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Leading adult education through support for and the effective application of technology.

2017 News

What's Here?

Catch up on recent, and past Adult Education News.

The December Issue of OTAN's Administrators’ Digests is Available

The December issue of OTAN's Administrators' digest is available on the home page of the OTAN Web site.

TDLS Registration is Now Open for California Adult Educators

Symposium registration is now open!

Google Commits $1B in Grants to Train U.S. Workers for High-tech Jobs

The search giant has regularly expressed a desire to help stem some of that negative impact, and now it’s putting its money where its mouth is to the tune of $1 billion.

White House Advocates for Increased Focus on and Efforts to Expand STEM Education

The White House in September announced plans to spend $200 million a year on grants meant to boost STEM education in an effort to close a widening skills gap that, some say, has left Americans out of the running for scientific and technical jobs.

A Barrier Removed for Low-income Parents Seeking Education

There's a new law on the books in California that will remove a barrier for low-income parents aiming to access education.

Turning Your Students into Web Detectives

A recent study  from the Stanford History Education Group confirms that students today are generally pretty bad at evaluating the news and other information they see online.

National Skills Coalition Releases State Policy Toolkit

Many states have enacted policies to increase the scope of work-based learning that combines instruction at a worksite with classroom learning. Few of these state policies, however, focus on low-skilled populations of out-of-school youth or disadvantaged adults.

California Program Looks for Solutions to Skills Gap

A statewide program known as “SlingShot” aims to improve career opportunities and fill needed jobs The program is part of an employment initiative through the Workforce Development Board (CWDB).

How Listening to Podcasts Helps Students Read and Learn

High school English teacher Michael Godsey’s  favorite work by William Shakespeare is Hamlet.

Report: Most Educators are Aware of OER, Don’t Understand OER Licensing

A new report examines who the decision-makers are in curriculum adoptions and finds that a sizable percentage of schools have chosen open educational resources in the last three years.

Digital Promise Partners with Facebook to Offer Micro-credentials for Adult Learners

Digital skills are in high demand. According to a Burning Glass report, eight in 10 middle-skill level jobs require digital skills, such as online communication and productivity tools.

Adults and Community College Degrees

Adults are coming to community colleges seeking a different approach to education, says Jim Jacobs, and that will require institutions to pay attention to a few important design features.

The October Issue of OTAN's Administrators’ Digests is Available

The October issue of OTAN's Administrators' digest is available on the home page of the OTAN Web site. You may also access it directly using the link below:

How Teachers and Schools Can Help When Bad Stuff Happens

The following is an excerpt from the article. The full version can be accessed here.

EdTech Pilot Framework

It's the beginning of the year, there are new classes, new projects, new students and maybe even new equipment! It's an exciting (and exhausting) time of year. If you are looking for ways to successfully integrate and manage an edtech pilot, check out the "Edtech Pilot Framework" offered from Digital Promise.

The Learning Innovation Cycle: How Disruption Creates Lasting Change

Disruption is an interesting topic for the same reason that cowboys, gangsters, and villains are interesting. It’s unpredictable. Problematic. Against the grain.

10 Current and Emerging Trends in Adult Learning

What Do Harvey and Irma have to do with learning?When (what we thought were) once in five hundred year storms hit every other week, it suggests there is something new going on--and another sign that we live in a world where the unexpected is the norm.

The September Issue of OTAN's Teachers' Digest is Available

The September 2017 issue of OTAN's Teachers’ digest is available. The Teachers' Digest is a monthly online publication that features links to articles on the OTAN Web site, as well as links to interesting online resources and information featured by other adult education and education technology entities. Information about professional development opportunities offered by OTAN is also featured.

Why California is Investing Over $200 Million in Vocational Education

More Americans are going to college than ever before. The most recent census  found that 33.4 percent of adults over the age of 24 have earned a bachelor's degree or more.

Adult Education and Family Literacy Week

National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week raises public awareness about the need for and value of adult education and family literacy.

Newsela PRO license offer still available!

OTAN is offering up to 200 Newsela PRO licenses to adult education teachers who teach at a WIOA-funded school site. Licenses will be valid for the school year through June 30th, 2018.

Jobs for the Future and Persistence Plus Launch Initiative Using Behavioral Science to Help Students Complete Community College and Earn a STEM Degree

In August 2017, Jobs for the Future (JFF) and Persistence Plus launched Nudging to STEM Success, a joint initiative funded by the Helmsley Charitable Trust that leverages behavioral science and mobile technology to increase community college completion, particularly for STEM students.

CALPRO: Defining On-Ramps to Adult Career Pathways

As part of CALPRO’s monthly updates on research-based practices, featured below is a report that highlights a menu of career pathways ‘on-ramp’ services and partnerships that can be used to develop program models

OTAN Webinars for AEBG TAP

OTAN worked with AEBG Technical Assistance Project to share information on topics of educational technology in adult basic education. Please join us for the two webinars in September.

