Review of the NALA National Tutors Forum by Sindy Fitzpatrick, Adult Literacy Tutor

The National Forum for Adult Literacy Tutors took place in All Hallows College, Drumcondra,
Dublin 9, on Saturday 29th January 2011. Joan Butler, Tutor Co-ordinator, NALA Distance
Learning Service welcomed us and gave an overview of the day.

The theme of the day was the role that technology plays in adult literacy learning

The panel of speakers included: Inez Bailey, Director of the National Adult Literacy Agency
(NALA) since 1997, Colin Cummins, Adult Literacy Organiser with City of Limerick VEC,
Barbara Nance, NIACE Senior Project Officer, Tom O'Mara, NALA Distance Learning
Coordinator, Aoife Clavin, Adult Literacy Tutor, and two students - Elizabeth, studying
group literacy, FETAC Communications and computers and spelling with Cabra Adult Literacy
Scheme and is also a distance learning student with NALA and Michelle who started her
studying with one-to-one literacy and went on to complete FETAC Level 3 in
Communications and Mathematics. She is currently studying FETAC Level 4 Mathematics
and Communications and computers/spelling.

Inez Bailey gave an update on the work of NALA in 2010 in particular their 3 main
technology sites which have been set up - which included their flagship project
www.writeon.ie – free on-line learning at FETAC Levels 2 & 3 (Level 3 was launched in
October 2010) – Presently the site has 10,000 users and growing - technology offering
students additional learning opportunities. Inez mentioned that this technology allows
students who couldn’t previously access tuition or who wanted extra tuition the opportunity
to gain accredited learning opportunities and to give tutors fresh ideas and support. NALA
would love to get feedback from students and tutors on the site so they can develop and
improve the site for all.

www.makingcents.ie – EBS Building Society and NALA designed a website for students
interested in learning about money and financial matters. It includes online exercises that
will help you understand how to use and manage money better, a handy A-Z guide to
financial terms and many other handy resources to help you make sense of money and
finance.

www.healthliteracy.ie – The MSD/NALA Health Literacy Initiative is a partnership between

healthcare company MSD and the NALA that aims to increase awareness about the issue of
health literacy in Ireland.

There are links to all 3 websites from the NALA website at www.nala.ie

Policy – Inez spoke about how the Department of Education and Skills (DES) are working
through 2011 on the skills agenda, to close the gap between further education and training.
There has been no increase in the budget for literacy but also no significant decreases. The
DES will be looking this year at the amalgamation of VECs and the Back to Education Forum
is to be set up during 2011.

Student Development - There are Regional /National Events for students – Adult Literacy
Student Days - these days are organised for and by students.
Dates:
Dublin -Saturday 19 February - The Gibson Hotel, Dublin
Cork on Saturday 2 April – Clarion Hotel, Cork
(go to www.nala.ie for more info and to register)

Literacy Research and Practice Development – A lot of work has gone into family literacy
over the last years, in particular children’s literacy. Results from reports show that there has
been no improvement in child literacy problems in the last 30 years. It has shown that 15
year olds are underperforming in literacy and numeracy compared to past years. Family
literacy programmes helps the family to support their children in developing their literacy
and numeracy skills. For tutors who would like more information on family learning – WIT
(Waterford Institute of Technology) have planned information/training sessions during the
year(more info – go to http://www.nala.ie/family_literacy) or call NALA at 01-4127918.The
NALA AGM will take place in March 2011.

