Ohio Literacy Resource Center
Project Director: Dale Cook
Report Prepared by: Jean Stephens
1. Training for state level staff and local programs
The Hub assisted with a presentation on LINCS at the AAACE Conference in October, 1996 and did presentations on LINCS and the NIFL listservs at the LVA Conference in October, 1996. The Hub also prepared a set of materials for each state to be used in trainings which included information on hardware and software, use of computers in the classroom, some Internet lessons, and copies of the OLRC Tech Talks.
Illinois had presentations by the Hub staff at the Illinois Southern Adult Education Service Center Conference.
On October 10-11, 1996, two presentations were made to participants at the Kansas Adult Education Association Fall Conference. Over 70 adult education teachers, administrators, tutors, and support staff were able to view the Kansas SLRC home page, the Midwest Regional Technology Hub home page and the LINCS homepage
Michigan held a 2-day statewide literacy conference with a theme of technology. Over 200 teachers and tutors learned about using technology in their adult learning settings.
Minnesota presented sessions which included LINCS at the Minnesota Literacy Council's Fall Conference, a conference for volunteer program coordinators.
A 2-day demonstration with hands-on training was held during the statewide family literacy conference in Missouri. Presentations were also made to the State Board of Education and the statewide Board of Directors of LIFT.
The Nebraska web page was demonstrated at the Nebraska ABE Conference.
Two training sessions were held at the North Dakota Annual Fall Conference on use of Internet resources and the Midwest hub. A 2-day session for the adult education program directors was held in December and presentations on the use of the Hub.
Ohio made 3 presentations at the Fall ABLE Directors' Meeting, one on the local projects from last year, one as an introduction to Internet, and one using LINCS to access resources. A computer demonstration center was also set up for individual training and assistance. Four presentations were made at the Family Literacy Conference, one at the Network Work-Based Learning and Literacy Conference, four at a regional Vendor Fair, and three all-day regional workshops were held.
In November, 1996, presentations were made to the Wisconsin Literacy Advisory Council and two workshops were presented to attendees at the annual Fall Literacy Conference giving information on both the WLRN home page, the Midwest Hub and NIFL.
Training materials on Developing Web Pages and HTML Documents were prepared and can be found at http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/Training/educhtml/pages/htmlhome.htm or by going to the Tools and Utilities page of the M-NET web site.
The Midwest Hub has assumed responsibility for the maintenance of the on-line Internet Directory of Literacy and Adult Education Resources. During the quarter, the directory was brought up to date by removing all dead links. The Directory can be found at http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/Resc/Litdir/index.html.
The Midwest Hub published the Fall, 1996 issue of Tech Talk and distributed copies to the Midwest states and to 2300 individuals on the OLRC database. The first 3 pages of the publication contain web resources and information on the LINCS Forum/Listservs with all Ohio tech news on the 4th page. This is done so that the other states can just reproduce the first 3 pages for distribution in their state.
2. Training/technical support for Local Partner Programs
Each state was asked to choose at least one local Partner Program and provide coordination, training and technical assistance to that program in the use of LINCS. The Hub sent each state a copy of the Application Form and RFP being used in Ohio, report forms, project action plan forms, and information on last year's projects.
By the end of the first quarter, the following activity had taken place in the states in choosing Partner Programs.
Illinois is working with a partner program to draft specific goals that meet their needs.
Iowa has discussed Program Partners will several community college adult basic education programs and is working on methods to overcome some of the administrative and logistical barriers identified
Kansas is working with Project Finish, Johnson County Community College and this program has begun the process of adding a dedicated line for Internet access, securing equipment and software, identifying outcomes for the partnership, and planning for training. The Kansas State Literacy Resource Center is providing $ 800 to Project Finish.
Michigan will be meeting with their local partner on January 22 to lay out programming involving a six county community based literacy project coordinated by a public library.
Minnesota reached a formalized agreement with the St. Paul Community Literacy Collaborative to partner with their member organizations.
Missouri has had a planning and introductory session with administrators from local partner agency, St. Louis Community College student tutor corps.
Nebraska solicited programs to send in mini-grants of up to $ 300 and has sent out $ 1,200 to 4 programs in the state. They also have supplied continued support for the Southeast Nebraska Education Technology Innovation Consortium project.
North Dakota has identified two partners, but they are not ready to go.
Ohio sent a RFP to all adult literacy programs with a deadline of January 15. Nine programs were to receive $ 500 to assist in obtaining on-line access and to help train teachers. (Nine projects were selected the end of January with training scheduled for February 14.).
Wisconsin makes regular phone consultation to local providers and has made 5 awards of teacher training mini-grants to volunteer organizations.
2. Training at the State Level:
A three-day training will be held by the Hub for 2 staff members from each state March 2-4 at Kent State University. (The agenda is attached.)
3. Technical Assistance:
The Hub provided online or phone assistance to member states at an average of five a week.
The OLRC has developed a Technical Assistance Network in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Education. Thirteen consultants have been identified and trained in a two-day session. These consultants live in different regions of the state and will be used to provide individual training to programs. A total of 40 days have been budgeted for this pilot project. Information on this project will be shared with all Midwest states at the March training. Additional information is attached.
