DIGITAL DELIVERY FOR LOW
LEVEL LITERACY STUDENTS
Michael Coghlan
NewLearning
17/6/15
CC image from Peter Shanks
Is it so
different to
what other
learners
need?
WHERE DOES AUSTRALIA RATE?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate
BACKGROUND
• The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that 7.3 million
Australians - almost half the adult population - have problems with
literacy. These people often struggle to hold down jobs, balance their
household budget and just make their way through each day.
(Australian, April 9th, 2013)
• The 2006/7 Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey (ALLS) indicated that
between 46% and 70% of adults in Australia had “poor” or “very
poor” skills across one or more of the five skill domains of prose
literacy, document literacy, numeracy, problem-solving and health
literacy.
https://ala.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/LLN_paper.pdf
“So many literacies are there!”
(Can we list some?)
• Digital
• Info
• Financial
• Visual
• Health
• Workplace
• Technical
• Emotional
• Musical
TYPES OF LITERACY
• Media literacy
• Critical literacy
• Visual literacy
• Information literacy
• Digital literacy
• Eliteracy
• Transliteracy
• Multiliteracy
OVERARCHING TERMS FOR NEW LITERACIES
Transliteracy
Multiliteracy
Transliteracy (pl. transliteracies) is the ability to
understand and communicate—i.e., to be
"literate"—across all communications platforms,
including sign language, speech, reading, writing,
mass media, and social media. The term was
coined in 2005 by the Transliteracies Research
Project
Multiliteracies is a term coined by the New
London Group. Because the way people
communicate is changing due to new
technologies, and because there are shifts in the
usage of the English language within different
cultures a new "literacy" must also be used and
developed.
“For years at school I was asked to
do things I wasn’t good at and that I
wasn’t interested in.”
“Finally after several years I was
able to spend time at school doing
things I enjoyed and that I was good at!”
Appointed editor of the
new media based school
magazine.
MORE ON MULTILITERACY:
• while eating breakfast, students may be listening and speaking at the table while watching a morning news
program that requires them to attend to print, view both still and moving images, interact with a website or
view a film clip, and at the same time interpret the behaviour of the news broadcasters interviewing
someone from another country on a split screen.
• To learn within this environment, students need to be able to understand and use the grammars of
language, still and moving images, music and sound. These grammars are often referred to as semiotic
systems. Five semiotic systems have been identified; the linguistic (ie the traditional system of producing
shared meaning using sounds, words, sentences, paragraphs etc), the visual (eg line, colour, vector, texture),
the gestural (eg facial expression, body position and posture), the spatial (eg the organisation of people and
objects in space) and the aural (eg sound, music and silence).
• A 21st-century multiliterate individual needs to have the skills to consume all five semiotic systems.
Conversely, they will be required to produce texts that use all five systems such as play scripts, email, video
and PowerPoint presentations. The terms ‘consuming’ and ‘producing’ are used here because they more
accurately describe the knowledge, skills and processes employed in constructing print and digital texts than
the traditional terms reading, listening, writing and speaking.
• Exposure to all these forms of text must go hand in hand with the realisation that all texts are consciously
constructed in order to share information in particular ways – that texts can shape attitudes, values and
behaviours.
MULTILITERACIES RESOURCE
• Victorian Department of
Education Series Videos –
Considering Multiliteracies http://newlearningonline.com/
multiliteracies/videos
CODE?
(thank you Mark Pegrum!)
LITERACY OVERKILL?
Is it a case of literacy overkill?
Literacy simply has come to
mean the ability to do
something effectively eg sing
(musical literacy?)
(thank you Mark Pegrum!)
What’s this?
What’s this?
What’s this?
What’s this?
MANY CHANNELS
How I communicate with people I know:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Person B – SMS OR Facebook
Person C – Facebook
Person D – email or SMS
Person BE – FB or email
Person T – SMS
Person A – SMS or Facebook
Person J – email
Person E - phone
“Keep It Real” (ie authentic)
1998
Your students want to discuss real issues
DON’T LOWER (Intellectual)
STANDARDS
Mind focus here
Language focus here
(dog, beach, walking)
TEHRAN
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kamshots/6299604013/
WHAT IS YOUR/THEIR PURPOSE?
Why do they want to read and write? What do they want to
accomplish? AND … what are YOU trying to achieve?
The Question of Values
Our philosophy determines how
we perceive and deal with our
preferred teaching methods –
which includes how (or if) we
choose and use e-learning
technologies.
