Now some questions for you:

1.  Have you assessed your students' web page reading skills? Has anyone
assessed adult learners' web page reading skills? Is there such an
assessment?
2.  What impact do adult literacy programs have on students' access to
or use of computers or the Internet? I have seen an unpublished study
which found they have --- none -- and that makes me wonder why.  Any
ideas? Are you aware of any studies of adult literacy programs' impact
on students' access to or use of computers?
3. Are adult literacy programs helping students to use assistive
technology -- for example, (free) text-to-speech web page reader
software that would enable them to join the community of internet users
even if they have difficulty reading text? If not, should this be a
program responsibility?


David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net 


David,
  As far as your questions are concerned I can only speak to my
experience with instructing groups of students.  I would split them into
two groups, as the BBC article suggests they are split into age groups.
Older students, BI (before internet), are scared of the technology, and
sometimes literally, have to be handheld for online activities.  Then
the younger students, AI (After Internet), go in with reckless abandon,
clicking on hypertext, clicking on pop-ups, unintentionally loading spy
ware, etc.

The two groups take a lot of instruction.  With the AI group an
instructor has to compete with the groups energy, a lot of reigning-in
occurs.  The most successful use I had with this group came from a group
discussion about service projects(schema), the group set targets of
information they wanted, and then we went online to research.  We used
the research at the end to make a more informed service-learning project
based on student interest. 

Students did need to decipher information, so as an instructor I was
able to ask them questions, "Is this important to your goal?" "That is
interesting, how does it help?"  "Why do you need my Credit Card to get
information?" And so on.  They also pulled-up a lot of junk.

I try and have my older students work with an online program offered for
free to residents of Kentucky.  PLATO Learning Technologies offers
online worksheets and whatnot thru Kentucky Virtual Adult Education,
www.kyvae.org.  (KET's Literacy Link is there, too.)  It is more
difficult to get older students to try the online programs.... The
student feels as if they will break something, as if they are not smart
enough, etc.  So the first thing the instructor must do is overcome the
student's self defeating attitudes. "You are smarter than that piece of
plastic."  "It can only do what you tell it."  "The Computer can make
some stupid answers." "Your taxes already paid for it, we're not going
to make you buy it again." etc. 

I think this BI/AI shift is present all over.  I am 28, and was
introduced to the internet in high school.  I e-mail more, and do more
on the internet than my sister who is 2 years older than I.  We both
feel that it is because of my over-exposure to the internet that makes
the difference.

I hope that helps with question 1.

As far as question 2, I am going to start teaching with PowerPoint
presentations to model technology use, Around December I'll give you my
opinion on how that went.

And lastly, question 3, I asked our state technology person about Dragon
a while back, and we have a program installed here.  But as an
instructor am I wanting to build a students dependency on something
else, another crutch, that tells them they cannot do it?  Or am I
wanting to integrate this student into the technological world?  If the
latter, where is the student going to buy the program for their home
computer?  Will the library put it on their computers? Can I really
justify using 27% of the learning center's annual budget for a license?
Isn't my purpose as a teacher to not just give someone a fish?  That's
the dilemma...there are students who need the software, I agree, but how
do letting that person use that software here help them in the rest of
the world?


Now, my questions.  I mentioned Kentucky Virtual Adult Education
earlier, how many other states have this capability to instruct online?
Instructors, how are do you feel it works for your students?  If there
is no research on virtual education's effectiveness, how do we start a
study and what can I do to help?

Online education is becoming more and more watched, two Doctors were
recently arrested for operating without a license.  They studied through
a Virtual University that claims it was accredited, scary stuff.

Barry Burkett, Adult Educator
Thorn Hill Learning Center
Frankfort, KY
502.223.3110