Tom - great questions.  We will have multimedia materials (e.g., videos
showing how to do things on LW) to help Learners with basic digital literacy
and navigation skills for the LW.  We also hope that various types of
assistants (including telephone-based Helpers) can help adults get started
using the LW.  For example, an adult walks into a public library and the
reference librarian notices that the adult has trouble reading some of the
materials of interest.  The librarian might sit down with the adult, make
them a LW account on the spot, help them get started with an appropriate
Learning Plan and show them how to get help when it's needed.  All of these
things may scaffold some adult with weak computer skills to get started.
But how low a skill level can be effectively scaffolded in this way?  We
don't know yet but should have more information about this as our piloting
process continues.

Hope this helps a bit.
-Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]
On Behalf Of Tom Macdonald
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 12:34 PM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1096] LearnerWeb and digital literacy

Hi Steve,

I hope these questions are clear and on topic -- if not, maybe we'll  
have the chance to talk some other time...

As near as I understand it, the Learner Web has two facets.

First, it acts as a central repository for resources (online and  
otherwise) which have been identified by teachers as useful learning  
opportunities. What's important about this is the potential to collect  
and publish local resources such as teacher-made, online learning  
activities, or local physical resources which offer learning  
activities or opportunities.

Second, it acts as a structure (or workspace) which scaffolds these  
resources by nesting them within a step-by-step, goal-oriented  
learning plan. Both physical and virtual resources provide the main  
content of the lesson plans in a Learning Plan.

My questions have to do with digital literacy generally and navigation  
specifically. Will the LearnerWeb help learners develop basic computer  
skills such as mouse manipulation, keyboarding, printing, web  
browsing, etc., or are these prerequisite skills? Can it help learners  
develop a more informed sense of what the internet is and what  
information and communication possiblities there are? (...or is the  
development of this "informed sense" even necessary to use the  
LearnerWeb effectively)?

The LearnerWeb as repository suggests a navigational structure of a  
simple directory of hyperlinks; the LearnerWeb as scaffold suggests a  
more complicated, pre-planned interplay of sites (the familiar  
LearnerWeb home from which the learner ventures out into the world of  
virtual or physical resources and to which the learner returns for  
further guidance). How important are the learner's navigational skills  
- not just cursor movement or double-clicking but having a sense of  
where in the virtual world they are and where they are going? 
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