The VL Approach

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Subject: [PD 3840] Joining the list joining the discussion ...
From: Glenn Young
Date: Tue Aug 4 10:38:41 EDT 2009

Dear All.

I have just joined the list to, among other things participate in the discussion on "Virtual Literacy" . I may inappropriately, but with some justification, claim to be the person who developed this term for the literacy world and have been pushing to develop model programs and add the concept into the WIA rewrite.

But I know I am not alone in this effort, so lets see what questions there are about the idea and concept.

I would like to start by presenting the idea that we are talking about as two needs, linked but perhaps separate.

"Literacy skills" and "the need to be literate".

The definition of both these terms have changed greatly over the centuries, so if possible I'd like to avoid a discussion of the definitions but talk more about the difference in the terms.

Literacy, or perhaps better said, reading skills has been one of many tools used to transfer the knowledge to be "literate" in many societies, until recently mostly those tools for transferring knowledge of being literate have been oral and reading (dancing is also a tool in some cultures). Given that plays and songs are really just oral traditions greatly enhanced, until the 20th century there was still only oral and reading.

Now we have had an explosion of new tools to help people become literate, and an explosion in the items and skills needed to be literate, based in technology (radio, movies, TV, and now the Internet). Virtual literacy is a concept by which we utilize all these new tools, especially the "E" tools which are becoming so common, to enable persons with low reading skills to still gain the knowledge needed to be "literate" in the modern world, using modern definitions of literate, despite their limited reading ability. And to do so in a far quicker process than the current design, which only focuses on improving reading skills, can possible offer.

This VL approach is therefore not a substitute for reading, but an expansion of options for those with poor reading skills to gain needed knowledge by other means while still working on reading skills, if they choose. E technology in many ways is an extraordinary expansion of the oral tradition of learning offered in a far greater universally available means and accessible on an individualize schedule.

The key to success in almost any culture is being "literate" not just having a literacy skill of reading. There are many who have reading skills but remain highly non-literate. What adult literacy needs to focus on is not just the mechanics of one form of becoming gaining knowledge (reading skills), but helping people in the programs to become literate as quickly and efficiently as possible using all the currently available tools that can be used.

OK, how's that for an opening comment?

Glenn Young
CSLD

Subject: [PD 3846] Re: Joining the list joining the discussion ...
From: Steve Kaufmann
Date: Tue Aug 4 13:45:31 EDT 2009

Thanks Glenn,

I have two questions.

  1. To me literacy is, as described in the Merriam Webster dictionary, "the quality or state of being literate", where to be literate is defined as "able to read and write". "Literate" does have other meanings, like "to be well read in literature" or "to be competent" (computer literate, for example), but I think that the fundamental issue surely is the ability to read and write. Basic literacy, or the ability to read and write, and to do so well, is a powerful tool for learning and communicating. There are other ways to learn, but studies show that basic literacy skills, in the sense that I have used here, are the most reliable predictors of success in the work place, more so, even, than years of schooling. If we confuse literacy with learning in general, or the acquisition of many kinds of knowledge and skill, are we not distracting ourselves from the important task of teaching basic literacy skills, the ability to read and write.
  1. Is virtual literacy only involved with the use of hand held devices, smart phones, text to speech and other technology that enable poor readers to acquire knowledge and information, without improving their basic reading skills? Does it also include the ways in which technology and the Internet and these devices can help people acquire traditional basic literacy skills, so that they do not rely on such devices and can access written information wherever they may find it?

-- Steve Kaufmann
www.thelinguist.blogs.com
www.lingq.com

Subject: [PD 3858] Re: Joining the list joining the discussion ...
From: Glenn Young
Date: Tue Aug 4 17:14:47 EDT 2009

See, I told you so. I was trying to avoid definitional disputes and here comes Steve trying to pick a fight over some dictionary definition (I am saying this jokingly)

No . not biting .. I stated as I stated and I will hold to that .

Now on the second point . yes VL tools can be used for enhancing the ability of a person to learn to read . no problem with that ., beside its use in the class room using the voice to text process . in getting people knowledge .may in fact get that person exposed to the "richness of the language" and greatly help to increase their vocabulary and the use of many new words they will not get through current standard approaches

And as the person is exposed to language and the vocabulary etc .. That clearly tends to increase the persons desire to learn to read independently .

So by taking the VL approach as the "lead" you may in fact lead to a higher desire and effort towards traditional reading skills

On the other hand . we know that leading with the standard approach is often highly discouraging to people as the can not master larger words and they are highly restricted in their exposure to vocabulary and concepts with limited books they can master . and they feel embarrassed by having to read little kids books . and they tend to leave and not feel excited .

