For more than two decades, NCAL has engaged in cutting edge and high-impact research, innovation, and training in adult education and technology, as well as in other areas of adult basic education and literacy (e.g., assessment, numeracy, ESL instruction, family literacy, international comparative studies, and so forth). NCAL has played a significant role in R&D technology efforts in adult education at federal, state, and local levels across the United States. NCAL is regarded as an innovative center for research and development of major projects in adult literacy, with specializations in educational technology, professional development, and multimedia instructional design. Go to NCAL's page
The International Literacy Institute (ILI) was officially established in 1994 by UNESCO and the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. The mission of the ILI is to provide leadership in research, development, and training in the broad field of international literacy and development, with an emphasis on developing countries. The ILI organizes regional and international conferences, disseminates the ILI newsletter, Literacy Innovations, and is involved in a number of significant research, development, training, and networking activities around the world. The ILI has completed a variety of major projects, contracts, grants, and events on time and within budget. Go to ILI's page
Projects
Other Activities
Conferences
Training
Information Dissemination
PROJECTS
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Learning Connections seeks to help learners identify and navigate the array of opportunities and service providers available to them, as well as to understand their own progress and achievements. The individualized self-advising platform will be accessible to low-literate learners and will offer goal-setting and self-assessment tools as well as referrals to on-line and local service providers. Progress tracking tools and instant-feedback rewards will assist learners as they pursue customized pathways to careers and post-secondary education. By providing a flexible, context-sensitive tool to help learners identify pathways and potential outcomes, Learning Connections will help individual learners aspire beyond basic skills, and will empower them to make their own choices and understand the impact of those choices on career and educational aspirations and opportunities. |
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Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI) addresses the Digital Divide of education and technology in emerging economies by improving literacy, basic education, and technological literacy, thereby assisting the world's poorest peoples to better determine their own social and economic future. With funding from multilateral agencies and private foundations, BFI has major projects underway in India, South Africa and Ghana, with other projects in development. A longitudinal evaluation study of local language multimedia tools in Andhra Pradesh can be found on the BFI website. |
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TECH21(SM): A National Technology Laboratory for Adult Education (2001-2005)
The newly awarded TECH21 project will serve as a hands-on and virtual research-to-practice and dissemination system for the analysis, enhancement and implementation of high quality IT applications in learning and instruction in adult education. NCAL, in partnership with OTAN/SCOE, PBS, and NAEPDC, has implemented TECH21, which consists of the NCAL National Technology Laboratory in Philadelphia, a "hands-on" Demonstration Lab in Washington, DC, and six adult education program-based field sites nationwide. |
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LiteracyLink
This partnership between NCAL, PBS Adult Learning Service, Kentucky Educational Television, and the Kentucky Department of Education is an online literacy instruction and staff development system that incorporates online technologies (through the Internet), video technologies (digital, closed-circuit, broadcast, and satellite), and computer technologies (including digitized audio and video, computer-generated graphics, interactive multimedia, and text) to deliver instruction in workplace basic skills and GED instruction. |
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Professional Development Kit (PDK): Multimedia Resources for Instructional Decision-Making
PDK, designed by the NCAL in collaboration with SRI International, is a research and development project to produce a prototype multimedia staff development tool to support adult literacy and ESL practitioners' efforts to strengthen their classroom practice. PDK produced ABE, GED, and ESL CD-ROM video case studies of adult education classrooms; online tools for practitioners to structure their own cases; and resources that include a knowledge database, digests, portfolio, group discussion and class products; and staff development and user guides have also been produced. |
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Captured WisdomTM on Adult Literacy
NCAL, as part of its R*TEC project, worked in partnership with the North Central Regional Education Laboratory to produce a series of videos and multimedia CD-ROMs on best practices of integrating technology into ABE/GED/ESL instruction. Videos of actual classes are complemented by questions raised by adult education practitioners from focus groups and answered by the cooperating teachers, ensuring that the resource will address the concerns that teachers may have about using technology with adult learners. (Videos and CD-ROMs available free of charge; contact info@ncrel.org.) |
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International Literacy Explorer
