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How Adult Literacy Time and Technology Use Should Be Focused:
Views from Learners and Teachers
It is a difficult time for adult literacy educators as they face numerous challenges: extremely limited program funding continues to shrink (Spellings, Justesen & Keenan, 2007), outcome measures direct them to prepare students for passing GED high school diploma tests, enroll in postsecondary education and/or gain employment (National Reporting System, 2011), and scholars call for them to make greater use of technology and 21st Century learning tools (Warschauer & Liaw, 2010).
During recent years, most of the direction for adult literacy has come from federal and state mandates (Division of Adult Education and Literacy, 2011) through officially sanctioned publications (e.g. LINCS, 2011) and required program outcome measures (NRS, 2011). The voices and opinions of adult literacy learners and teachers have not often been included in the discussion of how time should be used and what role technology should play. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to
1. Compile and document the opinions of adult literacy learners and teachers on the use of time and technology; and
2. Compare and contrast the views of these groups to each other.
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