1

Volume 8, Issue 3

FALL 2008

The Arkansas Adult

Learning Resource

Center provides equal

access to all programs

and activities.

The Department of Workforce Education, Adult Education Division, has

developed distance education policies. Pilot projects will begin January

1, 2009 and run through June 30, 2009. A program must be an approved

pilot site in order to receive credit for the distance education hours. This

program is likely to expand to include more programs after the initial pilot

program phase.

Definition: Distance education is a formal

learning activity where students and instruc-

tors are separated by geography, time or

both for the majority of the instructional pe-

riod. Distance learning materials are deliv-

ered by proxy through a variety of media in-

cluding, but not limited to, print, audio re-

cording, videotape, broadcasts, computer

software, web-based programs and other

online technology. Teachers support dis-

tance learners through communication via mail, telephone, e-mail, face-to

-face meetings on-site, or online technologies and software. For NRS

reporting, programs must designate the student as either a distance edu-

cation student or traditional classroom learner. The Arkansas model for

distance education is a blended one that combines distance learning with

limited face-to-face interaction. Intake, orientation, pre-test and post-

tests will occur in a face-to-face setting. Distance education may also in-

clude face-to-face contact to provide additional support for the student.

Instructors must assign work and set timelines for completion of assign-

ments during a face-to-face meeting with the student or through commu-

nication via media.

Measurement of Contact and Proxy Hours: Distance education stu-

dents must have at least 12 contact hours (face-to-face) to be counted for

federal reporting. Proxy hours are to be documented by the instructor

according to the approved Arkansas Adult Education Distance Education

Instructional Hours Rubric.

Student rosters must be maintained by the distance education instructor

containing the names of all enrollees. A record of all assignments made

for a distance education student must be maintained by the instructor.

Student logs must be kept by the instructor indicating the proxy hours

awarded for distance learning for each completed lesson/assignment. In

the reporting of proxy distance education hours, it is the completed num-

ber of instructional hours that determines the amount of hours entered

into the state-approved data management system.

Arkansas Adult Learning

Resource Center

3905 Cooperative Way,

Suite D

Little Rock, AR 72209

Phone: 800-832-6242

501-907-2490

FAX: 501-907-2492

http://www.aalrc.org

Continued on page 3

Adult Education Distance Education Policy

2

Adult Learning Network

Governor

Mike Beebe

State Board of

Workforce

Education

and Career

Opportunities

Director,

William L. “Bill"

Walker, Jr.

Division of

Rehabilitation

Services

Robert Trevino

Division of

Adult Education

Jim Smith

Division of Career

& Technical

Education

John Davidson

Communications

Reginald Jackson

Human Resources

& Development

Pam Harris

Finance

Charles Brown

NOTICE:

When a workshop has a waiting

list, participants may not send sub-

stitutes from their center to attend

in their place. Registrations are

held for participants and not for

centers.

If you are unable to attend a work-

shop for which you have regis-

tered, please go online to ESC

Web and cancel your registration.

Participants are often placed on

waiting lists because workshops fill

up quickly. After you cancel, ESC

Web will send an email to the first

person in line on the waiting list.

Calendar

All events are at the AALRC unless otherwise noted.

http://www.escweb.net/ar_esc/

Please remember that the AALRC is

now using ESC Web for all work-

shop/training registrations. Tips, tricks,

and hints may be found on the AALRC

web site at:

http://www.aalrc.org/profdev/ESCWeb.

doc

.

If you are still having trouble, you can

always call the AALRC at 1-800-832-

6242 or 1-501-907-2490.

Workshops:

October

6 – Distance Learning Pilot Project Participants

7 – Leadership Excellence Academy – Crowne Plaza Little Rock

10 – USCIS Citizenship Workshop – Northwest AR Community College

14-15 – Dream Weaver – 2-day Workshop Session ID: 82896

16 – GED Examiners Annual Statewide Workshop – Pulaski Technical

College – North Little Rock Session ID: 81545

20-22 – Learning Disabilities Comprehensive Session 2

27-29 – Literacy Task Analysis (LTA) - Session 1 Session ID: 82787

Meetings/Events:

October 23-24 – WAGE Retreat – Red Apple Inn – Eden Isle

November 8 – Delta Classic 4 Literacy – War Memorial Stadium – Little Rock

November 20-21 – Adult Ed. Advisory Council – AR NE College – Blytheville

December 5 – WAGE Committee

January 18 – ALC, Inc. Board Meeting

January 22-23 – Adult Ed. Advisory Council – TBA

November

5-6 – LD Comp – Session 3

12 – Computer Security & Conser-

vation Session ID: 82788

13 – Movie Maker

Session ID: 82789

18-19 – LD Comp – Session 4

December

2 – Inspiration Session ID: 82947

9 – LD Comp – Session 5

10 – PowerPoint Session ID: 82791

11 – Computer Basics

Session ID: 82792

15-16 – LTA – Session 2

3

Adult Learning Network

8th Annual ESL Institute

different countries around the world. He recently wrote an online course entitled .Communicative

