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Using a case study approach, this report examines the interaction
between new and emerging digital technologies, adult learning and literacies
for both educators and learners.
- The findings from this study suggest grounds for rethinking how
to further adult literacy education and how it is labelled.
- The study illustrates that it makes little sense to continue to
think and talk about literacy practices and the use of information
and communication
technologies as if they were separate activities: literacy education
is equally and simultaneously digital literacy education.
- Adult literacy educators need to understand the new reality of contemporary
communication so that they can produce learners who are prepared
to contribute actively, critically and responsibly to a changing society
that is mediated by the use of information and communication technologies.
- The case study analysis revealed that adult literacy learners need
and want a broader technology curriculum than is currently available
to them;
in particular, they require information and communication technology 'lifeskills' such
as online banking and internet searching information. Many adult literacy
educators possess the skills and knowledge that their learners need.
However, traditional institutionalised understandings of literacy often
prevent the development of learning environments and delivery strategies
to provide coherent integrated programs that encompass all literacies-old
and new. Adult literacy programs that incorporate digital literacies
need to take account of settings, contexts and purposes.
- Particular attention is required in the adult and community education
sector, which is relatively poorly funded and therefore unlikely to
be able to respond
to the challenge of integrating the use of information and communication
technologies in a timely and appropriate fashion. A coordinated,
centralised assembling of resources for teaching and learning with
these technologies
would be invaluable.
- Because the term 'literacy' is strongly associated with the world of print,
it has come to assume the stigma of failure and inadequacy. We need
to rethink not only the work of technology-mediated adult literacy education,
but also how it is labelled. 'Communication' could usefully replace
the word 'literacy' in adult education programs. The advantage would
be to focus attention on how the use of information and communication
technologies is never divorced from wider communication practices, while
at the same time remove the negative impact of the term 'literacy' and
its close association with print.
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