Tech Tips Blog
Welcome to Tech Tips! This blog covers topics related to technology use in adult education in the United States. Posts include simple lesson ideas that teachers can use to integrate technology into instruction, updates on what’s happening in the field, new opportunities and resources, and news from our EdTech Center projects.
We welcome guest contributors. See our contact page for more information.
Setting the Stage for Distance and Blended Learning
The IDEAL Consortium is dedicated to helping member states across the US establish quality, innovative distance and blended learning programs; IDEAL has served as a facilitator of collaboration and sharing of effective practice since its inception in 2002. IDEAL’s...
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Learning Opportunities Available to Frontline Workers
By Crystal Dixson, 21 CLEO Research Team Assistant In our efforts to better understand the characteristics of learning opportunities available to frontline service workers, we’ve undertaken a comprehensive review of the work that has been published and distributed in...
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The EdTech Center is headed to CIES!
The EdTech Center is headed to this year’s Comparative International Education Society (CIES) conference on April 14-18, 2019, in San Francisco, California! This is our first year attending with our colleagues at Bantwana, JSI and World Education, Inc. and we’re...
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Catalyzing a Mobile Learning Movement in Adult Literacy: World Education Receives Milestone Award from Adult Literacy XPRIZE Communities Competition
World Education is honored to be a milestone award recipient in the national Adult Literacy XPRIZE Communities Competition. Team World Ed is improving access to learning for adults with low literacy skills through their smartphones. In this competition, friends,...
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21CLEO Research Team Introduces Early Work at COABE
Join session presenters Jen Vanek, from the EdTech Center@World Education, and Kathy Harris, from the Literacy Language, and Technology Research group, during Session 1, Monday, April 1st 8:00am-9:00am. Studio 1. In our session, 21C Learning Ecosystem for...
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21 CLEO Field Literature Review Process
The 21st Century Learning Ecosystems Opportunities (21 CLEO) project has embarked on a review of research that describes educational opportunities offered to frontline workers. Throughout the course of this review process, the project has been creating a list and...
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Signal Vine’s Hand In Workforce Development
If you really need to reach someone quickly do you send a text or an email? I’m guessing your answer is “a text message”. Though simple, texts are more likely to be seen and responded to in a timely manner than emails or calls, and they can have a big splash....
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The EdTech Center’s Guide to COABE 2019
So many presentations, so little time! To help ease your ‘presentation overload’, we created this curated list of sessions focused on edtech, digital literacy and online learning. Check out the master list for more details on each session in the table below. We know...
read moreSkillRise Initiative Supporting Technology Adoption in Adult Education and Workforce Development
SkillRise is a new initiative that helps adult education and workforce development organizations adopt and then effectively leverage technology in support of their clients, customers, learners, and employees. SkillRise is a project of the International Society for...
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Cafe Con Tabletas – Building Digital Literacy Skills at a Cafe
By Beatriz Vera, Building Skills Partnership Café con Tabletas is a new digital literacy initiative of Building Skills Partnership, a non-profit organization that aims to improve the quality of life for property-service workers and their families by increasing their...
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World Education Supports Mobile Learning Equivalency Program For Cambodian Youth
In collaboration with World Education’s EdTech Center, the Royal Government of Cambodia and UNESCO launched the first learning center of Basic Education Equivalency Programme (BEEP) on Sunday, 17 February 2019, at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia. BEEP aims to...
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PAIRIN – Helping Job Seekers “Look in the Mirror” to Assess Personal Soft Skills
By Jeff Goumas and Jen Vanek “It really has fine printed the areas in my professional life and personal life I need to work on. I’m not always the best at finding little traits in myself.” –Heather Barton, CrossPurpose Graduate Soft skills. Employability...
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SkillSmart—Improving Employment Opportunity with Skills-Based Hiring
What happens when employers start to look at a whole individual—and not just traditional education and work experience on a resume? A mother finds out that years at home caring for her paraplegic son has prepared her with skills to work in insurance customer service....
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Modernizing the Northstar Digital Literacy Assessment to Better Close the Opportunity Gap
A certified nursing assistant readying for a future with more electronic health records. A disabled father improving his digital skills toward a dream of starting an online business (and helping his daughter with computer-based homework). A Somali immigrant using his...
