Blended Teaching Infographic

I dug this info-graphic from digitallearningnow.com, and maybe you will too.

The infographic is available here.

Online Learning is Adult Ed's Second Child

Any adult education program that is offering online learning is also starting a new business. (You'll need to look at it that way to get the most out of the video I've posted below.) With any new endeavor, there is uncertainty and some degree of trial and error. There are definitely different ways to meet the needs of different clients. There are conflicting mandates from the state, from the local municipality, from the teachers, and from the learners. Whatever you do, don't freak out. Here's some advice from one of my favorite big thinkers on innovation.  Gary Vaynerchuk and I are definitely on the same page as caring for our small children is teaching us how to relate to the world.
It was a question about whether online learning activities should be limited to work that fits into certain narrow definitions to qualify for NRS reportable time-on-task hours (which in turn, draws down federal dollars) that made this video resonate with me after clicking on Gary's link on Twitter. He uses the term 'micro-managing,' but if that feels like an admonishment, he's really talking about different approaches to facilitate development and growth, whether it's children, businesses, or online learning. They're all experimental.

Our interventions and attempts to control the process can be powerful, but they can also be an utter waste of energy. How much further will a lifelong learner go if they had a 'helicopter mom' hovering over their entire GED preparation experience? I know, different folks require different strokes, but you get my point. Now, if only Gary would solve my problem that stems from taking his advice to use the 10pm-2am hours to put in extra work trying to over-deliver for clients. Gary, on 4.5hrs of sleep, I'm useless helping my wife with the kids in the morning!

How Was COABE, Baby?

One statement that I sometimes hear about distance learning is that classroom instruction is always preferable to online learning.  Really?  Maybe if your experience is primarily with providing traditional teaching or if you've been trying to turn classroom learners into self-directed learners at a distance or if you're using software developed for the classroom by K12-focused companies.  Who is facilitating, who is learning, what the learning objects are... those are just a few of the variables that determine the possibilities of both online and classroom based education. Nevermind the fact that a hybrid of the two, blended learning, is generally considered to be the best case scenario for teaching adults.

The Mother of Invention
This year, I had to accept the fact that I wouldn't be attending the COABE conference in New Orleans.  The possibility that my third child would arrive that week meant that I was basically grounded.  My new reality was not simply missing the conference, but looking for ways to participate at a distance.  My need to soak up the spirit of innovation at the conference drove me to a few different avenues of social media.  Of course, the distance participation is really enhanced by the participation by in-person attendees, so that brings us back to the superlative-worthy blended model (if you were at COABE, in-person or otherwise, please add some of your highlights here with a comment).

Matilda Clementine Guard, Born March 30, 2013

First, I posted on the LINCS discussion board about my unrequited love for a responsive national community of practice for adult educators. Then I posted on this bog confessing that I wouldn't be attending and encouraging readers to attend the Essential Education session.  And then I posted and commented on the new COABE group page on LinkedIn.  Putting out those feelers built up my anticipation for the conference, and it seemed to build interest in the distance participation modes that are often obscure and sometimes afterthoughts.    

When Free Sites are Really Parasites

I love free online learning tools.  What better way to help an adult ed student then to point out the resources that are freely available so they can get what they need on their own - and the only cost is their time.  It's probably a great relief to a learner after dodging all the online scams and diploma mills.  Of course, they say there is no such thing as a free lunch and there's often a catch.  In fact, the whole proposition of pro-bono publishing is probably too good to be true. Only, being such a needy field, adult educators are so attracted to the free solution that we can't see that it's a mirage, or worse - a trap, and we're leading our learners right into it. 

One example are those gigantic databases of free test-prep resources that really just serve to lure poor desperate learners to consider clicking on enticements to ditch their test-prep and buy a degree online.  The site that I see teachers using most often is 4Tests.com.

It seems innocuous enough on the surface, but that changes with a click. The attraction of free online GED(r) prep leads you into Ashworth College's "get your degree without having to take the GED exam" trap. 

Crowdfunding Innovation in Adult Education

I don't know how I'd missed out on Brenda Dann-Messier's keynote speeches at so many of the conferences that I've attended in recent years. But I made it to this year's Virginia Literacy Leadership Conference this year, and I'm so glad I did.

The conference brings together community based literacy organizations (CBLOs) from across the state of Virginia, and here I was exhibiting for a product called GED Academy and another called Computer Essentials. Most people just walk on by because CBLOs typically handle literacy-level and ABE learners and refer GED learners to their local adult ed programs.  But, there's always room for innovation.  The new GED calls for a stronger foundation of basic skills and pretty wide range of computer skills, and these things are going to affect CBLOs.     

Dann-Messier speaking in Virginia

Making Technology Transformative 

Dann-Messier talked about her work with Dorcas Place in Providence, Rhode Island.  Early in her talk she mentioned that her organization made great strides helping people learn well beyond the GED, and they were able to do this by embracing innovation at every turn.  Whoa. Most adult educators are struggling with the idea that very many of their GED students are interested in studying for a goal beyond their high school equivalency credential.  But how about embracing innovation at the same time?  Bigger gains and more ambitious goals can be an outgrowth of innovation... that is, if the innovation prioritizes the needs of adult learners and rewards motivation.  But that's not been the experience of most adult educators.  And there are more pessimistic views on this, of course.

How Do YOU Promote Online Learning?

Rather than talk about any one prescription for the best way to expand adult education into the the online environment, I'd like to turn it over to YOU.  This is not optional extroversion.  This is a basic function of any adult education program: promotion. Marketing. Advertising.  Spreading the word. Let's see some examples, either from your program or one that's caught your attention.   They say people need to see something seven times before they react.  Surely you can come up with one.

Send me an email at jason(at)essentialed(dot)com with your website, a flier, an ad, a story, anything that puts online learning on the radar of prospective ABE/GED/ESOL learners.  It can be an example of something that needs improvement, that you want input about (but try not to post someone else's thing as "what not to do" ...unless it's a giant faceless corporate ad).

Here on the left is a flier from the window of  a community based literacy organization storefont.  It's supposed to grab people on the street and bring them inside and from there, launch them out onto the web. But who will respond? Probably more people with internet access and personal computers than those who aren't online (though even that's a starting point).  It creates buzz. People might tell other people. It creates urgency, noting the need to finish before 2014.  What do you think about it?

I look forward to adding your examples so we can discuss them and hopefully inform our future promotional efforts to attract great candidates for online learning.   

 

COABE 2013 in The Big Easy

After playing host to the annual COABE conference last year in my home state of Virginia, I've been looking forward to visiting somewhere a little further afield for the most important gathering of the adult education landscape. From March 24-28, New Orleans is clearly the place to be for adult educators. This couldn't be a bigger occasion, either, with the new GED™ test looming.  Since starting my adult education career amidst the transition to the 2002 GED test, I've been eager to be a part of the community conversations surrounding a new test that shape instruction for years to come.  That's why you've got to get yourself to COABE, to grab all the good ideas out of the air and put them to good use.  And that's why the show has got to go on without me.
  

I've been aching for 'cafe y beignet' since visiting Cafe du Monde in 1999.

The Big Easy Rigorous

It's a little ironic.  I had pitched a couple sessions to the COABE conference planning committee back in 2012, and they were both accepted.  Computer-based instruction for digital literacy and innovative GED preparation are both growing needs in the adult ed field.