Activities for the ESL/EFL Classroom. for Thompson Heinle Publishing Company (2007). Addi-

tionally, Mr. Keating has authored an ESL grammar series, GrammarWise, published by New

Readers Press (2004). He is a frequent speaker at statewide, regional, and international confer-

ences. Mr. Keating’s workshop was entitled .Communicative Activities for the Adult ESL Class-

room. and included a 75-page workbook with hundreds of activities and teaching techniques, com-

piled specially for Arkansas. Mr. Keating was enthusiastically received by the ESL teachers at the

Institute!

Assessment and Reporting: All pre-test and post-test procedures, including proctoring, site, and

administration, must adhere to the current Arkansas NRS for Adult Education Guidelines.

Qualifications of Provider: Only distance education programs approved by the Department of

Workforce Education Adult Education Section shall be eligible to report distance education stu-

dents and hours.

Student requirements:

Grade level minimums: ABE High Intermediate (6.0-8.9) or ESL Low Intermediate as marked in

student data management system by lowest TABE or BEST score

Hours to maintain: 20 hours monthly

Contact to maintain: weekly contact

Curriculum: Only resources listed on the Arkansas Adult Education Distance Education Instruc-

tional Hours Rubric shall be used for distance education purposes. Credit of proxy hours shall fol-

low the rubric guidelines for instructional hours awarded.

Continued from page 1

Adult Education Distance Education Policy

The 8th Annual Arkansas ESL Summer Institute was

held at the AALRC from July 14th to 16th. Forty-eight

participants from 25 different adult education and liter-

acy programs attended the intensive three days of

teacher training.

This summer’s trainer was Kevin Keating from the Uni-

versity of Arizona in Tucson. Mr. Keating has taught

ESL for more than thirty-six years in thirteen

Directory Changes

Please make the following changes in your Arkansas Adult Education & Literacy Services

Directory:

Page 37 Texarkana Adult Ed. Center — Street Address: 710 East St.

Page 52: Fort Smith Adult Ed Center — Phone Number: (479) 785-1232

Page 52: Cossatot Community College U of A — Street address: 183 Hwy 399

4

Adult Learning Network

News from the Disabilities Project Manager

Teaching Students With Vision Loss or Impairment

The AALRC has recently experienced a noticeable increase in the number of programs requesting

assistive technology and instructional guidelines for teaching students who are blind or have low-

vision. If you have a student who is blind or has low-vision, this article provides resources that

may help.

According to the introduction at

www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/text/vision_impair.html

, there are two

main categories of visual impairments: Low Vision and Blind. Low-vision students usually use

print, but may require special equipment and/or materials. The definition of legal blindness covers

a broad spectrum of visual impairments. The extent of visual disability depends upon the physical

sensory impairment of the student's eyes, the age of the student at the onset of vision impairment,

and the way in which that impairment occurred. Vision also may be influenced by factors such as

inappropriate lighting, light glare, or fatigue. Hence, there is no "typical" student with vision impair-

ments. The major challenge facing this student population is the overwhelming mass of visual ma-

terial to which they are continually exposed in textbooks, class outlines, class schedules, chalk-

boards, writing, etc. In addition, the increase in the use of videotapes and computers adds to the

volume of visual material to which they have only limited access. Overcoming a student’s visual

limitation requires unique and individual strategies based on that student's particular visual impair-

ment and his/her skill of communication (e.g., Braille, speed listening, etc.).

How can the AALRC help. First, the AALRC library has several devices designed specifically for

this population’s special learning needs. To request any of these materials, contact Klaus Neu at

klaus@aalrc.org

or 800.832.6242.

CCTV/Video Magnifiers (2) Video magnifiers consist of a

video camera connected to some type of monitor such as a

computer monitor. Materials can be placed under the camera

and an enlarged image of the material is displayed on the

monitor. The user adjusts a zoom lens to enlarge the image

to the desired size. Other features such as color, dark text on

a light background or light text on a dark background, and

auto-focusing enhance the user's efficiency when performing

literacy tasks. The AALRC owns one high-tech CCTV called

My Reader, which scans reading material for display, allowing

the student to read without physically moving the material

around below the magnifier.

