Ohio Literacy Resource Center
Project Director: Jean Stephens
Report Prepared by: Jean Stephens
I. Goals and Objectives for the Quarter
II. Activities Planned for the Quarter
III. Major Outcomes During the Quarter
- Minnesota posts and catalogs issues of the organization's newsletters.
- Other states have been working with local programs to collect or develop material and will have material online by end of grant year.
- Information about Regional Content Developers to assist states with adding full-test documents was redistributed.
B. Other Changes to web sites/new links
- Iowa added a site map and more complete address and phone information. Links were made to Iowa Public Television, PBS, and a bibliography of additional sites as resources.
- Minnesota revised and freshened the GEL Guide and is redesigning the Literacy Training Network and Literacy Resource Center web sites to update and integrate them.
- Missouri updated the list of videos available for loan, added Funding Opportunties, What's New, and Feedback pages, and added links to the National and Midwest LINCS sites from the home page and all other prominent pages.
- Nebraska's web site has undergone massive revision and new links to adult literacy sites have been added.
- North Dakota has added new links to the Hot Links section of the ND Adult Education and Literacy site and also to the Resource Center page.
- Ohio redesigned the layout and graphics of its site. Updates are made regularly on calendar events, job opportunities, and information from OAACE and the regional centers. Links were made to the ABLE Annual report, and local programs. NE Regional Center's Online Library Search added. OLRC Resources for Family Literacy professionals updated.
- Wisconsin updated the links to the technical colleges in Wisconsin and established links with the Even Start program.
C. Specialized Collection:
The Adult Numeracy Special Collection was begun and can be found at http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/Math/index.html. An
advisory group was formed to provide feedback on the collection. A decision was also made to begin a Family Literacy Special Collection.
D. Training:
The following list of training provided in the region may include some that were held in the first quarter but not reported.
- Iowa provided updates to the Iowa Literacy Council, Iowa Public Television and to the ABE coordinators in each of the 15 community colleges. Information was disseminated to the state Head Start personnel and a training and information session held at one Head Start center.
- Michigan provided on-site training for staff from their first Partner Program.
- Minnesota provided five training sessions across the state to a total of 145 participants.
- Missouri conducted a session on Internet resources and LINCS for 300 participants at the statewide Family Literacy Conference and conducted a half-day workshop in St. Louis.
- Nebraska did an Internet Needs Assessment for Metropolitan Community College and did various training for the staffs of the four local programs. A presentation on LINCS was made at the ACEAN conference.
- North Dakota arranged a web site/home page workshop in Bismarck for local practitioners. Six local programs and two state level staff participated. Four of the sites will soon have home pages on the web.
- Ohio conducted 9 workshops for 162 participants.
- South Dakota met with the SD Association of Lifelong Learning and the SD Literacy Council and made the decision to provide training on the use of FrontPage and the development of home pages.
- Wisconsin provided a training session on net meeting and an update of pages and services to the Wisconsin Literacy Advisory Council. Two workshops were held in technical college districts on the use of the Internet in the classroom.
E. Technical Assistance:
On-going email and phone technical support was
provided by the Ohio Literacy Resource Center to the member states. The states in turn provided support for the local programs they are funding.
F. Leveraging Resources:
The Midwest LINCS received notification of the
$50,000 grant from GTE for development of online content. The Ohio Literacy Resource Center continues to leverage 353 and state funds from the Ohio Department of Education for technology training and web development. Other states reporting 353 funds for use with technology are Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Illinois has state funds to use for technology.
G. Publicity:
The Midwest LINCS published the Winter Tech Talk that was distributed to Ohio practitioners and member states and their state directors.
- Iowa includes publicity on LINCS at all workshops, presentations, and meetings incorporating the Iowa Literacy Resource Center.
- Michigan produced mousepads and folders, which are being distributed around the state and to member states.
- Minnesota has included LINCS highlights in its newsletter (new NIFL-technology listserv and prominent web site links to LINCS).
- Missouri promoted LINCS in the LIFTlink, a statewide newsletter distributed to 4,200 and at conferences, trainings, and workshops.
- Nebraska included articles in the NDE state newsletter and added the LINCS logo to the web site.
- North Dakota mentions LINCS, the Midwest HUB, or a program site connected to it in each issue of the state newsletter and includes a column on Internet sites of interest. Messages are sent by email to local programs about good sites between newsletter issues.
- Wisconsin publicizes LINCS at all public speaking engagements.
H. Extending LINCS to local programs:
The Midwest LINCS has asked each member state to work with local programs again this year. The emphasis this year is on the development of locally produced materials by the programs.
- Iowa has three local Partner Programs in the development stage: Decorah Public Library, Waterloo Head Start Program; and Hawkeye Community College Metro Center.
- In Kansas, five local programs will receive assistance from the grant and they are in different stages of development. The program in Garden City has networked their computer lab for Internet access and the instructors have had training and are planning to develop a notebook on lesson plans utilizing the Internet. Great Bend is connecting a computer to the Internet for student use and in Lawrence and Salina, the programs are waiting to get online (although the teachers are planning for instruction via the Internet). In Atchison, the program is actively using the Internet with students.
