Bruce and others,

You mentioned that a simulation to teach online banking and shopping  
might be valuable.  I agree, and think simulations have a lot of  
potential in adult literacy education. If Technology e-list  
subscribers will e-mail me or post to the list some of their favorite  
simulations I will compile these and add a section on simulations to  
the Literacy list. ( http://alri.org/literacylist.html )

Bruce, what % of your students (by gender) have access to the  
Internet from home? Of these, what % use e-mail?  What % use Internet  
telephony? What trends do you see in access and use of the Internet  
from home?  More ESL/ELL students getting access from home? More  
using e-mail? More using Internet telephony? Or something else?

How about other teachers on this list?  have you surveyed your  
students? What trends are you seeing? Are there differences between  
ELL and ABE students?

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net



On Jan 3, 2006, at 2:10 PM, Bruce Moon wrote:


> I suspect that the nature of the Internet and the abuses of it may  

> have

> already skewed what we teach. I doubt if very many of us are going  

> to teach

> our students how to download music or use a chat room.  Because it  

> involves

> setting up an account and submitting personal information, we  

> probably won't

> be teaching students to use auctions either. Perhaps we do need to  

> examine

> our teaching, though, to make sure that we don't direct our  

> teaching in just

> the way that we use the Internet. Here I am thinking of how elementary

> school teachers tend to teach fiction books when boys are  

> interested in

> non-fiction, perhaps unknowingly transmitting the idea that reading is

> "sissy stuff". If it there was a simulation to  teach online  

> banking and

> shopping, those might be valuable skills to teach our students of  

> both sexes

> to minimize the digital divide.

> 	As a sidelight, I teach refugees from former Soviet Union countries.

> Sometimes within days of entry, the men in the men who are online  

> searching

> auto auction sites. Within their community, there is a network of  

> workers

> who can take a damaged auto and make it look like new. They are  

> looking for

> just the right car to take to their family friends. I drive a 1991  

> Toyota

> pickup; all of my students drive 21st century cars.

> 	Thinking about my students, I don't think that the stereotypes

> necessarily apply as they are driven by their needs as newcomers  

> who want to

> continue their connections with their homeland. E-mail to friends  

> back home

> seems to be equally used by both. Both men and women like to  

> download music

> from "home". First language news sites are also popular, perhaps  

> more with

> the men. And a few of the  more net savvy of both sexes find the first

> language java chat sites that the school's proxy hasn't been able  

> to block.

> Bruce Moon

> Adult ESL educator

> Rio Linda, CA

>

>

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