Online Technologies for Personal and Professional Development

Reflections from ALRNNV Information Technology Project
by

Syed Javed and John Wilson

This paper was presented at the 20th Annual Conference of Australian Council for Adult Literacy (ACAL) at the Sydney Institute of Technology, 9-11 October 1997. A revised paper was later published in the November 1997 issue of Literacy Broadsheet.

During past 3 years the Adult Literacy Research Network Node in Victoria(ALRNNV) has been closely involved in promoting and supporting use of online technologies by adult literacy teachers and learners. In this paper we are going to throw some light on these initiatives and share our experience with you.

In July 1995 an Information Technology Project was initiated at ALRNNV. This was in response to the increasing significance of information and communication technology in education and training sector. The project aimed at inducting adult literacy teachers in the use of new learning technologies and promoting the use of computer mediated communication. The Network committed $6000 of its budget to implementing this project and with a further $12,000 EdNA funding administered through Open Training Services, Phase 1 of the project began in August 1995.

Beginnings - Phase 1

The main aim at this stage was to establish electronic mailing lists for teachers and learners and train selected ALBE teachers in using on-line technologies. Twelve participants were drawn from community education, TAFE and workplace settings representing both metropolitan and rural Victoria. An adult literacy mailing list was established at a Victoria University of Technology (VUT) server and participants were inducted in the use of e-mail and mailing list. Individual dial-up accounts were also issued to participants for accessing Internet via the VUT server. Training workshops were conducted in VUT lab and follow up mentoring support was provided via phone and e-mail.

Experiences from this phase indicate that setting up networking hardware and software on individual computers was the biggest challenge for teachers. Most teachers despite being competent and skilled user of computers were not familiar with installing new software and configuring network accounts.(These processes have become more user-friendly now). Participants from rural sites were disadvantaged because of STD phone charges. Community Centres were more independent and had more flexible options to network and use computers than TAFE colleges. The experience from the project gave participants confidence to successfully embark upon new initiatives and seek new funding for technology based projects.

The Adult Literacy List
The adult literacy mailing list proved to be a useful platform for participants to engage in discussions and debates. The list grew rapidly in membership and content of the postings has varied from simple announcements to prolonged debates on theory and practice. The list is unmoderated and consequently flaming experiences have also occurred. In its short life the list has been able to develop a 'virtual community' (Leonard, 1997). The list has two sets of subscribers - one as an active core of participants posting messages to the list regularly and another as browsers or lurkers who mainly remain silent listeners (readers) of the list postings. Currently, there are about 10 -20 contributing subscribers and about 80 silent readers. A detailed analysis of the discourse emerging on this list is beyond the scope of this paper, however, we see it as a significant research issue waiting to be explored. For more information on this list and how to join visit http://dingo.vut.edu.au/alrnnv/list.html

Pilot with ALBE Learners - Phase 2

During the first semester of 1996, the project entered into its 2nd phase and focussed on taking the technology to ALBE classrooms. The aims was to introduce adult literacy students to the realm of computer mediated communication. Four participating sites from Phase 1 and two new sites were selected for this pilot. Additional Internet accounts were given for students access to Internet and a mailing list for students use was established. Students from six sites took part in the exchange of e-mail postings on the ALBE mailing list. Many students quickly became regular users and new projects evolved using e-mail and the Web. During this phase too, the TAFE sites were seriously disadvantaged by institutional policies and procedures. In contrast, the community sites were more successful with integrating computer based projects within their programs.

The experiments with using Internet in ALBE classrooms has continued at many of these sites with students engaging in e-mail use, web publishing and synchronous communication via MOO. In many ALBE classes learning about Internet and using electronic resources is becoming increasingly popular. For a more detailed look at how these sites are using Internet with their students visit Literacy Learning through Technology home page at http://dingo.vut.edu.au/~alrnnv/lltt/lltt.html

Research Issues

The work of the project during phase 1 and 2 established a network of teachers who became engaged in applying new learning technologies to their professional development and in their classes. The process of developing this relationship between computing technology and literacy (Corbel, 1996, Bigum and Green 1993) raises many issues that need to be explored further.