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Standing Out in the Crowd
The EdTech Center is pleased to announce the non-profit CrowdED Learning, and its founding Executive Director Jeff Goumas, as a new EdTech Partner. Formed in late 2017, CrowdED Learning is a response to the growing need for a wider range of high-quality, accessible learning resources for adult education. While there has been increased activity in the creation and sharing of free and open education resources (OER), their use within adult education remains incredibly low. CrowdED Learning is dedicated to solving this problem.
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Building A Culture of Inquiry: 21st Century Learning Ecosystem Opportunities Project
It is with great enthusiasm that we kick off this new interactive blog with an initial post about the 21st Century Learning Ecosystem Opportunities Project. This collective research effort seeks to identify the constellation of factors that motivate and encourage...
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Re-calibrating the North Star: Digital Literacy Assessment 2.0
The NorthStar Digital Literacy Assessment has been an established tool in the field of continuing education, and has recently undergone a overhaul to update their visuals and user interfaces. Check out more on how this techtool has evolved.
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Using Bio Poem Videos to Support Story Telling
Bio poems are an innovative way to plan lessons that engage learners in multimedia content creation in an accessible way. Kristen Navaluna describes how this concept could enrich any classroom~
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Beyond Bookmarks: An Easier Way to Manage OER
There are so many reasons to use Open Educational Resources (OER) in our adult learning programs. The IDEAL Distance Education and Blended Learning Handbook recommends using OER as supplemental resources to provide extra practice. OER is cost effective and easily...
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Teachers Talk Mobile Learning
By Lindsay Messoline Maria Velarde is the head teacher and Anissa Reddick is the assistant teacher at Make the Road New York, the state’s largest immigrant organization that works with Cell-Ed through a partnership with the New York State Office for New Americans....
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Field Testing Cell-Ed: Mobile Learning for All
By Jen Vanek, Alison Ascher Webber "I used to be bored at my children's soccer games and swim lessons, but now I use that time to study on Cell-Ed," said a room cleaner at the Seaport Hotel to her instructor at workplace English classes taught by World Education. For...
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World Education Celebrates CareAcademy’s MIT Inclusive Innovation Global Grand Prize Win
By Victoria Neff Last night, World Education team members attended MIT’s Inclusive Innovation Challenge Gala to cheer on CareAcademy, the grand prize winner in the Skill Development and Opportunity Matching category. CareAcademy was recognized for improving the future...
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App-to-Speed Learning Circles in Adult ESOL Programs
By David J. Rosen, Ed.D. A learning circle is a group led by a teacher, staff member or volunteer facilitator whose members all share an interest in the same subject or topic. It’s a non-formal, organized study circle that includes an online course or other online...
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xR for Adult Education
On Monday, October 22, I attended xR in EDU, a day-long event exploring the use of augmented and virtual reality in education and training. My goal was to listen for ideas that best connected with the field of adult education. In this post, I will share some of what I...
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Field Testing an Effective Virtual Career Exploration Technology with Adult Learners
The EdTech Center @ World Education is currently field testing Nepris, an online career exploration platform that connects educators with employers and industry experts to bring more relevance to the classroom and inspire learners towards real-world careers. Field...
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Leamos “Let’s Read” Online Literacy Course for Spanish Speakers
By Laura Medina, Southern California Director, Building Skills Partnership and Alison Ascher Webber, Board Member, Building Skills Partnership “Not being literate has brought me much humiliation and ridicule. Now thanks to the Leamos program, I know how to write my...
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One Adult Literacy App, Many Diverse Learners
AmritaCREATE's Approach to Learner Usage and Engagement in the Xprize Adult Literacy Competition By Rita Sutcliffe, English Language Content Manager, AmritaCREATE Clear instruction at the appropriate level and engagement of the learner are basic educational issues...
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Using the ISTE Student Standards in Adult Education
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is well known in the K-12 world as a thought leader on the issue of digital literacy. Their digital literacy standards, first shared in 1998, have been continuously revised to keep apace with both changes in...
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Facing the Retail Revolution with Empowered Learning for Technology Skills
By Jen Vanek and Brandon Olszewski As retail technology evolves to incorporate new trends such as online shopping, self-checkout and personal data, one cannot help but notice the changing nature of work. Rather than mechanically checking out customers one at a time,...
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What We’re Reading – August 2018
Skillsmart's white paper, Skills-based hiring expands across Western Massachusetts provides a compelling example of technology 'screening in' candidates for work they might not qualify for through a traditional resume. A hospitality company realized that to find...
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