MIDWEST REGIONAL HUB (Region III) QUARTERLY REPORT

• Develop a distributed Midwest Adult Literacy Network (Regional Hub) which provides a link to national, regional, and state-specific resource materials.
• The Midwest Adult Literacy Network (M-Net) homepage will be operational. Each state will have a prototype homepage and will have added some personalizing.
• Each state will set their own goals for amount of material to be available through their homepage.
• Plans will be developed by the consortium for reporting, evaluation, sharing resources, and cataloging.
  

• Equipment for Illinois and Michigan will be ordered.
  
• All equipment will be installed.
  
• Three-day training will be held for two staff members from each SLRC at Kent State University January 31- February 2, 1996.
  
• Technical assistance will be available by phone during normal working hours.
  

• Each SLRC will publicize the system in their state.
  

• Three-day training will be held for two staff members from each SLRC at Kent State University January 31- February 2, 1996.
  

• Training provided for all local projects.
  
• Funding distributed for local projects.
  
• Technical assistance available by phone.
• Follow-up with each program in March.
  

• Evaluation of Midwest training will be completed and additional information requested will have been addressed.
  
• Statistics gathered for quarter on the distributed sites traffic.
  
• Individual states will provide information on publicity, collaboration, and linkages.
  

A. Development of the Midwest Adult Literacy Network

• The M-Net homepage is operational and a prototype homepage was developed for all the states. Ten of the twelve states have expanded the development of their homepage; two states have had trouble getting equipment installed and personnel time available to work on the pages. (See attachment 1 for copies of all the homepages.) Seven of the twelve states are operating their web sites from their own server or servers in their states: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Only obligated to have five for entire grant period (exceeded our original intent). The other five are operating off the Ohio server. As follows the original intent of the grant, each state is taking responsibility for the maintenance of their web site with varying degrees of technical assistance and support from the Hub site.
  
• Each state has been encouraged to set their own goals for type and amount of material to add to their web site. During the February training, states were asked to include the following common elements on their web pages: directory of local providers, demographic information, calendar, what=s new, contact information, date of last revision, link for comments back, copyright, and link back to home page. Six states have calendars, three states have directories of local providers, six states indicate new material, six states have contact information, nine states have date of last revision, eight states link for comments, six states have copyright, and nine states link back to the M-NET page. Six states (Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin) have added locally produced full documents online. In many cases, states have started with research papers; but all states have been encouraged to put a priority on instructional material for the next quarter.
  
• During the February training, a great deal of time was spent in discussion of report procedures, evaluation, resource sharing, and cataloging. Some of the key decisions/activities are highlighted here: 1) Each state will submit a quarterly report to the Hub (attachment 2). 2) An online evaluation questionnaire for first time users will be developed. 3) Each state set their own 6-month priority list of goals/activities. 4) Illinois, Indiana, and Minnesota have their resource collections online. Four other states are part of a library system and should be linked soon.
  

• Equipment was delivered to nine states and ordered for one other. One state will order equipment next quarter. Several states experienced delays in getting their equipment installed and running (South Dakota and Iowa) due to institutional barriers. The seven states who were able to get their equipment installed during this quarter have all made progress on the development of their web site. Minnesota is already experiencing the problem of too much consumer demand as many programs are looking to place information on the server. The states who are operating off of institutional servers are able to maintain their web sites from their offices with their new equipment.
  
• A three-day training for 21 staff members from the 11 states was held at Kent State University January 31- February 2. A window of Ano snow@ allowed everyone to arrive on time and the people from the upper Midwest felt that they had arrived in a warm climate since the temperature was in the teens in Kent versus 20-30 degrees below zero in other parts of the Midwest!! The agenda (attachment 3) shows that the training consisted of planning time for aspects of the project, web site and html training, time to begin developing homepages, and Starting Point training.
  
• Technical assistance has been provided by both phone and E-mail to the individual states since the training. An 800 number was added for use by the states for technical assistance. E-Mail and listserv were also added.
  