Based on the experience of this project we identified a number of issues that need to be researched:

* How the application of new learning technologies impacts on the practice of literacy teaching.

* How adult literacy learners are influenced by the introduction of new learning technologies.

* What components of new learning technologies are most successfully used-
by teachers for their own professional development
by students as learning resources

* What are different models of integrating new learning technologies with conventional learning.

* What changes use of new learning technologies has brought about in-
teacher's routine of work
learner's routine of work

* What models of professional development prove to be more effective in learning to apply new learning technologies.

* What kinds of textual practices are emerging in ALBE classrooms using new learning technologies.

LLTT Project - Phase 3

Further funding from ANTA has enabled the ALRNNV to embark upon phase 3 this year. In July 1997 ALRNNV launched it's phase 3 of information technology project with the working title of " Literacy Learning Through Technology (LLTT)".

During phase 3 our main objective is to promote, support and research the use of new learning technologies amongst ALBE teachers and learners. Based on a research sample of 4 community sites, 4 TAFE institutes and 4 rural ALBE sites the project will describe and analyse the usage and implementation of new learning technologies at these sites. A detailed survey questionnaire (http://dingo.vut.edu.au/~alrnnv/lltt/survey_index.html) and interviews will be used to collect research data. In addition more training workshops are being offered to ALBE teachers. Two new rural sites have also been added to the project base and a new mode of online training using First class Communication software is being experimented.

The First class Conferencing system provides secure and private synchronous and asynchronous communication between participants and is being extensively used in online training courses. The program's flexibility to provide a range of discussion forum makes it an ideal tool for one to one and one to many communication. We are also hoping to use logs of First class and MOO based synchronous communication as part of research data.

Levels of Users

At this stage our preliminary investigations have revealed three levels of user groups with new learning technologies:
Starter User
User
Developer

Starter users are those individuals who have joined the Internet community very recently and their level of Internet use is limited to e-mail communication and a browser. They can use graphical email programs such as Eudora, Pegasus, Microsoft Mail or Netscape Mail for sending and receiving e-mail messages.

User are those individuals who joined the Internet community for the past many months /years and use Internet regularly for their personal and class use. These users are able to manage their e-mail, download files and organise their browsers to a more sophisticated level.

Developer are individuals who spend considerable amount of time on the Internet on a regular basis. The developers are able to use a range of synchronous and asynchronous communiation tools, browsers, HTML editors, image editors efficiently. These developers design and maintain web sites and regularly publish work on the Internet.

The research under LLTT project is hoping to identify detailed characteristics of identified levels of users and factors that influence the transition from one level to the next.

Conclusion

The Information Technology Projects at ALRNNV have played a significant role in harnessing appropriate use of new learning technologies within ALBE context. There is a clear indication that most ALBE teachers and learners have limited computing resources and training at their disposal. In addition, organisational commitment to provide computers for classroom teaching especially in the ALBE area is usually very limited. Projects like LLTT are likely to provide valuable information on perceived catalysts and barriers to applying new learining technologies.

References

1. Corbel, C. (1996). Computing as Literacy, Fine Print, June 1996.

2. Bigum, C and Green B. (1993). Technologizing Literacy: or, interrupting the dream of reason. In Luke, A and Gilbert, Literacy in Context, Allen and Unwin.

3. Javed, S. (1996). Final Report: Information Technology Project. Adult Literacy Research Network Node for Victoria, Victoria University of Technology.

4. Leonard, R. (1997). Online Communities - anything but virtual. Literacy Link, September 1997, p3.

Authors

Syed Javed works with Adult Basic Education at Western Melbourne Institute of TAFE and coordinates information technology projects at the Adult Literacy Research Network Node for Victoria at the Department of Education Victoria University of Technology. He is involved in a number of online technology projects and is researching the impact of online technology on ALBE teachers and learners. E-mail Syed at syed@dingo.vut.edu.au

John Wilson is Professor within the Department of Education, Victoria University of Technology with responsibility for Graduate Research students. He is also Director of the Adult Literacy Research Network Node for Victoria and manager of the ANTA/DEETYA funded Literacy Learning through Technology Project. E-Mail John at john=wilson@vut.edu.au