CALPRO: Integrated and Contextualized Workforce Skills Online Workshop Series

In September and October CALPRO is offering a series of online workshops on Integrated and Contextualized Workforce Skills.These interactive workshops are delivered entirely online and are free and open to any adult educators in California who are employed by WIOA, Title II: AEFLA-funded agencies.

A Conversation with an Adult Education Director: Ensuring Student Success through Guided Pathways

Jobs for the Future (JFF) is a national nonprofit that builds educational and economic opportunity for under-served populations in the United States.

Report: Educator Confidence in Technology Increasing

Sixty-five percent of educators expressed confidence in using digital technology in their classrooms, a 7 percent increase over last year, according to a recent survey commissioned by education and publishing company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH).

Annual IDEAL Institute August 22-23, 2017

The IDEAL Consortium, a project of the EdTech Center at World Education, Inc., is working to develop effective distance education programs for adult learners, raising the quality of blended and distance online learning across the United States through new educational technology innovations and collaborative research and practice.

CASAS Summer Institute 2017 California Consortium Meeting Notes Now Posted

The California Consortium Meeting at the CASAS National Summer Institute addressed opportunities and challenges the state is facing as it implements the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and Adult Education Block Grant (AEBG). Pat Rickard, CASAS President, began the Consortium by welcoming the meeting participants. Christian Nelson, Adult Education Office Administrator, and Javier Romero, Dean, California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, addressed the meeting participants.

Newsela PRO license offer

OTAN is offering up to 200 Newsela PRO licenses to adult education teachers who teach at a WIOA-funded school site.

CALPRO: Implementation of Accelerating Opportunity: Final Implementation Findings with Lessons from the Field

The Accelerating Opportunity (AO) initiative was developed to support students with low basic skills in their efforts to obtain credentials and well-paying jobs as well as sustain rewarding careers.

Lessons Learned from Supporting Student Success: Adult Education and Remedial Education Reform in Community Colleges

As part of OCTAE's Supporting Student Success project, Manhattan Strategy Group produced three videos demonstrating promising practices in adult education and developmental education alignment within community colleges.

Google and Digital Promise Reimagine Teacher Tech Training with New National Program

Google is giving Digital Promise a $6.5 million-dollar grant to research and implement a professional development model that uses coaches to help teachers optimize the use of technological resources in classrooms.

Evaluating Digital Learning for Adult Basic Literacy and Numeracy

Can digital learning technologies increase the capacity of ABE programs by providing more efficient and effective learning opportunities to better serve the adult learning needs in their communities?

Serving Immigrant Families through Two-Generation Programs: Identifying Family Needs and Responsive Program Approaches

By addressing the needs of poor or low-income parents and their children simultaneously, two-generation programs have great potential to uplift whole families and break cycles of intergenerational poverty. Generally speaking these programs seek to weave together high-quality early learning opportunities for children with initiatives directed at their parents, including adult education, workforce training, parenting skills, and other supports that strengthen family stability and thereby improve the children’s chances of lifelong success.

Field Testing Cities Announced in the Adult Literacy XPRIZE

The global leader in designing and operating world-changing incentive competitions, today announced eight semifinalist teams are advancing in the $7M Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE presented by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, a global competition challenging teams to develop mobile applications for existing smart devices that result in the greatest increase in literacy skills among participating adult learners.

XPrize Semi-finalists Announced

Semi-finalists were announced this week for the Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPrize , a global competition in which 109 teams competed to develop mobile applications for smart devices that result in the greatest increase in literacy skills among participating adult learners in just 12 months.

5 tips to get started with technology planning

Whether your school, district or state has a stand-alone educational technology plan or integrates this plan into its cycle of improvement planning, it’s good to start with the essentials.

I-DEA National Conferences Announced

Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges is pleased to offer four regional Integrated Digital English Acceleration (I-DEA) training conferences around the country.

Beyond the unemployment rate: Meet the out-of-work

Brookings Metro shows the diversity of jobless adults at the local level and offers strategies to connect them to employment.

The Five Principles of Adult Learning Pioneered by Malcolm Knowles

In her article on Thought.Co Deb Peterson explains that the teacher of adults has a different job from the one who teaches children. If you're teaching adult students, for the best results it's important to understand and practice five principles espoused by Malcolm Knowles, a pioneer in the study of adult learning. He observed that adults learn best when...

Center for Law and Social Policy Report on AEBG Implementation Released

The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), a national, nonpartisan, anti-poverty organization, released Prosperity Through Partnership: Opportunities for AEBG to Strengthen Systems and Communities.

Integrated Education and Training: A Career Pathways Policy & Practice

his report by Judy Mortrude, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), published in April 2017 summarizes the findings of a national survey of adult education providers that the Center for Law and Social Policy and the Texas Workforce Commission conducted to learn more about Integrated Education and Training (IET) models, funding mechanisms, and partnerships across the country.

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OTAN activities are funded by contract CN220124 from the Adult Education Office, in the Career & College Transition Division, California Department of Education, with funds provided through Federal P.L., 105-220, Section 223. However, OTAN content does not necessarily reflect the position of that department or the U.S. Department of Education.