So VL may in the long run actually increase more interest and efforts by low literate adults then the current system .

Glenn Young
CSLD

Subject: [PD 3849] Re: Joining the list joining the discussion ...
From: Bonnie Odiorne
Date: Tue Aug 4 14:40:57 EDT 2009

Glenn,
That's a fabulous opening comment, because I was realizing while I was writing that I could be coming off lamenting the "End of Print Literacy" and "dumbing down" learning skills for lack of anything better. That is so far from the truth. By involving students in "virtual literacy," in other words, using 'other' literacies to develop thinking, expressiveness, questioning, engagement, while still developing their reading skills is precisely what I've had in mind. Engaging virtual literacies would allow for skills development in entirely different interfaces while also developing skilld appropriate for college success, the workplace, where the 'need to be literate' is greatest, and where habitual means of interacting with technology would not be acceptable. Thanks for your interesting take (and if you defined it, all the better!) on this idea. I look forward to hearing more.
Bonnie

Bonnie Odiorne, Ph.D. Director, Writing Center Adjunct Professor of English, French, First Year Transitions, Day Division and ADP
Post University, Waterbury, CT

Subject: [PD 3856] Re: Joining the list joining the discussion ...
From: Katrina Hinson
Date: Tue Aug 4 17:08:27 EDT 2009

I was getting caught up on the discussion before I started teaching in a few minutes. Two things struck me from Glen's earlier posts. The first being not wanting to focus on a definition of terms. I don't think it's that easy to overlook how the terms are defined. When it comes to literacy and literate—how the readers identify and define those words is very important to how they engage with this discussion on Virtual Literacy.

The second comment:

’’This VL approach is therefore not a substitute for reading, but an expansion of options for those with poor reading skills to gain needed knowledge by other means while still working on reading skills, if they choose. E technology in many ways is an extraordinary expansion of the oral tradition of learning offered in a far greater universally available means and accessible on an individualize schedule.’’

makes me question how radio, television, e-technology - etc, help a low level student gain knowledge. Is knowledge only the transmission of ideas? The comment, seems to imply, even if I don't think that is the intent, that to be literate simply means having knowledge—but what good is knowledge if it cannot be used or is not used and added to that, cannot be used or is not used effectively in the student's day to day life?

All the knowledge in the world can be at a student's fingertips—literally with the World Wide Web and yet if students do not know how to make effective use of what they have access to, are they any more literate than if they had never been exposed to the 'knowledge' in the first place?

Doesn't being literate mean we help students go beyond just words on a page or images on a screen or sounds on a radio so that they are changed by what they hear or they can use what they see or hear to act within their workplace, their community or their family environments?

Regards,
Katrina Hinson

Subject: [PD 3860] Re: Joining the list joining the discussion ...
From: Glenn Young
Date: Tue Aug 4 17:31:33 EDT 2009

Bonnie . thanks for the reply and support.

I am really an historian at heart and think and view things that way.

Now as an historian I know that in a time period of say from 1700 -1940 or so—maybe more like 1920—people use to keep extensive diaries, writing volume after volume of their thoughts and experiences and their thoughts on their experiences, etc. They were literate (or should I say had literacy skills) and bored .. so they wrote and wrote . and we know so much about that time period because they wrote and they wrote .

They also tended to write letters of tens of pages long about everything.

Then comes the car and the airplane, and the radio, and movies and e-mail and so much more, and people are far less bored .. And they wrote so much less. And as an historian, the twentieth century is a lot harder to find out about people and what they thought and did than the 18'th and 19th century people.

Except now I have the movies and the radio shows and the mass novels and on and on for the 20th century that I didn't have from the people who lived before they were invented.

Things are different and how people write and think and use technology is all different then at the beginning of the 20th century. But in adult education .. well, we still seem to act like everyone needs to keep diaries and write endlessly about what they do in volume after volume .

No one does that any more, everything is technologically based. So should be our efforts at addressing the needs of low-literate adults

Glenn Young
CSLD

Subject: [PD 3861] Re: Joining the list joining the discussion ...
From: Steve Kaufmann
Date: Tue Aug 4 19:22:55 EDT 2009

Katrina said. "what good is knowledge if it cannot be used or is not used "

Surely the value of knowledge is not only determined by its usefulness, or by the value that others ascribe to that knowledge, but also determined by the person who has that knowledge. Many people just want to know. That is one of the reasons why they travel and that is one of the reasons why they read. Knowledge gives satisfaction and happiness. Reading is a great way to access knowledge. Once a person can read comfortably, what he or she chooses to do with that skill, and with the knowledge acquired from reading, is up to them, but their options and opportunities are increased.

