Displaying results 1 - 10 of 12
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Developing digital proficiencies of English learners in adult education
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All around the globe, the development of digital skills is considered a priority because individuals are increasingly asked to interact with digital information. Digital literacy is required to communicate effectively and accomplish social and work-related tasks. Although there is a significant body of literature on the development of digital proficiencies in educational settings from elementary school to university, there is limited research with adults who are continuing their education later in life, usually outside of formal educational systems.
The purpose of this paper is to report results from a study conducted with English learners in an adult education program in the U.S. The study evaluated the digital component of a new curriculum named CILIA-T (Content-Integrated Language Instruction for Adults with Technology Support), CILIA-T is a 16-module curriculum supporting adult learners to build their English skills, US History and Civics knowledge and digital proficiencies.
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Promising Practices and Lessons Learned from Early Implementation of the TSTM Framework
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This brief highlights key findings from the first component of The Teaching Skills That Matter (TSTM)-SkillBlox Instructional Support Pilot—an implementation study of the TSTM framework. Findings from this study—including promising practices and lessons learned in supporting TSTM-aligned instruction—are intended to shape TSTM-SkillBlox development but may also inform efforts in the field to support TSTM implementation.
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EdTech Strategy Session - Future of Work Report: AI at Work
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For the September EdTech Strategy Session, the EdTech Center @ World Education hosted LinkedIn's Senior Lead Manager of Economic Graph, Efrem Bycer. Efrem shared insights from the LinkedIn "Future of Work Report: AI at Work". With recent advancements in AI comes a shifting demand for certain technical and human skills, giving new areas to focus on as we aim to prepare adult learners for the future of work and technology. Watch the recording of Efrem's lightning talk here and register for the October EdTech Strategy Session here.
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The Myth of the Digital Native
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Today’s college students may have grown up around technology, but that doesn’t mean they have the skills to thrive at school or work. Knowledge gaps remain a major barrier to success, particularly affecting low-income students. How can higher education institutions more effectively teach, assess, and measure digital skills? The Chronicle surveyed more than 1,200 faculty, higher ed leaders, and students to find out. The study discovered that:
78% of students said colleges strongly contributed to their digital proficiency
36% of faculty and leaders think their college instructors are “somewhat unprepared” or “not at all prepared” to teach digital skills
Only 15% of faculty and 16% of leaders think students are very well prepared to use digital tools in a work environment
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Linking Adult Education to Workforce Development in 2018–19: Early Implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act at the Local Level
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The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 includes new requirements and incentives to strengthen the link between its Title II -- adult education -- and the overall workforce development system. This report from a national evaluation of Title II examines the extent to which local adult education providers’ instructional approaches and coordination with other agencies in 2018-19 reflected this link and highlights the challenges providers reported collecting related performance data. A compendium provides detailed tables supporting the policy report. For more information about this report, visit the IES site here.
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Subject Area Frameworks for Adult Learners
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These aggregate frameworks provide a structure to support learning in five subjects relevant to adult learners: Civics Education, Digital Literacy, Financial Literacy, Health Literacy, and Workforce Preparation. They include domains, topics, and subtopics in each subject. The frameworks were developed by aggregating existing curricula, assessments, and frameworks used in adult education and compiling insights from organizations and individual instructors. Use them to support Teaching Skills That Matter-aligned instruction, to locate and use resources in SkillBlox, or as a checklist for planning instruction and assessment.
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Building Knowledge and Evidence About Using Digital Technologies in Adult Foundational Skills Programs
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Recent activities and events spurred adult educators’ interest in digital technologies, including the Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE competition; the development of digital products by adult education publishers; and the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted adult foundational skills programs to shift from in-person classes to virtual instruction. As interest in digital technologies grows, the need for information about how to implement these technologies and what works for whom under what conditions also grows.
Although some form of technology has been used to teach adult foundational skills for at least 3 decades, the knowledge base about the implementation and effectiveness of technology with adult learners is limited. The recent expansion of technology use in adult foundational skills programs suggests the need for increased efforts to develop knowledge and evidence about the types of technologies and tools that can be used effectively to assist adult learners in enhancing their foundational skills and facilitating their lifelong learning.
Author: Judith A. Alamprese, Principal Scientist, Abt Associates
Read the attached article below for the full paper.
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Highlighting Innovative Practitioner Uses of Digital Technologies in Adult Foundational Skills Instruction
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Throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, teachers delivered instruction in new ways, drawing on technology tools and digital resources to support learners whom they could not teach in person (Belzer et al., 2020). To succeed, teachers had to redefine their work—especially in the way they planned or designed instruction (Vanek, in press). This break from traditional instruction served as a laboratory of sorts and illustrated the promise of educational technology (hereafter, edtech) for improving and enhancing instruction.
To explore and learn from the ways that adult educators are experimenting with digital technologies, the final convening of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences–funded Center for the Study of Adult Literacy included a session focused on this topic. The session titled “Leveraging Digital Technologies for Adult Foundational Skills Instruction” provided an opportunity for attendees to hear about promising strategies, resources, and practices that became visible through technical assistance provided by the EdTech Center@World Education to teachers, program administrators, and state-level leaders leading up to and throughout the pandemic.
Authors:
Dr. Jen Vanek, Director of Digital Learning and Research at The EdTech Center@World Education
Jeffrey Goumas, Senior Technical Advisor at The EdTech Center@World Education
Read the attached article below for the full paper.
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Findings from a National Landscape Scan on Adult Digital Literacy Instruction
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In the first year of the Digital Resilience in the American Workforce (DRAW) initiative, Jobs for the Future (JFF), World Education, and Safal Partners launched a landscape scan to better understand what training resources and approaches are most relevant for educators seeking to increase foundational digital literacy and digital resilience for an adult learner population. Over the past decade digital literacy has emerged as an essential skill for personal, civic, educational, and career success. Yet few adult education professionals – including, but not limited to, those teaching in AEFLA-funded programs – have been trained to help learners develop the confidence, self-efficacy, and digital resilience they need to adapt to today’s digital demands.
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Launching a Digital Literacy Accelerator
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The Office of Educational Technology (OET) at the U.S. Department of Education is actively looking for ways to promote digital literacy. OET believes that one effective way to support digital literacy is through innovative educational technology (edtech) tools created by a diverse array of developers who have a range of different backgrounds, life experiences, and education.
This report, coauthored by OET and WestEd staff, is aimed at agencies interested in supporting edtech or digital literacy accelerators, as well as education leaders interested in supporting strategies to address misinformation.
This report examines the following questions about the DLA:
What did OET and WestEd learn from research and the current state of the field of digital literacy to develop and scale innovations?
What were the problems teams were trying to solve?
What did OET and WestEd learn when teams applied their innovation to the identified problem?
What are the barriers to new innovations in the digital literacy space?
What best practices can OET and WestEd extract from the accelerator and apply to future thinking?
Based on OET and WestEd’s work with the DLA, what recommendations do we have for federal agencies to support the field of digital literacy?