Tag Archives: Foundation Skills

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ALaN WA Newsletter – March 2015

Welcome to edition 17 of the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Network of Western Australia Newsletter!

Views expressed by contributors to the newsletter are their own and, unless expressly stated, do not reflect the opinions of their employers/organisations.

This contents page links individually to each article enabling you to go immediately to those of your choice. Alternatively, if you go to the main blog link, you can access the articles by scrolling down the page.

We welcome your comments and contributions to our newsletter. If you are an Adult Literacy/Numeracy practitioner in Western Australia or indeed, anywhere in the world, we invite you to subscribe and comment. If you are interested in joining the GoogleGroup for our network, please visit our “How to join” page and complete the online form.

Contents

1. A look at the updated CGEA Implementation Guide

2. This year’s WA Adult Literacy Council (WAALC) Conference

3. A new social media Community of Practice for LLN (Foundation Skills) Practitioners

4. Professional learning coming up in WA

5. Conferences in the next few months

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A new social media Community of Practice for LLN/Foundation Skills) Practitioners

As some of you will know I am involved as a Foundation Skills Champion with the National Foundation Skills Strategy Project. Our small Community of Practice made up of the Champions is working to extend our network to ALL Foundation Skills (LLN/Employability Skills) practitioners throughout Australia, so that we form a National Network (Community of Practice). This will give us wider opportunities to connect and share and a greater voice to participate in discussion. One of the strategies we are adopting is the use of social media for online networking. We are initially using Facebook and also Twitter.

PLEASE JOIN US – the more people who join and participate the more vibrant and sustainable our network will be!

FS Soc Network1

Through Facebook and Twitter we can:

  • Use posts and comments to discuss ideas and issues in Foundation Skills delivery
  • Seek feedback and reflect on activities
  • Share and find resources, links and information about Foundation Skills
  • Ask those “just-in-time” questions when we need help with ideas, activities, resources
  • Have real time discussions (using Twitter chats) on “hot topics” that can be archived for later access
  • Gain the experience to meet our students on their own “home” e-ground

If you are already on Facebook then visit and join the FS Teach Group: or type http://bit.ly/FSTeachGroup

If you are already on Twitter then follow me @JoHart and tweet me with the #tag #FSTeach

If you are not yet on Facebook and/or Twitter visit Online social networks for PD and networking or type http://bit.ly/SocNetForPD for info on signing up to either or both and getting started.

Please also download our “Building on our Foundations” flyer and share with colleagues to encourage them to join.

Hope to “see” you on Facebook and Twitter very soon. 🙂

 

 

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Digital literacy for “offline” students – Part 1

Worried about how to incorporate digital literacy in your literacy course if your students have no, or limited, Internet access? There are downloadable tools that you can use to help you with this. Most need to be installed on the computers your students use although some may be run from a USB memory stick or a CD/DVD. This article focuses on PowerPoint as a tool for creating digital texts.

The maths resource “Language of shape” on this blog page, was developed in PowerPoint. It is a digital text containing internal hyperlinks and audio so that it has a degree of interactivity. The links below connect to short “how to” tutorials on creating different interactive texts using PowerPoint:

Some ideas for student tasks that create digital texts using PowerPoint advanced features.

Wordle ideas for Ppt projects

There are a number of other tools that may be used to create digital texts without being connected to the Internet, however PowerPoint is probably the most easily available in most teaching contexts.

Jo Hart

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ALaN WA Newsletter – December 2014

Welcome to edition 15 of the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Network of Western Australia Newsletter!

Views expressed by contributors to the newsletter are their own and, unless expressly stated, do not reflect the opinions of their employers/organisations.

This contents page links individually to each article enabling you to go immediately to those of your choice. Alternatively, if you go to the main blog link, you can access the articles by scrolling down the page.

We welcome your comments and contributions to our newsletter. If you are an Adult Literacy/Numeracy practitioner in Western Australia or indeed, anywhere in the world, we invite you to subscribe and comment. If you are interested in joining the GoogleGroup for our network, please visit our “How to join” page and complete the online form.

This is our last newsletter for 2014 – the next one will be late January or early February 2015. We wish you a safe and peaceful break and look forward to sharing again in the New Year.