During the training, each state was encouraged to publicize the M-NET in their own state. The following activities were reported and copies of some articles are included in attachment 4:
• Missouri published articles in two of LIFT=s publications, LIFTlink and LIFTletter. The Missouri State Library ran a story describing the project.
• Nebraska publicized the project with articles and related information in the Nebraska Adult Literacy Digest, wrote and distributed a press release on the technology project, and scheduled three presentations on the system for later in the year.
• Kansas provided information on their homepage to Social and Rehabilitation Services, Department of Human Services, Vocational Rehabilitation, State Library, ABE programs, community colleges, literacy volunteer organizations, correctional education programs, local school districts, etc. Presentations on the system will be provided to stakeholders at Summer Institute VII.
• North Dakota has spoken to most of the adult educators in their state about the Project.
• Illinois has released information to every program that receives Network News and have demonstrated the Project to the Illinois Literacy Council.
• Michigan has reported Hub progress and potential to the state director and published an article in the SLRC newsletter.
• Ohio published an article in the OLRC newsletter and used M-Net in a regional Internet training workshop.
  
• Presented at the National State Directors meeting.
  

• Training was held at Kent State University for staff from the twelve states January 31- February 2.
• Local projects received training: Seven Ohio programs on January 17, another Ohio program on February 7, and the two Minnesota programs on January 26 and March 8.
• Money saved from over budgeting February training has been allocated to the twelve states to be used in one of three ways for training: 1) bringing Hub staff to the individual state, 2) paying for attendance at the ALT conference, or 3) covering in-state training expenses
• South Dakota has provided limited training to the Executive Board of the South Dakota Literacy Council and has planned regional training for literacy volunteers in July-August and training for the library community in the fall.
• Minnesota includes an overview of the LINCS/SLRC system in all presentations introducing literacy practitioners to the services of the SLRC.
• Nebraska initiated web page training for staff, completed a survey of practitioners to gather information related to local equipment and training needs, and scheduled three state trainings for 2nd and 3rd quarter.
• Kansas will provide training for use of the Internet and introduction to the SLRC Home Page and its linked resources to stakeholders at the Summer Institute VII.
• Iowa has started conducting Internet training to the library community and interested adult educators and literacy trainers.
• Wisconsin has presented training sessions to the Wisconsin Literacy Advisory Council, Wisconsin Technical College Basic Education Deans and Supervisors, the Board of the Wisconsin Technical College System, The Portage County Literacy Council, and the Wisconsin Basic Education Curriculum Task Force.
• Ohio has held one training for practitioners and one for state staff where M-NET was demonstrated. Presentations are planned for the OAACE state conference and ALT conference explaining system and using a panel from local projects.
• Michigan=s state literacy conference in September...Literacy Through Technology..is being driven by the technology project and will provide hands on training on web site access and management.
  

• Training was provided for the ten local projects (see Training section above). The training consisted of overview of the project, hands-on Internet training, and individualized assistance in projects. (See attachment 5 for agenda and evaluation.)
  
• Funding was distributed. Each program received $2000 for personnel, travel, and miscellaneous expenses. In addition they received up to $1000 for needed modems, software,
  etc., and up to $670 for phone lines and on-line access fees. Since not all programs
  needed equipment or access, enough money was saved to allocate an additional $262 to each program to help sponsor one person attending the ALT conference in August.
• A listserv was set up for practitioners at the local projects. Messages are beginning to be sent.
  
• Major outcomes of the projects after 3 months ( selected from local project reports):
  -Phone line secured, modem upgraded, subscribed to local service provider, and staff learned to navigate on the Internet.
  -Secured on-line service, begun to use E-mail, learned what bookmarks are, posted a list of the Top 13 Cool Sites for Women on the Web, used the web for a geography class, and began E-mail between a tutor and her student.
  -While waiting for phone lines and modem installation, students wrote letters which were sent on the instructor=s account to another local project.
  -Through the LEARNER listserv a student began corresponding with an individual in Australia and has been consulting the Atlas and encyclopedia to learn as much as possible about Australia.
  -Teachers searched for sites relating to reading, writing, social studies, math, and science resources.
  -Published an Internet newsletter which was mailed to all adult literacy programs in Ohio. (Attachment 6)
  -Key pals have given a students a more global view of the world, expanded their cultural awareness, and increased their electronic and written communication skills.
  -Identified useful web sites and written a first draft of a manual on Internet resources.
  
