For our next Distance Education Strategy Session on November 12, 2021 at 1PM EST, Jeff Goumas will present on the EdTech Integration Strategy Toolkit, which is chock full of effective edtech routines rooted in evidence-based strategies, along with over 1,000 curated digital skills learning activities crowdsourced by educators as part of our Spring 2021 EdTech Maker Space! We’ll discuss ways to use the toolkit, as well as upcoming opportunities for you to contribute to what we hope will be a growing, go-to resource for adult educators. For our second presentation, we'll hear from USA Learns Director Andrea Willis on the latest updates to make the free USA Learns platform optimized for mobile users and learn how Garden Grove Adult Education's ESL teacher Alisa Takeuchi uses the site with her beginning level students.

Have you found video lessons helpful, but perhaps targeted towards the wrong audience for your students? If so, you’re in luck! You are invited to use and share this (these) contextualized video lesson resource(s) created by Texas adult educators for adult education students everywhere. Influenced by the fictitious lives of five students, and their desire to upskill their way to better jobs and careers with our fictitious hospital (AdultEdMed), adult educators will be provided with 40 short video lessons (20 in English and 20 in Spanish) tackling subjects like Digital Literacy and English Language Proficiency, along with complete lesson plans and resources for both teachers and students alike. All video lessons and resources can be found at www.adultedmed.com. This project was sponsored by a State Leadership grant from the Texas Workforce Commission Adult Education & Literacy Division through Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy & Learning (TCALL).

We want to know what resources, initiatives, and needs exist for teaching digital skills. Digital Resilience in the American Workforce (DRAW) is an initiative from JFF and World Education, with support from The Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), to better prepare adult education practitioners to support learners who struggle to fully engage in digital tasks. Through DRAW, we will provide the field with flexible, evidence-based, and piloted strategies and materials that help adult education practitioners build the digital literacy skills and digital resilience of adult learners. The questionnaire will close this Friday, November 5th.

This post provides an overview of the newly “soft-launched” release of the EdTech Center’s EdTech Integration Strategy Toolkit, a free app designed to help teachers consider strategic integration of edtech based on routines they wish to leverage, tools they wish to use, or digital skills they wish to develop. Learn how you can download the toolkit in advance of our November 12th Distance Ed Strategy Session where we’ll share our first public overview of the app.

ISTE’s SkillRise initiative has initiated a new peer-learning opportunity for professionals in adult education and workforce development. From November 2021- April 2022, adult and workforce learning professionals can register to join the workforce development cohort of @ISTE Loop, a free platform that matches people with shared interests who otherwise might not connect. This cohort is specifically for anyone supporting adult learners and job seekers who are building the skills needed for educational and professional success, including practitioners from adult education, workforce development, and also government and nonprofit agencies. Learn more about Loop. If you have any questions or comments about @ISTE Loop, please email SkillRise Project Manager, Joey Lehrman, at jlehrman@ISTE.org.