Ken-a-Vision Magnifier, which looks like a gooseneck lamp,

but it’s a camera instead of a light bulb. Point it at anything

and it displays the image on a computer monitor or TV so it’s

bigger. You can adjust the size to REALLY big for enlarging

text or graphics.

Continued on page 5

5

Adult Learning Network

AALRC

Advisory

Committee

Dubs Byers,

Chair,

Pine Bluff

Emily Barrier,

Little Rock

Carrie Boden,

Little Rock

Janie Carter,

Crossett

Richard

Hampton,

Texarkana

Tara Harrison,

North Little

Rock

Becky Linsky,

Hot Springs

Billy Upson,

Texarkana

Nancy

Whitmire,

Vice-Chair,

Batesville

Ruth Ann

Williams,

Conway

JAWS

®

for Windows

®

software, the most popular screen reader

worldwide, JAWS

®

for Windows

®

works with PCs to provide access to

today’s software applications and the Internet. With its internal software

speech synthesizer and the computer’s sound card, information from

the screen is read aloud, providing technology to access a wide variety

of information, education and job related applications. Many students

who are blind will already be familiar with this software and how to use

it.

Electronic Handheld Magnifiers (2), for

students who need occasional magnifica-

tion of detailed graphics or other informa-

tion. Not good for reading entire pages or

books.

Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic Audio Textbooks, available for

students in Arkansas Adult Education and Literacy programs statewide

through a contract with the AALRC. Programs may request specific au-

dio books for instruction, and this works best if the requested books are

those already available in the program, so students who have low-vision

may refer to magnified graphics in the textbooks when needed. When

requested, the AALRC will provide the audio books and the CD player

necessary for listening to the Daisy-formatted books.

Audio and Large-Print GED Practice Tests and TABE 9 & 10 Tests,

for students who will need one or both of those accommodated formats

to pass the GED tests.

In addition to the resources available through the AALRC library, don’t for-

get the widely acclaimed ReadPlease software, a free text-to-speech

screen reader available at

www.readplease.com

for students who benefit

from hearing text on the computer read out loud. With variable speed con-

trol, a choice of both voices and font size, it is a .must-download. for every

program whose students do work on computers and benefit from auditory

processing.

For further information regarding instructional and testing guidelines,

please go to

www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/text/vision_impair.html

which in-

cludes the following categories of guidelines: General Courtesy, General

Strategies, Teacher Presentation, Laboratory, Group Interaction and Dis-

cussion, Reading, Field Experience, Research, and Testing.

News from the Disabilities Project Manager

Continued from page 4

6

Adult Learning Network

AALRC Staff

Director

Marsha Taylor

___________________

Administrative

Assistant

Wanda Johnson

Professional

Development

Coordinator

Nancy Loftis

Media

Coordinator

Klaus Neu

Secretary

Toccara Pearson

Information

Technology

Specialist

Rob Pollan

Disabilities

Project

Manager

Patti White

News from the Disabilities Project Manager

Learning Disabilities Annual Report

Each year, Arkansas Adult Education and Literacy programs are required

to submit an annual report regarding their services for students with learn-

ing disabilities. This year, the results of the statewide report are as

follows:

Although the data collected is less than comprehensive or complete, it’s

worthy of a few observations.

First, some programs are still confused about which students to report un-

der .Students with LD Served,. and include the students who self-report

during intake, but have no formal evaluation documentation. For the pur-

poses of this report, programs should report only those students who have

the formal evaluation documentation. This number will probably be differ-

ent from the AERIS number, which includes students who self-report a

learning disability, but may never have been actually diagnosed.

Of the 107 students reported as .referred for LD diagnosis,. only 10 asked

for AALRC funding for the diagnostic services. This can mean several

things: (1) The referral process with Arkansas Rehabilitation Services is

working well in most places; (2) some programs have local psychologists

who volunteer their services for adult education programs; and/or (3) some

students are able to pay for their own diagnosis. Whatever the reason, it’s

wonderful that the referral system is working so well and with so few

barriers.

If your program has any questions about data collection for this annual re-

port, or if you would like assistance with making referrals for students who

may need accommodations for learning disabilities to pass the GED tests,

please contact Patti White at

prwhite@madisoncounty.net

or call

800.569.3539.

Number

of

programs

Reports

received

Students

referred

for LD

diagno-

sis

Students

with LD

served

Students

approved for

GED accommo-

dations for LD

Students with

LD

accommo-

dated during

instruction

100

40

107 623

64

511

7

Adult Learning Network

Tech

Talk

Note: To link to any web address (URL) in this newsletter, go the AALRC's home page at

http://aalrc.org

, look up this newsletter, and then just click on the appropriate link.

Online Backup

Are your documents safe. What

about those years of pictures you

have stored on your hard drive.