• What the local programs have learned:
  -If students work in pairs, time restraints lessen and comprehension and communication skills seem to increase and students= initial fear of computers decrease.
  -Gaining access in a large institution is more difficult than plugging into a modem at home.
  -Severe cold weather froze the cable access (Minnesota!)
  -Experience is making us more patient and better at troubleshooting.
  -Students, tutor, and teachers are learning together which is perfect for modeling the learning process, life-long learning, and the joy of learning.
  -Use of the Internet is probably most successful when it is integrated into classroom
  activities and is student driven.
  -Key pals have generated a greater interest in geography and a heightened interest in com- ing to school.
  
• Barriers and concerns in local programs
  -Concern by Board of local volunteer agency on benefit of the project.
  -Difficulty in correcting technical problems.
  -Much time spent in Adead ends@ when searching the web.
  -Classes end in May and not much time to complete this project.
  -Long wait for phone installation.
  -Problems finding the right provider.
  

All states have been encouraged to expand partnerships and to provide linkages to other agencies from their web pages. Much discussion was held at the training about partner- ships with the state directors of adult education and their staffs. As a result of that
discussion a presentation was made at the State Directors Annual Meeting by two NIFL state directors from the Midwest, Jim Bowling, Ohio and Gene Dixon, South Dakota.

• Missouri LIFT site will link to the Missouri State Library and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
• Minnesota links to the Minnesota state government information system (and has asked them to point to them) is working with St. Paul Community Literacy Collaborative to assist them in mounting a home page, is working with state literacy council to coordinate technology efforts, and have begun discussions with three state associations about mounting or linking to their home pages.
• Nebraska increased linkages to the University of Nebraska Department of Vocational and Adult Education and to other university sites. They partnered with state school districts and adult education programs in writing a grant proposal and they have established a collaborative relationship with Southeast Nebraska Educational Technology Innovation Consortium.
• Illinois=s web page reflects the partnership of the NETWORK with the Secretary of State Literacy Office, the Illinois Community College Board, and the Illinois State Board of Education.
• Ohio has prepared a proposal for development and maintenance of a web page for the Governor=s Human Resource Investment Council. A site was drafted and demonstrated
  to the Council.
  

• Each state submitted a quarterly report. Information from these reports is incorporated into this report.
• A written evaluation of the Midwest Regional Hub Training was prepared from the participants evaluations. (Attachment 7)
• Local technology projects submitted a mid-grant report. Information from these is incorporated into this report.
• Statistics for M-NET for January - March, 1996:
  
  -M-NET accessed 2045 times
  -The page listing the SLRC links was accessed the most, followed by What=s New, The LINCS System, and About M-NET.
  

• Continuation of funding for SLRC, possible reduced staffing in some centers.
• Developing selection criteria for locally-produced materials for placement online
• Server security and training for effective use of server software.
• Difficulty in getting equipment/wiring needs met in some centers.
• Challenge of remaining current and becoming leaders in this new field of technology.
• Cataloging issues must be handled very holistically and demystified. Rigid and complicated structures of cataloging have to embrace the intent of the Hub project which is user friendly access.
  
  

A. The Midwest Regional Hub will continue to work with all the states on web page development training opportunities in each state, partnerships, publicity, sharing resources, and providing access to materials, both full text and bibliographic references. Emphasis will be on adding instructional resources full text.

B. The Midwest states will participate in the Adult Literacy Technology Conference in Chicago in August. A meeting of the states present will be held to discuss/ share progress in each state.

C. Local projects will conclude their six-month grant period and submit final reports.

D. Increase and improve the searching capabilities of the Hub and each state.

E. More automation of necessary tasks, such as statistics, link checking, etc.

F. Conversion of existing databases (now library packages) incorporation into the WAIS system.

G. Continue to address the seamless look and feel within the Hub as well as the LINCS system as a whole.

H. Address presentation of instructional resources beyond simply posting text. Begin using new technologies for selected resources and develop enhanced resources using less taxing technologies for those with older systems.