Bob Wessel Eastern Shore Literacy Council www.shoreliteracy.org Using Technology in Instruction in a Small, Rural, Community-Based Nonprofit Bob Wessel Eastern Shore Literacy Council www.shoreliteracy.org

The Mandate (de facto) a small community-based literacy organization in an impoverished rural area must prepare learners to participate in a 21st century reality

The Challenges virtually no Internet access at teaching sites severely limited funds for instructional hardware and software severely limited expertise in 21st century skills copyright encumbrances

Must Make Do with What Is Available laptops purchased with grants (ad hoc) inexpensive gadgets (MP3 players, blank CDs/DVDs) free software tutors’ own hardware, software, Internet learners’ own devices

One Solution: Develop In-House Materials use familiar or easily-learned software target to specific learner and community needs teach learners about the places they live, in conjunction with traditional content make adaptable to multiple teaching situations organization owns the materials

An Example

The Example a talking picture storybook content driven technology a means to publish and share module more cheaply and easily than with paper

Workflow for Creating this Module take photos with point-and-shoot camera supplement photos with Creative Commons photos and screenshots (free) crop images to standard dimensions with PhotoScape (free) use free presentation software to create storyboard and add text export storyboard slides to .jpeg images record and edit story narration with Audacity (free) use Windows Movie Maker to first merge .jpg images and audio, and then create video (free)

Getting the Module to the Learner ESLC website: for use wherever learner has access to Internet-connected device (home, library, school) learner’s smartphone (convert with FreeMake Video Converter or Any Video Converter) MP3 player or car stereo (strip audio and convert with FreeMake or AVC) TV DVD player (FreeMake Video Converter)

Sample TV DVD Menu

After Tutors Are Trained have learners take pictures of their towns work with learners to develop instructional modules about their towns if learners accents are understandable, have them record audio; otherwise, record it for them

After Tutors Are Trained have learners post videos to ESLC website, as part of ESLC library (and their portfolio) (www.shoreliteracy.org/tutorBlog) if they wish, have learners upload videos to YouTube, to show their families in their home countries where they live and what they’ve learned to do

Links for Free Software Audacity: audacityteam.org (also download and install Lame MP3 Encoder and LADSPA plug-ins) PhotoScape: www.photoscape.org Any Video Converter*: http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Links for Free Software Freemake*: www.freemake.com (*Come with junkware. When installing, choose “expert” options and uncheck everything. Do not agree to any third-party software.) Gadwin PrintScreen: www.gadwin.com/printscreen

Links for Free Presentation Software SoftMaker Office (Academic License): http://www.softmaker.com/english/education_en.htm Apache OpenOffice: www.openoffice.org LibreOffice: www.libreoffice.org

Other Links Eastern Shore Literacy Council Tutor Blog (contains tutorials on how to use many of these software tools): www.shoreliteracy.org/tutorBlog Creative Commons (About the Licenses): creativecommons.org/licenses