MUST READ for those in #openabe. This is a great summary of design heuristics drawn from various learning theories associated with adult learning.

This search engine searches over 113000 resources from almost 1500 sites. Search images, videos, audio and more. This search engine returns only CC content.

Basic Math Skills with Lego

"Problem/need addressed: The Learner Web Partnership addresses the primary barriers to broadband access and use among adults in the United States: affordability, lack of digital literacy skills, and a perceived lack of content relevant to their daily lives, needs, and future aspirations. These barriers are exacerbated among populations that have the lowest levels of broadband access: primarily low-income adults who lack a high school education. This includes a growing-and increasingly diverse-population of adults from immigrant and language-minority communities."

"Project IDEAL is a consortium of states working together to develop effective distance education programs for adult learners. Through collaborative research and practice, the consortium works to raise the quality of distance education across the country. The Project IDEAL Support Center at the University of Michigan provides member states with technical assistance for program planning, teacher training, and program evaluation. To learn more about the Support Center click on About Us. To learn how membership in the Project IDEAL consortium can benefit your state, click on Member Services. To see what distance education for adult learners is all about, follow the links under Getting Started with Distance Education."

Asym formatting provides visual cues. These visual cues help good readers read faster and understand more. These cues also help poor readers have the same saccades as good readers.

"This publication series, Learning for Life: The Opportunity for Technology to Transform Adult Education, explores technology readiness, access, and use within various adult education delivery channels, as well as market opportunities, program decision-making processes, and the supplier ecosystem for instructional resources. The research and analysis featured in these publications will assist suppliers, investors, policy professionals, and institutions as they explore opportunities in the adult education market."

"Although nine out of 10 low-income families have Internet access at home, most are underconnected: that is, they have "mobile-only" access - they are able to connect to the Internet only through a smart device, such as a tablet or a smartphone."

Inge de Waard's m-learning courses addressed -- and discussed -- this point. It applies to third health training as much as it urban poverty in the U.S. I also recall an article several years back about inner city youth and parents hunting down hotspots for doing homework and assignments. Both are part of the "new" digital divide ~ not that the "old" one ever went away, claims of the privileged to the contrary. Anyway, I saved the links (hopefully on Diggo) and will look for them. PS I've been using #openabe and #adulted but will add OpenABEMOOC to collection -- blessed be the bulk edit function

Designing a website that also looks good on mobiles is known as responsive web design. There is a mooc on Coursera that teaches this. https://www.coursera.org/learn/website-coding http://www.html5rocks.com/en/mobile/responsivedesign/ http://www.zingdesign.com/responsive-website-design-cheatsheet1/

"There are thousands of apps you can use for education. Here are the best totally FREE mobile learning apps that can be used on both Android and Mac mobile platforms."

"The report extends a previous analysis of universal instructional design principles in distance education by applying them to the design of mobile learning. Eight principles with particular relevance for distance education are selected, and their recommendations are discussed in relation to the design of educational materials for a range of mobile devices. The problems and opportunities of mobile learning are discussed as is the need for educators to focus on content design issues rather than on searching for the next new technology."

"More than 2.2 million people are imprisoned in the United States, and the barriers to re-entry into society are high. Those who receive some education in prison are 43 percent less likely to return, according to a RAND study."

David Wiley's summary of components of openness of an educational resource, and a framework to contemplate if technical choices are hampering openness goals

Useful timeline tool for social studies portion. Could it be used as a means of assessment in your course?

TASC Summary Report

Perspective of prison from former prisoner. Recommended by participant in #openabe MOOC