Thanks for the open invite to comment, Julie.

Given the low enrolment in adult literacy programs due to
funding/hours/transportational barriers/lack of child care etc, and IALS
survey results that showed that many adults with low literacy did not state
they perceived a problem with their own literacy skills, we secured $100K
from the Manitoba Lotteries Corporation to produce a ten week television
series called Mathworks.

It was based on a series of videotapes that came from the Nova Scotia
Coalition on Literacy in Canada. We hired a TV producer who jazzed up the
content, timing, added features like MathFACTS, Math Trivia, teaching tips,
"streeters" asking questions about math in real life, and authentic
interviews with local shopkeepers, etc who showed how math was used in daily
life. It also had an on-air hostess who "taught" basic concepts. We embedded
a website URL and call to action to visit www.mathworkstv.com and/or to call
our LEARN LINE phone number "for help or to help" in the television show as
a bumper (little advertisement) to track how many viewers we were attracting
when it ran on satellite television over the first run.

Well....the viewer numbers were staggering. The first night it ran, we had
10 calls to the LEARN line and 60 hits on the website. To make a long story
short, by the time the end of the ten week run was over, a total of 60,000
people had logged onto the website (hopefully different people, not one busy
person over and over!) and 66 extra calls to the LEARN line to inquire about
programs. Given that only 2,200 people were enrolled in adult literacy
programs across the whole province for the whole year, we were happy with
the results. We did not measure the conversion factors of how many callers
turned into learners (due to no funding to evaluate the project).

The TV show went on to run three more times on the satellite network SCN,
because we wanted to reach the remote who did not have access to programs. I
hope it worked.

We went on to convert the 10 week series into DVDs and CDs for teachers to
use, tutors to try, adults to have in their homes, youth to use, and more.
Many adult literacy instructors come from a Humanities background and may
appreciate a bit of help with facilitating numeracy learning.

 YOu can order them from Grassroots Press for a ridiculously low price of
$42.95 US for the CD and $71.95 for the DVD from www.literacyservices.com
and enter Math Works TV in the search engine.
http://secure.cartsvr.net/catalogs/catalog.asp?prodid=3129088&showprevnext=1

Marg Rose, Former Exec Director of the adult literacy coalition of Manitoba,
Canada