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Northstar Digital Literacy Standards
…an emerging community
initiative
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Presentation overview
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SPCLC
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Adult Basic Education in transition
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Why are standards needed?
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Development and functioning of Task Force
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Structure of Standards
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How they are being used now
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Certification process
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Working with employers
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Mission: Building a more literate community
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Last year – served 13,332 adult learners, provided 1,210,463
service hours
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Largest consortium in Minnesota
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Broad-based collaboration at all levels of the community
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Website
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SPCLC Members
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St. Paul Public Schools Adult Learning
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St. Paul Public Library
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11 community based non-profits: CLUES, GAP, HAP, Hmong
Cultural Center, Jewish Community Center, Lao Family,
Minnesota Literacy Council, MORE, Neighborhood House,
VSS
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Lifetrack Resources
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Structure and memberships facilitates a variety of culturally
sensitive services for diverse parts of the St. Paul community
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External Partners
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Ramsey County WIB
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DEED/FastTRAC
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MDE
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DHS
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St. Paul College
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Other non-profits
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Local businesses
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SPCLC ABE Services
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ELL – 75% of participants
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Adult Basic Education (preparing for GED, basic skill brushup) – 20%
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Adult Secondary (GED) – 4%
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Other programs – FastTRAC, family literacy, workforce
education, distance learning
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Adult Basic Education:
in transition
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As the economy and society changes, ABE evolves:
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Emphasis on preparing for transition to employment or higher
education
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Collaboration with an array of institutions and organizations
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Involvement with public policy
One common theme: Digital literacy
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Digital literacy: Where we are now?
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ATLAS 2010 ABE Pracititioner survey* (≈600 teachers)
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80.9% of 608 ABE teachers reported using the Internet with their
learners
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75% of the practitioners worked at a site with a computer lab
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61% use computers or a mobile computer lab in the classroom
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Libraries, non-profits, and other organizations report high
demand for basic computer digital literacy training
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Employers increasingly requiring technology skills for entry
level jobs
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Evolving definition of literacy includes digital literacy
banking, paying bills, communicating with schools, friends,
social networking, etc.
*Charting the Future: Minnesota’s ABE Workforce: Professional Experience, Challenges and Needs Survey
results from ATLAS’ ABE professional development survey, Kelly Marchwick, ATLAS Consultant 2/10/2010
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Where do we need to be?
NEW Paradigm
From supported use to independent use
Get adults beyond basic skills threshold so they can
use technology to learn and get jobs
Learners need to INDEPENDENTLY use computers
for learning to prepare for post-secondary
coursework
 Workers need to have mastered basic skills
threshold for most jobs
+ Online Learning in Post-Secondary Programs
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ATLAS 2008 Instructional Practices Alignment Survey (page 4)
70% of MnSCU faculty use hybrid instruction (f2f + online learning)
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Governor’s goal for MNSCU - 25% of all credits will be earned online by 2015
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Technology use in WFC System &
at work.
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Job search is done online
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Entry level job applications are online
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WFC systems report high demand for assistance with resume
writing, online job search database tools, and career
development (ISEEK)
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New technology demands in the workplace
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Implications
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How can we define digital literacy standards responsive to
changing needs and realities?
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How do we get low-skilled adults ready for the future??
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How do we work with the larger community - community
support professionals & institutions – as well as ABE teachers
to this end?
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Digital literacy standards needed
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To standardize basic expectations
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To align instructional efforts of ABE, libraries, WFC, nonprofits and others
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To meet employer expectations
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To produce a more flexible, better qualified workforce
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St. Paul Digital Literacy Task Force
 "Develop
a commonly accepted set of digital
literacy standards that will facilitate
empowerment of adults needing technology
skills for daily living, employment preparation,
and/or transition to higher education
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Task Force Structure
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Group began meeting spring 2010 at request of St. Paul
Public Library
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Open process for membership
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Bi-weekly meetings to develop standards, pre-assessment,
and test to attain Credential of Basic Computer Digital
Literacy
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Participants include professionals from community based
non-profits, libraries, school district and non-profit ABE
programs, state agencies
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Google site used to manage Task Force
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Review of other standards
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Thorough review of other resources
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Two main problems:
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Based on much higher skill levels than we felt were desirable, or
were possible for many of our students/clients
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Many were proprietary, with a significant cost
Thus, we decided to design our own standards
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The Benchmarks
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Information Literacy - the set of skills needed to find,
retrieve, analyze, and use information
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What is Digital Literacy?
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Taskforce defined its initial task as defining standards for
basic computer skills
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Decided not to design curricula
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Northstar Digital/Core Computer
Literacy Standards
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Five standard areas defined
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Basic Computer Use
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Internet
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Windows Operating System
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Email
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Word Processing (Microsoft Word 2007)
Available on the web
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How are the standards being used?
Learner Web Partnership:
A Multi-state Support System for Broadband Adoption for
Vulnerable Adults
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Digital Literacy Instruction on skills needed in the digital
world. Links to Blandin BTOP Project.
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Broadband Consumer Education defining high-speed
Internet, it’s role in digital inclusion, and how to make good
decisions about accessing Broadband.
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Career Pathways Orientation introducing Career Pathways,
importance of career planning and developed examples of
pathways in locally relevant industries. Provides a
framework and instruction for how to use popular career and
job database tools like GPS LifePlan, Perkins MN POS, iSEEK,
and MNWORKS.net
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Future development of standards
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Develop assessment online tool to verify mastery of skills
(funding obtained from Otto Bremer Foundation and LSTA)
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Certificate of Basic Literacy Skills awarded upon successful
completion of assessment - the hope is this will be seen by
employers as meaningful
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Community campaign to familiarize employers and the
broader community with the Standards
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Looking to the Future…
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Future taskforce initiatives will focus on other Digital Literacy
Competencies
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Evaluation of online information sources
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Searching techniques
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Internet safety, privacy, and online identity
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Responsible use of information
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Accessing, creating and sharing online information
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Using mobile devices to access information
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Whatever comes next…
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What are other agencies doing?
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BTOP/Learner Web project
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DEED/MDE FastTRAC Programs – last RFP required programs
to integrate technology into proposed course work
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ABE/WFC Integrated Programming
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Workforce Development Trainers gain instructional skills through
collaboration with ABE teachers
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Blandin Foundation Broad Grant funded computer skills tutorials
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Learner Web Broad Grant will support WFC clients learn about
Broadband access and how to use it to reach education and career
goals.
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Discussion & Questions
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Further Information
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Tom Cytron-Hysom
thysom@real-time.com
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Jenifer Vanek
jenifer.vanek@spps.org