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.
Vote For Digital US & EdTech Center @ SXSW EDU!
Digital literacy is rapidly becoming the new literacy. Like it or not, technology has come to stay. Everything we do -- from accessing healthcare, handling financial transactions, engaging with our community, and even accessing learning and job opportunities --...
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Barriers to Learning, Part 1
By Naila Bairamova and Crystal Dixson This blog post is the first in a two-part series that focuses on barriers to learner participation and persistence in employer-supported educational opportunities. In this framing of past research and reports, the 21 CLEO Research...
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Leveraging Digital Literacy Skill Attainment as a Program Outcome
By Tom Cytron-Hysom Adult Basic Education programs across the US are working to integrate more digital literacy instruction into their educational programming. Knowing exactly how that programming fits within reporting and outcomes requirements that frame federally...
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Making Good Use of Free Apps in Support of New Mobile Learning Initiative
The Adult Literacy XPRIZE Communities Competition is about uniting a very wide circle of people who care about empowering others through literacy; my home state of New Hampshire is part of Team WorldEd’s Adult Literacy XPRIZE work, and I feel privileged to...
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Digital Divide: Gaps & Opportunities
By Jennifer Maddrell and Victoria Neff Access to reliable and fast internet is vital in today’s modern, digital world. As described by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, digital equity exists when everyone has the information technology needed for full...
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Considerations for Effective Distance and Blended Instruction and Assessment
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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Defining Employer Supported Learning Opportunities
The 21st Century Learning Ecosystem Opportunities (21Cleo) research team has been hard at work! In our last two blog posts, we reported on a field review of learning opportunities from a process perspective (how we chose the literature we reviewed) and from a product...
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International Profiles on EdTech: The Ayedi Project
Uganda, like other East African nations, has made impressive advancements in mobile phone usage and penetration in recent years through the widespread distribution of cellular signals. During the past 10 years, mobile phone access in Uganda grew by 50%. Today, nearly...
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Innovative Approaches to Mobile Learning Integration in Low-Resource Areas
Across Asia, World Education is leading the mobile learning revolution and working with educators, learners, administrators, policymakers and tech developers to make digital tools and apps relevant and accessible. Whether the programs you support serve low-resource...
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CareAcademy: Mobile Learning to Prepare Adults for In-Demand Caregiver Profession
Senior care is one of the fastest-growing areas of work of the US, and certified home health aides (HHA) are especially in high demand given the shortage of paid caregivers. With the population of people over the age of 65 expected to double over the next two decades,...
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Support Distance Learners from the Start
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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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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