How to Use Webinars for Literacy: PD, Programming and Promotion

October 28, 2011

A huge thank you to our participants and speakers today who participated in the online discussion on how to use webinars for professional development, programming and promotion in the literacy field.

Our speakers

Allison Mullin is the manager of communications and marketing at the Ontario Literacy Coalition (OLC), after previously working in the communications departments of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and the City of Calgary. As part of it’s strategy to provide professional development opportunities for those working in the literacy field in Ontario, the OLC has been hosting a webinar series for the past year on a wide variety of topics.

 Courtney Hare is a Financial Literacy Facilitator for the non-profit organization in Calgary called Momentum. She is a certified Training Practitioner and holds an MA in Education from the University of Calgary where she got her start moderating and facilitating E-learning and online presentations. She is now looking for ways to further engage learners who may have barriers to accessing face-to-face workshops or learners who prefer to engage online. She is in the process of establishing the first E-learning module for a Momentum’s program called “StartSmart.”

Laura Godfrey is the Manager of Learning Links Resource Centre in Calgary, where she manages the development and operations of the centre. A graduate of the Southern Alberta Institute of Tecnology’s Library and Information Technology program, LearningLinks is the fifth library she has had a hand in setting up and running.

Each of the speakers is at a different point along the “continuum of development” for webinars. Allison heads up a successful webinar series that regularly has sessions filled over capacity. Courtney is beginning to prepare webinars for her organization. Laura is just starting to ask questions about webinars for literacy.

Laura provided a number of questions to guide today’s discussion:

  1. We’re a non-profit. How do we cover the costs of doing a webinar?
  2. Do we have to buy special software?
  3. How do we pick a topic to cover in a webinar?
  4. How long does it need to be?
  5. Can we record it and how can we make it available to others later?
  6. How tech savvy do you need to be in order to do this?
  7. Do you need to hire a speaker or can anyone do the speakers job?
  8. Who else is doing webinars in the literacy and adult education field?
  9. Why should we do this?
  10. Are there chances to collaborate with other groups?

Check out the webinar recording

In addition to our pre-arranged speakers, kudos also go to Dr. Jenny Horsman and Dr. Peggy Albers, both of whom shared insights from their own experiences about doing webinars in the literacy field.

Resources that were shared by participants today

Global Conversations in Literacy Research – A webinar series presented by Dr. Peggy Albers and hosted at Georgia State University

Camtasia – a video-capture software

RGK Foundation – Learning grants (USA only)

MacArthur Foundation Granting agency (USA only)

Techsoup – Technology resources for non-profits

Ontario Literacy Coalition Spotlight on Learning – OLC’s archived webinars

Learning and Violence – This site contains resources and archived webinars

Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) – Clearing house of e-learning, video conferencing and webinars for K-12, educator PD and community education

Stock Exchange – Free stock photography site (requires registration)

Nancy Duarte – Best practices and resources for slide presentations

Twitter handles of some of today’s participants

@englishwob

@ontarioliteracy

@LLRCLibrary

@LandVdotnet

I enjoyed the resources and information that everyone shared today. It was an open group who was willing to give ideas and share what they knew.

For me, this was one of the most technically challenging webinars I’ve done in a while. For some reason, I couldn’t hear participants while my own mic was turned on, which meant that I ended up “talking over” people without even knowing that they were trying to speak. My apologies for the rudeness! I can assure it that it was not at all intentional.

I am so grateful to everyone for their participation today. YOU made it worthwhile!

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

University’s Proposed Social Media Policy Results in Student Protests

October 27, 2011

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently released an article about an article about how a university’s proposed social media policy backfired on them. Reporter Alexandra Rice reports in “University’s Proposed Social-Media Policy Draws Cries of Censorship” that students at Sam Houston State University didn’t take kindly to the administration having access — and editing privileges — to their social media accounts.

The university released a new social media portal called Social Universe was deemed to be a one-stop portal for social media users at the university. The original policy draft indicated that any department or organization  that joined with a university e-mail account would be required to surrender their account passwords to the university, thus giving the university the right to oversee and edit activity on all accounts.

Essentially, this meant that any student, staff, faculty, department or student club with a Facebook, Twitter or any number of other online accounts that was registered with a university e-mail address could be monitored, edited, censored or even deleted by the university.

The students cried censorship. They staged a demonstration against the policy that included a “free speech wall”. That resulted in campus police citing students for creating a public disturbance… a situation which rolled itself into a second “free speech wall” later on.

In my humble opinion, if this university truly wanted to craft an effective social media policy, it would involve its users. By this I don’t just mean having reps from the student union sit on a committee, but I mean a large-scale public conversations over a period of time with all social media users at the institution.

Writing social media policies is tricky business. As this university found out, social media belongs to its users, not any one service or organization.

Policy makers are used to having all the authority when it comes to developing procedures, processes, and behaviour guidelines. Social media, social networking, flash mobs convened via Twitter and text and other forms of social interaction using technology have changed all that.

Power to the people has a whole new meaning in the era of social media. Policy-makers need to involve people, not tell them what to do. The old ways aren’t working any more, so find new ones that will.

Related article: Anatomy of a social media policy

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

How to Do a Screen Capture on Your Mac

October 24, 2011

Last week in the Build Your Own Webinar course that I’m teaching we were talking about the various ways to make your slides and handouts engaging. If you are demonstrating something technical, one of the ways to show people what you mean is to include a screen capture from your computer.

There are a number of Mac users in the course and one of them asked how to do a screen capture (also called a “screen shot”).

So, Jennifer, this one is for you.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Finding Our Way: Digital Technologies and E-Learning for Adult Literacy Students, Educators and Programs

October 23, 2011

Finding Our Way from Alpha Plus is a must-have resource for anyone working in adult literacy.

Written by Maria Moriarty, this literature review from 2005-2011 that looks at digital reading; digital skills and employment; learning disabilities and assistive technology; the digital divide; anywhere/anytime learning; collaborative learning; and professional development in technology for literacy educators.

It examines how technology has been used to enhance learning and professional development. It also asks the question: Where do we go from here?

The report includes some excellent discussion and carefully examines how technology is being integrated into literacy today.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

How the Military Promotes Language Learning

October 21, 2011

Dr. Sarah Eaton's blogThe U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) recently released an article about how they strive to preserve and promote language skills. The article talks about how the DOD trains thousands of employees a year in over two dozen languages. They make some interesting points such as:

Recruits often wait 2 or 3 years for assignments in a location requiring a foreign language, in order to get their skills up to snuff.

Language skills can atrophy over time. It’s a “use it or lose it” kind of thing.

The military uses a variety of means of teaching including face-to-face classes, distance education, video training, virtual classrooms and mobile learning teams.

The Defense Language Institute (DLI) has over 26 language training facilities around the world.

Last year the program provided 21,000 hours of instruction to nearly 1,300 students. That’s almost ten times what it provided in 2009, which was 2400 hours of instruction.

I find it ironic that while government ministries, school boards and universities are drastically slashing the budgets for language programs, the U.S. military has increased its language teaching programs dramatically. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that if those in charge of education invested in language training for younger students, that those students would become more employable in their early adult years?

Could it be that the military has more insight into the value of language learning than educational policy makers?

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

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