Steve

Steve Kaufmann
www.thelinguist.blogs.com
www.lingq.com

Subject: [PD 3869] Re: Joining the list joining the discussion ...
From: Bonnie Odiorne
Date: Wed Aug 5 10:07:27 EDT 2009

Agreed. Any engagement is a plus, even those frustrating ones where they lose their user name and password because "I'll remember it" or, in the case of my students, can't see why they have to use campus mail or Blackboard at all. For all the navigating they do, they seem sometimes reluctant to learn new things; could it be a latent print literacy problem? In that case we have to teach it as such and move on to the fun stuff. I'm doing a reading comprehension strategies bridge week-long course in a couple of weeks, and any technology/websites you can recommend would be awesome.

Bonnie Odiorne, PhD Director, Writing Center Adjunct Professor of English, French, First Year Transitions, Day Division and ADP
Post University, Waterbury, CT
Labyrinth Facilitator, Spiritual Director

Subject: [PD 3876] Joining the discussion ...
From: Anne Murr
Date: Wed Aug 5 11:31:56 EDT 2009

Hello,
I am new to this listserv. Thank you for exploring Virtual Literacy this week.

I have been the Coordinator of the Drake University Adult Literacy Center for 11 years. Our services included basic literacy skill assessment, one-to-one tutoring and small class instruction for adults with low literacy skills. I have seen so many adults, some who are high school graduates, most who have been employed for years but who are not yet functionally literate. However, adults have immediate needs, economic and personal, and learning to read for most adults takes years of dedication and hard work.

At the Drake University Adult Literacy Center we have embarked on the virtual literacy path because adults have expressed the need for accelerated access to information in order to earn a GED, to improve job skills, to be ready for post secondary education, and more.

If reading is the barrier, then use technology to remove the barrier. The student is still responsible for the learning. But if they can't access the information, they struggle. Whether it's social studies chapters in the GED book or information in the pesticide handling manual that must be learned to be a certified lawn care worker, they fail. They drop out.

Let's use text to speech technology as a learning tool. Good instruction from teachers is still necessary. Could Virtual Literacy be considered "learning tools" for students while all the outstanding technology uses being described be "instructional tools" for teachers?

Our Center received small grants from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, our county government and local casino to purchase Kurzweil, used with success to give access to print the blind. This software initially requires a substantial investment. However, over time it can be used by intermediate literacy learners (reading at grade equivalent levels of 5th to 8th grade) to follow highlighted text on the screen while listening to the text read aloud. A learner who knows how to point and click with the mouse and knows how to click on toolbar buttons can use Kurzweil with less than 10 minutes of introduction.

More and more screen readers are becoming available as freeware. Their quality is not yet as good as Kurzweil, but who knows how technologies will progress in the next months and years?


Anne Murr, M.S., Coordinator
Drake University Adult Literacy Center
School of Education

Subject: [PD 3877] From Ellen, Joining the list joining the discussion ...
From: Ellen Richer
Date: Wed Aug 5 11:34:24 EDT 2009

Hello, my name is Ellen and I'm a newcomer to this forum-3 weeks' new. I've been reading your entries and was a bit reluctant to get into the ring but your discussion is just so interesting I thought I'd add my piece. If there is a protocol to be followed in participating I would appreciate knowing that so I avoid any faux pas!

From my days in linguistics and language acquisition I've thought about literacy as about the making of meaning and then being able to communicate with the social world surrounding us. Any tools that promote this have evolved over the millennia from dance and body language to the Rosetta Stone to Morse code to radio and television to audio and video cassettes to CD's to DVD's to Web2.0 and so on. These are all simply tools and artifacts indigenous to one's time and place in history. It is difficult for many or most to experience the transition from one technological era to another and those who are most at risk have the most difficult time with this. Transition, though, is crucial to becoming functional and living independently, and whatever combination of artifacts/implements can help individuals shorten the learning curve is what we should be using as educators and fellow discoverers. Communication, with language—written, spoken and heard—as the primary system, is the essence of the quest.

Ellen Richer

NYC RAEN Director
Literacy Assistance Center

Subject: [PD 3918] Re: Integrating technologies
From: Glenn Young
Date: Thu Aug 6 08:54:11 EDT 2009

Just to show that the dictionary and politics are not always the same, this is from the UN

  • Changing concept of Functional Literacy
  • Now - The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO> Organization <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO> (UNESCO) has drafted the following definition:

  • "'Literacy' is the ability to identify, understand, interpret,

create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts.

  • Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to

achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society.

Glenn Young
CSLD

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