Tag Archives: resources

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Collaborative Numeracy program Take 2

Beth Marr will be returning to Western Australia in late February to start a second set of workshops developing teacher’s skills to apply collaborative learning techniques to adults learning numeracy.

The 2014 pilot program will form the basis for  a series of videos.   Whether you need to refresh your skills and re-visit the concepts, or start learning about the ideas from scratch, the videos will allow you to do this in your own time and place. Sorry, but 2015 program participants will not get the chance to be in a video!

I would love to hear from anyone who has tried some of the models of activity that Beth taught us last year – you can comment here publicly so the whole world can see if they wish or, if you prefer,  in our membership-only ALaN Network Google Group.

More of Beth’s work is available at “Building Strength With Numeracy” on the VALBEC website.

Let me know if you missed out on a place in the program. There are still a couple of spots available.

 

Cheryl Wiltshire

ALaN Network WA

 

 

 

 

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CAVSS Local Leaders Network Project

This is an ALaN Network project funded by the WA Department of Training and Workforce Development and being carried out by C Y O’Connor Institute.

The aim of the project is to create an online “course” providing information and scenarios for decision making about using CAVSS, promoting greater understanding of the CAVSS Business Rules for all managers.

Two on-line surveys, one for CAVSS managers and one for CAVSS lecturers, have been conducted and responses analysed. Responses to these survey have helped us identify the skills and knowledge that are key to undertaking the CAVSS Manager’s job

The surveys show areas of concern that can be grouped under three main issues:

  • Expecting that CAVSS will solve every problem
  • Lack of systematic process to ensure that team-teaching model is set up and then monitored
  • Failure to understand and value the skills and knowledge profile of the literacy/numeracy teacher.

CAVSS Business Rules that are most difficult to comply with are graphed below. Rule 13, Selecting teachers to deliver CAVSS, being the most difficult.

Bus Rules Graph

The surveys show we need to highlight the importance of having the right teacher… not just another vocational lecturer.

The development of the on-line course is well underway and will be trialled before launching. We are creating the course with Articulate Storyline – a rapid e-learning development tool.

Coursepics

With this tool we can create interactive content using quizzes and scenarios as well as a variety of images, video, text and audio.

Lina Zampichelli

 

 

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Literacy Research Matters

Looking for that critical research report, journal article or conference paper?

The VOCED & ALADIN online databases may help you.

VOCED is a free international research database from NCVER relating to workforce needs, skills development, and social inclusion. It encompasses vocational education and training (VET), higher education, adult and community education, informal learning, and VET in Schools. International in scope the database contains over 63,000 English language records, many with links to full text documents. You can easily search by keyword or ‘Browse’ by author, title, journal or subject.

Adult Learning Documentation and Information Network (ALADIN) , is an initiative of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. It was created to support networking and capacity building between documentation centres and libraries in the area of adult learning and literacy. Today it comprises of 96 documentation centres in 47 countries in all regions of the world, from complex university libraries and research units, to small NGO resource centres and some virtual collections. The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) is an ALADIN member organisation.

KEEP UP TO DATE: New research is collated into a bi-monthly ALADIN Online Alert located on the ALADIN News webpage – no ‘subscription’ or signup required. Find out about recent online and full-text information in the areas of adult learning, adult literacy, lifelong learning and technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

Jane Jones

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Infographics – what are they and how can we use them?

Introduction

The word is itself a contraction of “Information graphics” and describes a visual representation of data, information or knowledge. Wikipedia has a comprehensive article on Infographics.

Using infographics

Infographics are a great way of sharing information in a visual way that makes it easier for most people to understand than a written text. For example NCVER have produced a range of infographics about the VET Sector including this one:

This infographic from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research   www.ncver.edu.au

 

Students and courses

We can use infographics with students in a variety of ways some that I have used in the past include asking students to: explain in writing or orally parts of an infographic; compare two infographics with similar topics; find and critique infographics relating to their own interests; research information/find data and produce an illustrative infographic. For me infographics are a good way of integrating numeracy and literacy.

There are lots of online tools that you and your students can use to create infographics these include: “easelly”,  “infogram”, “Piktochart” and “visually”. Most of these need you to sign up to use them and they have both free and paid versions. However you don’t have to use one of the online tools, it is possible to make excellent infographics  using Powerpoint. Using Powerpoint makes it easy to incorporate graphs/charts created with Excel.

The two infographics below were made in easel.ly and Powerpoint for some PD I delivered a while ago.

Infographics

Participants all preferred the one on the right created using Powerpoint. They found it more engaging because of the graphics used and the greater use of colour. I also found the Powerpoint one much easier to create, this was partly because I am very familiar with Powerpoint. However I also found that consistently selecting and moving shapes to the right places more difficult with the other application.