Illinois added six documents full-text on-line.
Indiana has been working to identify instructional materials produced locally to be catalogued with at least a summary description.
Kansas maintains a print version of an extensive bibliography and is in the planning process of putting the bibliography on-line. The web site provides an on-line order form from the bibliography and was used by 33 customers during the quarter. The newest bibliography provides Internet addresses for those resources currently available through the Internet. Kansas also will award five $500 grants to local programs to produce resources appropriate for publishing on-line.
Minnesota put the newsletter Adult Basic Education Connections online and created a catalog record for the newsletter as a whole. Revisions to the Internet Directory of Literacy and Adult Education Resources were made.
Michigan has added documents produced by the Center and is working on an on-line form for submission of materials by the field.
Missouri added on-line The Law and You citizenship education for adult learners.
Ohio added ten publications on-line.
Nebraska obtained some papers from participants (practitioners) in the Teacher Training Institute to put on-line. The first module of the Teacher Training Institute which is on-line is a curriculum for staff development.
2. Cataloging Documents:
The Hub spend most of December cataloging full-text documents from the 12 states' web sites. The cataloging was done using the Starting Point guidelines and the adult literacy thesaurus. A total of 20 documents were cataloged. States were told that the Hub would do all documents on-line as of January 1, 1997; but any added after that time would be the responsibility of the individual states. Training will be done at the March meeting on the best way to do the cataloging.
Individual states have also done some cataloging:
. 3. Listing of adult literacy programs:Minnesota cataloged Connections and the GEL Guide. Wisconsin cataloged one document
4. The Hub continues to develop specialized collections on Family Literacy and numeracy-related issues.
5. The Hub uses a link-checking program to purge dead links every two weeks. Monitoring is done on a regular basis to ensure that the site is fresh and all dated information current.
A publication on the 1996 local technology projects through this grant was published and distributed to 1400 people. A 4-page listing of web sites identified by teachers and students in the project was distributed with the publication.
Minnesota published three articles about the local projects in Adult Basic Education Connections, a state-wide newsletter.
Michigan published information about their technology conference in the State Literacy Resource Center newsletter, Connections.
Illinois writes an Internet Corner which comprises Internet ideas in the Secretary of State Literacy Office's monthly newsletter to providers.
D. Collaboration
The Midwest Hub will be making a presentation to the regional state directors in March.
Presentation materials are being prepared for each state to use with their state department and other state-level agency.
Ohio has developed an informal Technical Advisory Committee (Ohio Tech Team) composed of practitioners who have been involved with technology in their programs. A meeting was held in December of 15 practitioners and another is planned for June. This model will be shared with the other states at the training in March.
Plans were made to conduct an on-line survey and phone interviews of 1996 local programs during second quarter.
Use of system:
The Midwest Hub site had 14,071 hits during the quarter.
In Kansas, the web site had 518 hits with the Adult Education/Literacy Programs information site receiving the most attention.
In Iowa, the web site server was contacted 2,506 times with an average of 835 times a month (October: 693, November 1012, and December 801). The daily average ranged from 250 on Saturday to 432 on Tuesday. Access to the site from outside Iowa came from 23 states and 18 countries.
Some of the other states have not set up a system to provide these statistics.
Lack of time and personnel
Acceptance of technology as a teaching or support device within the adult basic education community is slower than anticipated. Lack of equipment and ease of access are significant factors.
No personnel to enter material on web site.
Down time on the system.
Emphasis on direct instruction rather than staff development within state as funds are cut.
Lack of consistency in state leadership.
Problems with getting statistical data on web site usage, compounded by lack of time to work on the problems.
Project gets pushed back when issues like funding and moving the agency are more pressing.
Staff changes.
Weather conditions
Kansas will be planning the Summer Institute VIII, working with Partner Program to demonstrate to other programs in Kansas the potential for improving services to adult learners by using the Internet, and complete two publications on the Internet for distribution/
Indiana will be holding training workshops for both state staff and regional experts, and will set up a listserv for adult educators.
Illinois is planning more trainings at the regional level and sessions at state conferences and will be working with their partner program.
Iowa will be establishing the Partner Program, establishing a training cycle for literacy students on using technology, exploring inclusion of the web site on other search engines, entering new material into the system, and planning spring training.
Michigan will set up the Partner Program, develop and deliver 4 state-wide trainings, solicit and place on web locally produced materials, and facilitate a research project on LINCS.
Minnesota will maintain and improve the web site, add information from other literacy organizations, and collect locally-produced materials.
Missouri will catalog all existing materials in electronic format, complete two trainings, and work with Partner Program. Nebraska will distribute 10 modems to programs, hold at least one training, and work with a Partner Program.
North Dakota will be adding new staff, upgrading the home page, and preparing to put materials on-line.
Ohio will train 9 local Partner Programs and provide regional trainings.
South Dakota will be assisting in the installation of computers at local sites and training for local literacy council staff.