Tommy,

I think your study is very interesting. Can you provide a brief summart of 
the results of your study? Are you saying that the students were reading 
more proficiently on the web than in books, and that this made an impact on 
their university entrance exams? Fascinating stuff! Please send us more 
information if you have the time.

Best,

Craig

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Craig Alinder
Escuela del Sol Montessori
1114 Seventh St. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87110
www.canadianflowerdelivery.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tommy B. McDonell, Ph.D." <tbr202 at nyu.edu>
To: "The Technology and Literacy Discussion List" <technology at nifl.gov>
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 12:06 PM
Subject: [spam] [Technology 622] Re: (no subject)



>I rarely have time anymore to write on this board but I continue

> lurking.

>

> For what it is worth, I defended my dissertation at NYU last spring.

> My research examined how native and non native speakers of English in

> a college and university read plain text and hypertext online. While

> these students were not adult learners, I think that the results

> might surprise some people as these students scored high in most

> examinations required to enter college and graduate school. The

> reading done was taken from Encarta. The reading was not adapted but

> the advertisements were removed.

>

> In the spring Dr. Eisenstein Ebsworth and I hope to replicate the

> study at the International High School in Long Island City.

>

> At the time I did my dissertation and theoretical overview I did not

> see much assessment of adults or for that matter of anyone. Some

> studies had been done with school children and a few with adults, but

> all together these studies did not look at more than 30 people all

> together.

>

> As a former director of an adult program that incorporated technology

> into the second language classroom, I now wonder about using the

> Internet as a main form of reading.

>

> Take care.

>

> Tommy

>

>

> Tommy B. McDonell, Ph.D.

> Adjunct

> H: 212-929-6768

> W: 212-242-6800 x 152

> C: 917-514-1354

>

>

>

>

>

> On Oct 13, 2006, at 12:15 PM, Burkett, Barry wrote:

>

>> 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

>>

>>

>> ----------------------------------------------------

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>

>

>

> Tommy B. McDonell, Ph.D.

> Adjunct

> H: 212-929-6768

> W: 212-242-6800 x 152

> C: 917-514-1354

>

>

>

>

>

> ----------------------------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

> Technology and Literacy mailing list

> Technology at nifl.gov

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to 

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