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ALaN WA Newsletter – August 2014

Welcome to edition 13 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. WA Adult Literacy Council AGM Information

2. Community focused activities for Initial CGEA learners

3. New numeracy workshop offering

4. Making our voices heard

5. New ALaN Network projects 2014-2015

6. WA curriculum update August 2014

7. Useful links and resources – August 2014

8. Conferences update August 2014

 

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Making our voices heard!

We have increasingly good opportunities to input into consultations and resource development through online platforms, check out the links below to make your voice heard!

1. With the demise of the WELL program and its replacement by the Industry Skills Fund there are ongoing opportunities for input through the consultation process that will continue until this is fully rolled out. It is really important for experienced WELL people to have say in this to try and ensure that the ISF is a worthy replacement. You can access the discussion paper and provide feedback through the Industry Skills Fund page

2. There is currently a great opportunity for input into new content for the “Building Strength with Numeracy” resources that Beth Marr will be developing for VALBEC. The Service Skills Australia website has more information in their “Taking the Lead Newsletter”

 

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ThingLink – a different way to share!

In one of our regular webinars a couple of weeks ago someone mentioned “ThingLink”. Over the follwing weekend I spent a bit of time exploring this tool.

ThingLink is described as a tool that helps you share content using images. The idea is to use an image and to add “tags” which link to content. The tool has been developed so that you can add many different types of content link including audio, video, webpages and polls.

Here are a three different ones that I have created – these are fairly simple and just link directly to content relevant to the spot in the image where the tag is positioned. The images can be easily embedded in websites and blogs. If you don’t see the links on the images immediately then move your mouse onto the image, you should then be able to checkout the content links.

The scene from Gooseberry Hill

 

  A “Toon” for introducing e-pedagogy


Free E-tools for teaching and learning

For me this has immense possibilities for use in literacy/numeracy contexts. Here is just a very quick “off the top of my head” list of some of the possible uses:

Students making their own “ThingLinks” to evidence their own understanding and research eg in “Current Issues”

  • Students developing their own audio, visual or written explanations of maths concepts and linking to them via tags
  • Students making ToonDoos eg related to Internet safety and linking to the source of their information
  • Students collecting a series of images recording project progress with tags linking to videos of different project activities and/or other project documentation
  • Language of shapes with links to audio files and or text glossary items.
  • Maths concepts with links to practical applications of the concepts in the real world
  • Managing student web access in exploring a topic to ensure that the sites they visit are of suitable quality
  • Writing prompt images with related information links as tags in the image

One of the reasons that I liked this tool straight away is that basic use is very quick and easy to learn. So it makes a great addition to the repertoire of quick and easy to learn tools that can be used by students while also having potential for developing engaging learning resources.

If you explore and try this one out please let us know by commenting on this post – we would love to know how you use it and what you and your students think of it!

Jo Hart (April 2014)

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ALaN WA Newsletter July 2013

Welcome to edition 7 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. CAVSS in the digital age.

A great insight into the ever evolving role of the CAVSS lecturer from Lina Zampicelli of CY O’Connor Institute.

2. What can WAALC do for you?

A look at the benefits of belonging to the WA Adult Literacy Council (WAALC) .

3. “What’s in a number?” – about the project.

This project is a WA ALaN professional development project funded by the WA dept of Training and Workforce Development (DTWD).

4. Drowning in information!

Using an online tool to curate and manage links shared with students

5. Professional Development update

Lots of PD available now and in the near future.

6. Conferences update

Conferences “near and far” coming up in the not too distant future!

 

 

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Fitness & Sports resource

This week, I received the publication: Fitness & Sports A Resource for Literacy Teaching from the Southern Grampians Adult Education.  (NB if you are using Firefox the sidebar links may not work). This is the seventh in a series of learning resources developed for the 2007-2012 version of the CGEA.

Fitness & Sports contains 72 worksheets about sports in eight sections: Netball, Tennis, Cricket, Basketball and four types of “football”. These are developed at 3 different levels so mixed-level classes can share a common topic but do literacy and numeracy activities that develop and extend their current skills.

I am not a big fan of worksheets as the core of adult literacy programs. In my view, Death by Worksheet is as risky as Death by PowerPoint.  However, both worksheets and PowerPoint have a valuable place if not overdone; this resource models how experienced adult literacy practitoners weave them into a diverse program.

As all the worksheets are photocopiable (legally), this is an ideal resource to allow the sports mad student to demonstrate and extend their knowledge while providing evidence of competence against any part of the CGEA needed (including all of the core units and several electives). It also provides a range of ideas for class activities such as guest speakers, debates, and Internet research. A student who is really keen on this topic could complete a substantial chunk of any CGEA certificate using ideas included in this resource.

It cost me $75.00 plus pack and post. Order form here – if it doesn’t open then email sgae@sgae.vic.edu.au for an order form.

Other topics also available from South Grampians Adult Education include DIY Housing and DIY Cooking. See samples here.  These also demonstrate how a topic can be shared across the full range of CGEA certificate levels.

Cheryl Wiltshire

ALaN Network Coordinator