Family & Community Adult Education Adult & Community Learning Services
Adult and Community Learning Services

Distance Learning Project Report-March 2006

Distance Learning Professional Development Opportunities for Spring 2006
Nine people attended the workshop entitled, "An Introduction to Blended Learning for ABE/ESOL Learners" on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006 from 5:30-8:30pm at the ALRI in Boston. The workshop received positive feedback. The Project Manager will submit a proposal for Network 2006 to conduct this workshop at the upcoming October conference. In addition, two consultants from MCLA are working on creating online orientation modules for distance learners. They will also complete an outline for distance learning instructors who work with Fast Track GED learners. These projects will be completed by June 30th, 2006.

Network 2006
The Project Manager has asked both the distance learning programs and the DLAB committee to consider presenting at Network 2006. The dl programs will report to the Project Manager at their April meeting concerning their participation, and the DLAB committee will discuss this topic at their last meeting of the Fiscal 2006 year in June.

The DLAB (Distance Learning Advisory Board)
The March 2006 DLAB meeting took place via web conferencing with Elluminate Live, on March 22nd, 2006. Participants were pleased with the experience and requested that we continue to use the software for meetings during winter months and for subcommittee meetings. During the meeting, DLAB member David Rosen presented his "Concept Paper for an Online Learning Component of a Seamless System of Adult Education and Literacy." He has asked committee members for feedback and the paper has also been shared with the six distance learning pilot sites. David Rosen plans to finalize his paper during the summer months. The advocacy sub-committee (Robert Foreman, David Rosen, Tom Perreira) will meet on April 6th, 2006 to discuss the FAQs document they are in the process of creating.

Digital Licenses for GED Connection and Workplace Essential Skills
Now that ACLS has purchased the digital licenses for GEDC and WES, the Project Manager has ordered DVD duplications for these two curricula. The DVD copies will be distributed to programs at the Distance Learning Summit on May 19th, 2006.

Site Visits
The DL Project Manager completed two site visits for the month of March (The Literacy Project and Juntos). She will submit reports to ACLS for all of her site visits. She will visit Quinsigamond Community College on April 6th and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts on Friday, April 7th, 2006. She is also scheduled to visit Brockton Private Industry Council on April 18th, 2006.

DL Newsletter
The deadline for submissions to the next Anywhere, Anytime Learning newsletter is on Friday, May 12th, 2006. The Project Manager has solicited feedback from both the programs and the Distance Learning Advisory Board and responses have been positive. A guidelines document for submissions to the newsletter will be released to the public in April 2006.

DL Summit
The Project Manager has met with co-facilitator, Jennifer Elmore, three times to plan for the DL Summit. At the present time, thirty-one attendees are signed up for the yearly conference at UMASS Amherst on Friday, May 19th, 2006. The focus of this year's conference will be on the future of distance learning in ABE in the Commonwealth and considerations that must be addressed before the project becomes full-scale. The day's agenda will focus on individual, small, and large group activities.

DL Outreach DVD
The Project Manager traveled with a UMASS film crew the week of March 13-16th, 2006 to interview distance learning students in Notre Dame-South Boston, Brockton Private Industry Council, and in the Juntos program-Holyoke. The Project Manager reviewed five hours of video footage and selected potential clips for the DVD from these interviews. She will meet with the production crew on Monday, April 10th , 2006 to start the production process. The DVD is slated to be finished before the DL Summit on May 19th, 2006.

Anywhere, Anytime Learning Website
The Project Manager met with Steve Linberg on March 24th , 2006 to review the new website that will be unveiled in May 2006. Before the website is ready, Jennifer Rafferty will editing some of the pages and create content for new pages at the site.

Submitted by Jennifer Rafferty on April 5th, 2005