What about your email and Inter-

net Explorer favorites. Hopefully

you have some kind of backup of

your important data already and

you backup on a regular basis.

But what happens when a storm

hits and lightning not only blows

out your computer but it gets your

backup device too. And then

there are fires, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, and thieves that can cause you to lose everything. If

you have everything backed up to an online service, your data is safe and can be easily accessed

from another computer. The sites listed below are all free and easy to use; just take the time to

backup now before it’s too late. And once you have it all setup, you can schedule it to make auto-

matic backups so you won’t have to worry about it again.

FAQ

Flash Drive Backup

Another easy way to make backups of your data is to use an USB Flash Drive

(UFD). You can pick up a 4 gig flash drive for as little as $20. Using one of

these as a backup is easy, just insert it into a USB slot and copy the files to the

drive. Then you can take the drive off-site and store it, or copy the files to an-

other computer and use that as your backup. They are cheap enough that you

can store one drive in a safe place and then use another drive for everyday use.

For detailed information on how to backup to a flash drive, see this link:

http://www.wellesley.edu/Computing/Flashdrive/

Is online backup really safe. Yes, your data is encrypted before, dur-

ing and after it is sent to highly secured servers.

Will I be able to access my data from another computer. Yes,

some online storage systems will let you access your data through a

web browser like Internet Explorer. Others will require an install of a

program that can be found online that will allow you to access your files.

Free Online Backup Sites

iDrive

http://www.idrive.com/

Free – 2 Gigabytes of storage –

this one is my favorite

Xdrive

http://www.xdrive.com/

Free- 5 Gigabytes of storage

Mozy

http://mozy.com/

Free – 2 Gigabytes – Home use only

8

Adult Learning Network

Samders Joins ALC Staff

The first of this fiscal year has signaled changes for Arkansas Literacy

Councils (ALC). ALC is no longer sponsoring the Arkansas Literary

Festival as of July 1, but has been working closely with the festival's

new "parent" - the Central Arkansas Library System. ALC has been

working closely with the library staff to ensure the festival will have a

smooth transition in time for the 2009 event.

Also as of July 1, the ALC development director position that was in

place to coordinate the festival was eliminated and a program coordi-

nator position was created. The ALC Board of Directors and staff are

now able to focus solely on the services and support it provides to its network of literacy councils.

Belinda Sanders of Little Rock was named as the new Program Coordinator at ALC and began

her duties August 15. Belinda has over ten years' experience in working with two national service

programs in Arkansas: the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) Ameri-

Corps program through Arkansas Children's Hospital, and the Little Rock City Year program.

This national service experience will greatly benefit ALC as it enters its fifth year of its AmeriCorps

program, "Arkansas Reads." Belinda is charged with coordinating the day-to-day administration of

the program, which will have 40 half-time members serving 23 literacy councils throughout the

state.

Belinda will also work with ALC Executive Director Marie Bruno and Office/Finance Manager

Grace Morrissey with the coordination and management of projects that support the councils, such

as establishing an e-newsletter, managing the ALC Web site, building a stronger structure for

council tutor training, and assisting with data collection and processing related to ALC's public and

private grant requirements.

Belinda is a native of Arkadelphia. She earned an Associate's Degree in Early Childhood Devel-

opment from Little Rock's Capital City Junior College in 1989.

Belinda Sanders

Garland Hankins Award

The Garland Hankins Award is given annually to a an Arkansas GED recipient who has used the

GED as a stepping stone for success or can serve as a spokesperson for Adult Education Pro-

grams in Arkansas. It is selected by the Arkansas Association for Administrator’s of Adult Educa-

tion (AAAAE). Last year’s recipient was Hubert Brodell, former mayor of Jonesboro. Mr. Brodell

served as mayor for 18 years with an 8

th

grade education. He worked hard to receive his GED

from the Valley View Adult Education Center in 2007 at the age of 72. Mr. Brodell still serves as a

positive advocate for adult education.

This year’s recipient is Kyle O’Connor. Kyle obtained his GED at the Ouachita Area Adult Educa-

tion Program in Malvern and used it to get into the military to support his young child. While in ba-

sic training, Kyle sent several letters of encouragement to the adult education classes in Malvern.

After a two-week visit home this summer, several students came back to classes saying that Kyle

had told them to come back and finish like he did. Kyle is a member of the 39

th

Infantry and is

serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.

Kyle was unfortunately not present to receive his award. It was given to his mother, Charlene

Steele of Malvern at a ceremony in conjunction with the Arkansas Association of Continuing and

Adult Education (AACAE) annual meeting in North Little Rock on October 1, 2008.