Contents

1. The CAVSS Experience – A Snapshot from a CAVSS Lecturer

2. Literacy Research Matters

3. Call for presenters – WA Adult Literacy Council Conference 2015

4. Keynote speaker at the WAALC Conference

5. Recent Academic Research

6. NCVER Online Survey – extended deadline

7. Conferences coming up in 2015

8. PD coming up in 2015

9. Collaborative Numeracy Workshops

10. Report on ACAL 2014 Conference Keynote

 

 

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NCVER on-Line survey – deadline extended to 19 December

NCVER Online Survey

The NCVER is conducting a survey on behalf of the National Foundation Skills Strategy (NFSS) Project.

If you teach or help people develop their English language, literacy, numeracy or employability skills they need your help!

There have already been 586 valid survey responses submitted – an unprecedented response rate according to Michelle Circelli at NCVER.  Responses from WA comprise around 8% of the total received so far.

The project team are excited about the strong response and eager to gather more evidence and information. Please complete a short survey at:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/foundationskillssurvey

Margaret McHugh

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Seeking your input!

Introduction

Surveys give us the opportunity to input into future developments, so if you can find the time it is always worth completing any that are relevant. Yours could be the response that tips the balance towards a change that you favour rather than one you will hate! There are two surveys seeking input at the moment – one is a local WA survey for a CAVSS Local Leaders project and the other is a national NCVER survey relating to delivery of Foundation Skills.

1. Please help by completing the CAVSS Teacher’s Survey

The Department of Training and Workforce Development has funded this project to produce resources that will provide additional support to CAVSS Managers. When you respond to this survey, you will be helping us:

  • identify the skills and knowledge that are key to undertaking the CAVSS Manager’s job
  • gather practical ideas for solving common problems
  • design accessible and well-targetted training resources that will assist new CAVSS Managers.

There are two Surveys: one for CAVSS Managers and one for CAVSS staff. We would really like it you can find time to fill in a survey.

Please complete the survey by 14 November 2014

Link to CAVSS Teachers’ survey – please pass this on to any other CAVSS staff who may not have access to the GoogleGroup or this newsletter

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CAVSSTeachersSurvey

Link to CAVSS Managers’ survey – please pass this on to any CAVSS managers/potential CAVSS  managers who may not have access to the GoogleGroup or this newsletter

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CAVSSManagers

2. NCVER survey of practitioners involved in Foundation Skills delivery

NCVER has released a survey for Foundation Skills. The information you provide will be invaluable in shaping the future of Foundation Skills, so please take a moment to read the information and fill out the questionnaire. This is part of the National Foundation Skills Strategy Project. Further information and the survey are available at “Who is delivering Foundation Skills”

 

 

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Useful links and resources August 2014

Service Skills Australia has a new webpage “Taking the Lead” which it describes as a “one-stop shop” for information on the development of core LLN skills in the service industries.

Several of the Industry Skills Councils have developed resources relating to Foundation Skills in their industry areas. These may be useful to anyone delivering LLN in an industry context eg CAVSS, USIQ or WELL (soon to be replaced by the new Industry Skills Fund). They include the following free resources:

Construction and Property Services – Foundation Skills Resources for CPC08 and CPP07

Agrifood Skills Australia – Two LLN resources “From the Ground Up” and “The Get Real Factor”

Community Services & Health Industry Skills Council – a series of videos on LLN Awareness & Foundation Skills Implementation

Government Skills Australia – a series of videos on Foundation Skills in a government and community context

 

 

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Supporting effective delivery of foundation skills to Indigenous, remote and disadvantaged learners

We are looking for input from foundation skills (LLN and Employability Skills) practitioners into the “Technology Innovations Applied Research Project” that CY O’Connor Institute is currently undertaking (funded through the National Vocational E-Learning Strategy (NVELS)).

The project focus is on building the e-capability of the VET workforce to identify and address the foundation skills needs of disadvantaged learners.