A multimedia teacher training tool designed to give an overview of literacy and basic education issues and practices in an international context. The Explorer focuses in on several innovative and effective literacy projects across the globe and includes sections on general literacy concepts and statistics. Contained on a CD-ROM, Explorer captures five years of NCAL's research efforts in one easy-to-use, searchable, multimedia CD. Included in the CD are full-text research papers, practice guides, searchable database of selected research documents, software demos of the leading software products for 1995/96, and an interactive easy-to-use introduction to implementing technology in adult literacy programs. |
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Project Connect
Project CONNECT is a U.S Department of Education funded technology development project. The goal of Project CONNECT is to create supplemental web-based instruction for intermediate level adult ESL learners. Partners in the project include PBS, Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky, and several public TV Stations. The free, self-paced units focus on working in the United States, continuing one's education in the United States, and civic participation. All of the site material is written specifically for adults learning English with an emphasis on listening and reading. |
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ESL/CivicsLink
ESL/CivicsLink is a web-based professional development program for ESL teachers. ESL/CivicsLink enables teachers of people seeking English language literacy to acquire effective ESL methods and foundation skills and U.S. Civics content knowledge through self-directed, interactive online distance learning. Each individual unit of ESL/CivicsLink addresses critical areas of interest identified by ESL teachers. |
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YouthHub
With the support of the Kellogg Foundation, NCAL has completed a study of technology and basic skills education for at-risk youth. In sum, the study concludes that information technologies that are socially embedded into youth culture and local communities have the greatest motivational value and impact. It is not the technology itself that multiplies the impact of successful programs; rather, it is the ways in which the technology is incorporated into those programs that make the difference. NCAL is building on several of the findings of YouthHub through a new project entitled Learning Connections , funded by Lumina Foundation for Education. |
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OTHER ACTIVITIES
Regional Technology in Education Consortia (R*TECs)
NCAL has partnered with two Regional Educational Laboratories, the North Central Regional Technology Education Consortium and the South East and Islands Regional Technology in Education Consortium. NCAL has created professional development resources for technology training and technical assistance to adult literacy programs in 21 states.
National Institute for Literacy's Region I Literacy Technology HUB (Eastern LINCS)
This collaboration between the New England Literacy Resource Center/World Education and NCAL is designed to (a) assist Region I State Literacy Resource Centers in utilizing the NIFL LINCS online system for organizing and developing online literacy resources and (b) leverage the capacity of literacy providers to incorporate technology into quality instruction.
Evaluation of the Pennsylvania Workforce Improvement Network (PA-WIN). NCAL conducted an evaluation study of the impact of a new statewide program designed to help adult basic education providers develop a centralized, market-driven system of services for employers and incumbent workers.
University and Technology-for-Literacy/Basic Education Partnership in Developing Countries (UTLP) OECD/CERI, Paris, Sept. 10-12, 2001
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REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LITERACY CONFERENCES
Regional Literacy Forum, Beijing, China, October 18-22, 1999, organized around the theme, Literacy and Adult Education for Rural and Social Development. A major goal will be to discuss how literacy and nonformal basic education can help to respond effectively to the region's new development needs.
Central Asia Regional Literacy Forum, Istanbul, Turkey, June 22-25, 1999, organized around the theme, Lifelong Literacy Development: From Early Childhood Development to Adult Literacy. Session topics include early childhood education, planning and policy development, curriculum development, gender, evaluation and assessment, workplace training, distance education, technological innovations, and the state of literacy work and research in various Central Asian countries.
Africa Regional Literacy Forum, Dakar, Senegal, March 16-20, 1998, organized around the theme, Innovation and Professionalization in Adult Literacy: New Directions for the Year 2000. This Forum is designed to explore problems and prospects for creating a more literate society in Africa.
Asia Regional Literacy Forum, New Delhi, India, February 9-13, 1998, organized around the theme, Innovation and Professionalization in Adult Literacy: A Focus on Diversity. A major goal of the Forum will be to discuss how literacy and non-formal basic education can help to respond effectively to the region's new development needs, while also providing a greater democratic participation and a culture of openness and tolerance to its various linguistic communities.
Asia Literacy Regional Forum, Manila, May 5-9, 1997, organized around the theme, Innovation and Professionalization in Adult Literacy: A Focus on Changing Market Economies. Papers from this forum will soon be available at this website.
Arab Region Literacy Seminar, Cairo, February 23-24, 1997, focused on the theme, Literacy, Language, and Basic Education in the Arab Region.
1996 World Conference on Literacy, March 12-15, 1996. Improving Literacy, Changing Lives: Innovations and Interconnections for Development. Papers from this conference are available at this website. To access them, go to the Publications page and refer to the search engine at top of page. Select "Detailed Search" as the topic and click on find. Once on the Detailed Search page, select "1996 World Conference on Literacy" under the type field.