- Michigan issued a RFP for mini-grants and chose six new partners who received $500 each. The programs at Alma Adult Literacy and Adult Education Program, William D. Ford Career/Technical Center, Mt. Pleasant Community Education, Saginaw Township Community Schools, and an Even Start program will be developing specific materials for the website including a general reference data base of articles for adults with limited reading ability, a Jeopardy type technology game, a student guide for students who are unfamiliar with the Net, reading lessons centered on online material, online parenting resources, and a website for Even Start programs.
- Minnesota offered a RFP for mini-grants and only awarded one to Alexandria Adult Basic Education. They are also working closely with the Minnesota Literacy Council.
- Missouri is in the developmental stages with Webster University and St. Louis Community College Workplace Literacy Services Center to achieve the goals of adding family literacy-related and other materials on-line.
- Nebraska is working with four programs: Fresh Start Home, Lincoln Indian Center, Inc., Adams Street Center, and Metropolitan Community College. Internet setup, needs assessments, and Internet workshops have been provided.
- North Dakota is working with Minot Adult Literacy Council and Dickinson Adult Literacy Council, both of whom received $500 to produce locally produced material. One project is developing a spelling activity and the other is working on career competency activities. Staff from these programs is also being used to write articles and to assist in training others.
- Ohio has given $500 mini-grants to five programs: Steubenville City Schools, Painesville Adult Basic Literacy Education Program, Ravenna City Schools Even Start, Cincinnati Public Schools ABLE/GED program, and CORC Private Industry Council, Inc. These programs will be producing such material as a self-paced learning program, an automobile trip itinerary, materials for parents to work with their children on the Internet, mathematical place value packet, a virtual field trip, and lessons that allow students to learn about the Internet while gaining workplace literacy skills. A draft of these materials can be found at literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Test/Mini_Grants/main.htm
- Wisconsin is assisting the Monominee Indian Adult Education program in Keshena and at the Agape Community Center in Milwaukee in acquiring Internet access and receiving training. Funds have also been provided to the Milwaukee Area Technical College to provide on-line access to the Key Newspaper, a high interest, low-reading level newspaper produced on a bi-weekly basis.
I. Other activities:
- Assessed the current HTML tutorial and outlined future additions. Began to update the introduction and tag overview sections.
- Gathered pages and input for the training page. Developed a draft outline.
- Performed additional upgrades on the web server to enhance speed and capability. Tested and identified "chat" software to implement. Assessed the need for future upgrades on server.
IV. Services Provided to Consortium Members:
Consortium members also were assigned a Regional Content Developer who will do the web publishing of the material from the state. Ongoing support was provided by phone, email, and listserv.
V. Reports from consortium members are attached.
VI. Problems:
VII. Barriers and Concerns:
- There is also a problem getting programs to contribute high-quality materials for web publishing. It is also difficult to find previously developed materials, such as 353 projects, to put online. Many items contain segments with questionable content in terms of copyright compliance.
- Lack of adequate computer equipment and Internet services at local programs
- Under-funding of activities and outcomes of this project
VIII. Collaboration with NIFL:
IX. Goals, Objectives, Activities, and Outcomes for Next Six Months:
- Iowa will continue to expand and promote its resources available electronically by "show and tell" workshops, offering of individualized computer training, hosting a meeting of the Iowa Literacy Council, and scheduling visitations to community colleges. Discussions will continue in seeking interested parties for partnering.
- Kansas is planning a yearlong project for two groups of educators. One group will be working on practitioner-based inquiry linked by a listserv and sharing findings on LINCS. Another group will be linked by a listserv and will be working on and sharing Internet-based lesson plans. The five grant supported programs will serve as mentors for these programs.
- In Michigan, all locally produced materials from the partner programs will be available by end of project year. Michigan is hosting ALT in July and putting most of its time on this project. After ALT, the website will be redone.
- Minnesota will be hosting the Second State Technology Conference in June. They will also redesign the LTN and LRC web sites and collects the information from the local technology projects.
- Missouri has three half-day workshops planned and are pursuing funding for more regional workshops for next year. They will also be switching from modem dial-up to Ethernet connectivity. A Life-Skills curriculum and a PACT Time curriculum will be online.
- Nebraska will be offering a web page design workshop, will provide training and support for Partner Programs, and will continue solicitation and development of locally produced documents.
- North Dakota will conduct two classes in "Using the Internet in an ABE Classroom." From these classes additional classroom activities will be developed for publication on LINCS. The two local partner programs are also developing material.
- Ohio will hold a one-day Technology Pre-Conference to the state association conference. Additional trainings are planned regionally. New publications from OLRC will be put online, including a major Family Literacy Resource Notebook to be published in August. The five local programs will complete their projects and have all the material online.
- South Dakota will hold two trainings this summer, which will be the beginning of the establishment of home pages for all literacy councils and ABE sites with links to the Resource Center. In late summer, training will be offered at 3 sites on searching, LINCS, how to download, and discussions on development of full text materials to be added to LINCS.
- Wisconsin has two Internet training sessions planned and the Key Newspaper project will continue (see III. G above). Work is also being done with three technical colleges to make high school classes available on the Internet.
X. Statistics
- 10 publications added online
B. Training:
C. Technical Assistance
- New discussion groups: 1 for Midwest and 1 for Illinois
Jean J. Stephens, Director
Ohio Literacy Resource Center
Research 1 - 1100 Summit Street
Kent State University
PO Box 5190
Kent, Ohio 44242-0001
Phone: 330-672-2007
In Ohio Only: 800-765-2897
Fax: 330-672-4841
jstephen@literacy.kent.edu