Natures window distance

One of the main outputs from the project will be a “toolkit” for foundation skills teachers working with the identified learner groups that will provide them with:

  • A framework of e-pedagogy outlining the key principles for teaching foundation skills to disadvantaged learners in VET
  • Advice on the use of selected media and technological applications for foundation skills training for disadvantaged learners
  • Good practice examples of the use of e-learning technologies for the development of foundation skills for the identified equity groups
  • Case studies of ‘e-mbedding’ foundation skills in vocational training for the identified equity groups
  • E-teaching strategies that will enable foundation skills teachers to ‘deliberately’ introduce and teach the literacies, numeracies and foundation skills that are taken for granted within the vocational course.

We are seeking examples and ideas from foundation skills (LLN/Employability Skills) practitioners to help us create a useful resource for others. So please, please share if you use/have used any e-tools and strategies with your students.

We are looking particularly for:

  • case studies of how you/your students have used technology to support LLN/Employability Skills development, in a vocational or general education context;
  • information about any media/technology/apps you have trialled/used and how successful these were (especially if you had any bandwidth – speed – issues)
  • any strategies you have used to introduce vocationally specific foundation skills to students

Please add a comment here on the post or visit the Google group and comment on the post there so that we can contact you for more information. It is so important that we have input from as many people as possible so that we can create a terrific toolkit!

Sharon Ross, Lina Zampichelli, Jo Hart (CY O’Connor Institute)

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ALaN WA Newsletter – October 2013

Welcome to edition 9 of the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Network of Western Australia Newsletter!

Views expressed by contributors to the newsletter are their own and, unless expressly stated, do not reflect the opinions of their employers/organisations.

This contents page links individually to each article enabling you to go immediately to those of your choice. Alternatively, if you go to the main blog link, you can access the articles by scrolling down the page.

We welcome your comments and contributions to our newsletter. If you are an Adult Literacy/Numeracy practitioner in Western Australia or indeed, anywhere in the world, we invite you to subscribe and comment. If you interested in joining the GoogleGroup for our network, please visit our “How to join” page and complete the online form.

Contents

1. Where do you get these sites from?

A Personal Learning Network is a great source of useful links, resources and ideas

2. WA curriculum update

Re-accreditation activities

3. Updates on available PD

PD coming up in the near future

4. Conferences coming up

Conferences in the early part of 2014

5. Foundation Skills Workforce Development Project – Professional Standards scoping.

A summary of some WA feedback.

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Foundation Skills Workforce Development Project

This article has also been submitted to ACAL so apologies if you are reading it for the second time!

Here in WA we have had some consultation workshops relating to “Scoping a foundation skills professional standards framework” which is one of the facets of the Foundation Skills Workforce Development Project. As well as the more formal workshops (both online and face-to-face) the topic has been raised and discussed (over recent weeks) more informally with a variety of stakeholders. This article relates to the Perth (face-to-face) and online workshops and to informal conversations.

FSWD wshp image

There have been some strongly recurring points and concerns raised by practitioners as well as some disconcerting opinions expressed by program managers.

Recurring themes and concerns from practitioners

  • There is concern that as with TAE, there will be an ongoing requirement to revisit qualifications (especially if they are vocational ones) and this wastes time that could be better spent on meaningful professional development.
  • A progressive career pathway to higher level skills and knowledge could have a positive impact on practitioner credibility, however there is a risk that the required skills and knowledge for a literacy and numeracy specialist teacher will be “watered down”.
  • Foundation skills is NOT one entity however the basis for delivering foundation skills lies on the existing specialisations (language, literacy and numeracy teaching – with the possible addition of digital literacy/citizenship).
  • Existing membership organisations could potentially play a significant role in implementing and maintaining a professional standards framework but would need to be funded for this.

Misapprehensions expressed by non-practitioners

  • A qualification is not needed to deliver literacy – particularly at the lower levels.
  • The TAELLN401 or TAELLN411 is a suitable “qualification” for those delivering foundation skills.
  • Continuing PD should be organisation based and managed.

The concern looming largest for most practitioners was that of ending up in a situation similar to that with the Cert IV in Training and Assessment with a requirement that they continually re-do the qualification. It is also perhaps significant that the worries relating to the risk of lowering standards expressed by practitioners seem already to be mirrored by the opinions of some managers.

Jo Hart