Colin Cummins – gave an inspiring introduction to the Creativity, Information and

Communications Technology (ICT) and the learning experience: How attitudes to technology
influence its value. He spoke about how students can benefit from technology compared to
students who didn’t (findings from survey in Limerick). He stated that our attitude to
technology matters if we are to accept change. For tutors, technology may be a tool we use
but it is beginning to have an influence on how we teach. Colin spoke about how technology
changes and we need to think about how our students will use technology in the future.
Emerging technologies are making it more and more accessible for all to use. He spoke
about how to date the Internet has been like an online library to us all but in the future it
will be the collaborative learning space we use and how technology has allowed our
students to cross global boundaries and technology has changed the role of the tutor from
information giver to information facilitator. Some examples of technology were discussed,
for example using the Nintendo can be used at class as an innovative way to do Maths. To
tutors, he said find technologies that work for you and use them. Some of the websites
mentioned:

http://itabe.blogs.ie – For Level 2 groups to blog

http:/altiweb.ning.com – Adult Literacy Forum
http://www.twitter.com – Great Literacy tool
http://alsion.com – Free Resources
www.surveymonkey.com – Making a Questionnaire
www.doodle.com
www.blogspot.com
When Colin was asked what key investments should we make in technology – he replied he
sees Cloud Computing(location-independent computing) and E-beam (Interactive
whiteboards)and the Smartphone being part of our future.

Barbara Nance gave a talk on Integrating ICT into adult literacy and numeracy and what
evidence is there to show the benefit of teaching with technology. Barbara spoke about
various research projects published to show there is a benefit to the learning of all students
when teaching with technology. In the U.K they are looking at a national project at the
teacher training to how you can use technology effectively. A question was asked what if
you don’t have access to computers. – Barbara answered you don’t always have to have
access to computers, for example you can use video games, audio recorders, or use one
laptop with a wireless keyboard which a group could share. Another idea was the mobile
phone (looking at new apps on them). She said to try find out where your students are at
with technology and then build on that platform. Another idea was to use moodle – a free
virtual learning environment for tutors/students.

Tom O'Mara The Future Is Now! Technology that is in use today – Joan spoke to Tom via
Skype on the day to show the use of phone technology. Tom spoke about how web
technology is so important and when asked what technology plays in literacy learning, he
said he feels with technology learners are learning up to date, integrating technology more
like reading, writing and numeracy so students are getting these skills and technology skills.
For tutors Tom says that technology offers so much more ideas and work access. He finished
with a very interesting quote “if students are not afraid then we should take this as an
example to us as tutors and embrace technology”.

Aoife Clavin, Adult Literacy Tutor with Cabra Adult Literacy Scheme and students Elizabeth
and Michelle spoke about how learning to use the computer has been great for the
student’s confidence. Aoife is presently delivering FETAC 3 computer literacy and bases her
Learning Outcomes around spelling. For example in Microsoft Word they set up a personal
dictionary and use Cloze Exercises for their evidence of that unit. It demonstrated how
easily you can integrate spelling and technology.

Michelle spoke about how nervous she was when she joined Aoife’s class but now feels so
much more confident. When people asked her what she was doing she would say a
computer class and would feel no embarrassment at this. Also she mentioned if she had to
miss a class the tutor would email her the work she has missed so she never felt as if she
was falling behind in the work.

Elizabeth spoke of how she first rang NALA (after many years of being too embarrassed
about asking for help) and did the distance learning which works great for her. The NALA
distance tutor rings her every week and posts work to Elizabeth to complete. She says this
has changed her life so much.

The morning ended with a short question and answer session.

The afternoon was dedicated to 6 different Workshops: - providing information on

technology for the adult literacy sector.

1. What is a wiki and how to use one in an adult literacy setting? – Joan Butler
2. Using digital tools for literacy and numeracy assessment for learning - Barbara
Nance
3. How www.writeon.ie (NALA’s interactive learning site) can work for you and your
students – Adult literacy tutor and student
4. Podcasts and interactive websites: Innovative and fun ways of working on literacy
– Fiona Murphy, Adult Literacy Tutor, South Westmeath VEC
5. How to use Photo-story with your students – Joan Hughes, Director, Liberties
Computer Training
6. Language, speech development and sensory skills: Technology and software for
working with students with special needs – David MacCallum, Adult Literacy Tutor,
Sligo VEC