(http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/04_Anderson_2008_KanukaOnline_Learning.pdf)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/konarheim/4073209881
PEOPLE NEED A PURPOSE AND THEY MIGHT
NOT KNOW
WHAT THAT IS - YET
1968
2010
GOALS/PURPOSE – why do I want to
improve my literacy skills?
STEPS
How many?
How long?
What’s required?
NOW
GOAL
ACHIEVED
CONDITIONS THAT PROMOTE LEARNING?
CONDITIONS THAT PROMOTE LEARNING
• Experiential learning in which concepts and language are closely linked to
students’ own experiences
• literacy tasks that are related to students’ concrete experiences
• the use of visual, concrete and tactile materials
• frequent repetition and recycling of learned material
• frequent breaks and changes of pace
• group and collaborative learning
• course hours aligned with students’ availability and learning needs
• the grouping of learners with similar needs together, rather than mixing levels
and abilities in one class.
(from http://www.ameprc.mq.edu.au/docs/fact_sheets/Teaching_Issues_Fact_Sheet_10.pdf)
WHAT DO
TARGETED
LEARNERS
NEED?
ALL ‘TARGETED’ LEARNERS REQUIRE:
• Clear context (why am I here?)
• Clear purpose (why am I doing this?)
• Opportunity to create, interpret (make meaning)
• That they be given a voice > a sense of self-worth/value
= feeling successful > motivation
• Support
• Patience
CONUNDRUM:
url
Tag
Hashtag
App
….
?
AM
LANGUAGE
AM IIAALANGUAGE
OR OR
TECHNOLOGY TEACHER?
TECHNOLOGY
TEACHER?
CONUNDRUM:
url
Tag
Hashtag
App
….
?
AM
LANGUAGE
AM IIAALANGUAGE
OR OR
TECHNOLOGY TEACHER?
TECHNOLOGY
TEACHER?
Low Level Literacy
ACSF: pre-level 1 and level 1
SUPPORT
Significant support
Works alongside an
expert/
mentor
Pre
Level 1 Prompting, advice and
modelling provided
1
CONTEXT
TEXT COMPLEXITY
TASK COMPLEXITY
Highly familiar contexts only
Concrete and immediate
Extremely restricted range of
contexts
Short and simple
Highly explicit purpose
Limited, highly familiar
vocabulary
Single step, concrete tasks
Processes include copying,
naming, matching, ordering
Short and simple
Concrete tasks of 1 or 2 steps
Highly explicit purpose
Processes include locating,
recognising
Works alongside an
Highly familiar contexts
expert/mentor where Concrete and immediate
prompting and advice
Very restricted range of
can be provided
contexts
Limited, highly familiar
vocabulary
TEACHING ABOUT TAGS WITH FLICKR (or
Instagram)
• Choose an image
• Brainstorm possible tags
• Search for other images with
these same tags
• Have students create images and
tag them
• Upload to Flickr via class account
Skills: tagging, searching,
vocabulary, content creation
POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES
• Streets of Tehran (or similar)
• Bruce’s students – cleaning up vacant lot/planting stuff > website
(tactile, concrete)
• Solving authentic problems (keeping it real/relevant; linked to
students’ own experiences)
• Working with community (“take the classroom to the world OR bring
the world into your classroom”)
• Flickr (for tagging)
THE APP WORLD:
Creative Commons image from Wesley Fryer
• Love Apptually: http://www.takingthelead.com.au/resources/loveapptually-apps-support-learning (VET specific)
http://www.spellbetterapp.com/
DIGITAL STORYTELLING
Digital stories combine digital images (still or video), a
narrated ‘story’ or voice over, and sometimes music or
sound effects into a ‘mini-movie’ that usually runs for
around 2-4 minutes. They are a wonderful way to capture
lives and local history, and are VERY easy to create.
This slide
sponsored by
Junita Lyon 
(idea borrowed from Jonathan Finkelstein)
FURTHER RESOURCES
1. Keystrokes to Literacy: Using the Computer As a Learning Tool for Adult
Beginning Readers - http://www.amazon.com/Keystrokes-Literacy-ComputerLearning-Beginning/dp/0844206792 ($10)
2. What is Digital Literacy? https://www.commoncraft.com/video/digital-literacy?
3. Building Strength with Numeracy - http://www.valbec.org.au/buildingstrength-with-numeracy/
4. SEN Teacher – Free Learning Resources http://www.senteacher.org/print/literacy/
5. The Body in Audio - http://www.languageguide.org/english/vocabulary/body/
6. Basic English Vocabulary Pronounced Aloud http://www.languageguide.org/english/
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS?
END OF
TODAY’S
SESSION
michaelc@chariot.net.au