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TRAINING
Adult Literacy and Technology Innovation Network (ALTIN)
The Adult Literacy and Technology Innovation Network (ALTIN) Project has developed a train-the-trainer staff development model for technology implementation. Twelve programs nationwide participated in the prototyping of the ALTIN model, and two states (IL & PA) have implemented statewide professional development using the ALTIN model and materials. Numerous states and regional systems (including two of the federally funded Regional Technology Technical Assistance Consortia) have sought NCAL's expertise in professional development, and further refinements of these promising methods are proposed in the next phase of our work. Through the use of innovative training materials, workshops, on-line technologies, and technical assistance, ALTIN has developed a cadre of technology mentors in various states who work within a distance-based collaborative to expand the use of technology in literacy programs.
Consortium for Advanced Education and Training Technologies (CADETT)
This partnership between NCAL, the Franklin Institute Science Museum (Philadelphia), the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Computer Science, the Lockheed Martin Corporation, and the Eastern Technology Council of Pennsylvania explores the use of advanced technologies to support workplace education and skill development.
National Staff Development Videoconference Series
This NCAL/PBS series has broadcast videoconferences live across the country on topics ranging from numeracy to family literacy. There were about 100,000 participants in the first four videoconferences alone:
- April 1994-Technology: New Tools for Adult Literacy, developed in collaboration with PBS Adult Learning Service, U.S. Department of Education OVAE, American Association of Community Colleges, and WHYY-TV.
- December 1994-Numeracy Instruction: A New Approach, developed in collaboration with PBS Adult Learning Service, U.S. Department of Education OVAE, National Institute for Literacy, American Association of Community Colleges, and WHYY-TV.
- May 1995-What Works: Workplace Literacy Training, developed in collaboration with PBS Adult Learning Service, U.S. Department of Education OVAE, National Institute for Literacy, American Association of Community Colleges, and WHYY-TV.
- December 1995-Families and Literacy: Making Sense of the Issues, developed in collaboration with PBS Adult Learning Service, U.S. Department of Education OVAE, National Institute for Literacy, National Center for Family Literacy, American Association of Community Colleges, and WHYY-TV.
- June 1997-Planning and Funding Technology for Adult Literacy, developed in collaboration with PBS Adult Learning Service. A forum to provide suggestions and individual examples of the technology planning process, as well as information about funding resources and how to acquire financial to implement technology plans.
- April 1998-Integrating Technology in the ABE/GED Curriculum, developed in collaboration with PBS Adult Learning Service. A forum for teachers and administrators to hear and exchange perspectives on integrating technology into various adult education programs.
- April 1999-Achieving Learner Goals: Video Technology in Adult Education, developed in collaboration with PBS Adult Learning Service. A forum for teachers and administrators to hear and exchange perspectives on integrating video into various adult education programs.
IBM Workforce Development Project
Through generous support of IBM, NCAL utilizes a portable laboratory of IBM laptop computers and servers that travel around the country and the world providing hands-on technology training for adult literacy practitioners.
ILI Summer Literacy Training Program (SLTP), Philadelphia
This annual program is open to mid-career professionals as well as younger specialists involved in literacy work in developing countries. The program includes several weeks of training, including workshops and seminars, and a number of informative visits to local literacy centers and institutions. Topics will include literacy policy and planning, child and family literacy development, literacy assessment and evaluation, nonformal and distance education, and literacy innovations and the use of technology. See website.
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INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
LITERACY.org
This website, sponsored by NCAL and its partners at the International Literacy Institute and the University of Pennsylvania, provides information, on a national, regional and international basis, concerning literacy for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners worldwide. Reviewed by Yahoo and listed #2 worldwide, the site has become one of the most popular sites on adult literacy with more than 95,000 hits a week and 48,000 full document downloads a year.
NCAL Publications
NCAL produces a series of Technical Reports, Practitioner Reports, and Policy Briefs on a wide range of topics. Most of these are available at this website at no cost. NCAL also publishes a series, in cooperation with Hampton Press, entitled Literacy Research, Policy, and Practice.
NCAL Connections Newsletters
Literacy Innovations (biannual ILI newsletter)
Translated into five languages (English, Arabic, Chinese, French, and Spanish) by the Translation Section of UNESCO-Paris, and distributed worldwide. Available at this site.
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