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Speaker: Digital learning practices. What digital learning models benefit adult learners?

Courtney McMahon: I'm Courtney McMahon, and I am a learning director at Clovis Adult Education. Online classes are great for flexibility, and we're excited to start offering those. We allow students a flexible schedule. And on top of it, they're able to learn from home.

Ryan De La Vega: My name is Ryan De La Vega. My title is ESL Resource Teacher. So I'm the leader of the department. And I work at Torrance Adult School in Torrance, California. We're experimenting with all different kinds of models, HyFlex, hybrid, and 100% online at 100% face to face. One class we're just calling it a modified HyFlex where we have two days face-to-face in the classroom with the teacher and two days online where the teacher is teaching just like they did at the beginning of the pandemic, 100% internet, online, video conferencing where the teacher can put students in breakout rooms and they can work together as a group or a team towards a common goal.

Kerry Marini: I'm Kerry Marini, and I am the lead teacher for Adult Secondary Education in Folsom Cordova Unified School District. For virtual learning, it's really convenient for a lot of our students who are working, they have families, and they're juggling a lot of things at once. So students who have some computer basic skills to begin with find that it's to their best interest because they can work on their schoolwork at any time.

The blended learning, I think, is the most popular at our school site because students have the ability to meet with their teacher in person. And then they're also able to go home and work independently online at their own pace or with specific deadlines to meet.

Alisa Takeuchi: My name is Alisa Takeuchi. I am an ESL instructor for Garden Grove Adult Education. I am also a remote ESL teacher for Tamalpais Adult School. And I'm a subject matter expert for OTAN. I've been really lucky in that I've been able to do many different learning models. I've done the distance learning. And we've done the hybrid. And now we're actually doing the HyFlex, which is simultaneous instruction. And so with distance learning, right now my students are engaged with a program. And so they'll do that asynchronously.

And so with the hybrid, then I will teach it in class and then we'll go ahead and we'll utilize that for supplemental learning afterwards. And then in class with the HyFlex, then I'm able to use a lot of digital tools with the students, both in class and online at the same time.

Speaker: How has digital learning transformed adult education?

Kerry Marini: I had students who were not familiar with using a computer or being online and very hesitant. So I would use a document camera to visually show students my screen where I was clicking, what I was doing, and then they could follow me with a little more confidence in what they were doing.

Ryan De La Vega: At first everything went 100% online. We're in quarantine. It was like pulling teeth at first with both teachers and students. But since then they embraced it. They've learned the convenience of it. Just working online has broken down educational barriers for those people who have child care issues and people who have transportation issues. And we can actually put more students in a video conferencing classroom than we can in a physical classroom. So we can serve more students this way.

Alisa Takeuchi: We are able to overcome a lot of things that we didn't know that we could. Teachers and students, they really can learn when they didn't think they could. And as long as it's appropriate and it's at a good speed and it's step by step and there's patience involved, I think anybody can learn anything.

Speaker: Why are digital literacy skills so important for adult learners?

Kerry Marini: Digital learning helped students become lifelong learners and now they have the tools to go out and investigate and delve into things that might interest them where before they were more limited.

Ryan De La Vega: Digital literacy or resilience is the matter of being able to step up to a piece of technology and have somewhat of a basic knowledge of what to do with it. Especially today with our mobile devices in our pocket, we have these pocket computers, people are becoming much more literate at clicking, dragging, typing, all the things. Before it used to be just on a big computer. So now it's in the palm of our hands.

For us and in education, I think it's extremely important because it's not only a life skill, but it's also a workforce skill. So if you get a job you're going to need to know some basics about how to use spreadsheets, documents, slides, and be familiar with the computer so that when you sit-in front of it you're not afraid of it. So definitely very important to our adult education students.

Courtney McMahon: I think it's important for educators to not be afraid of technology. Everything is new, everything is different, and I know it's a constant learning process. I think here at Clovis Adult, we pride ourselves on making sure that we're constantly learning and we're telling our students that they need to constantly be learning. And I know technology can be scary, but truly it makes things more efficient, more effective. And it allows for our students to be better prepared when they go out into the workforce.

Alisa Takeuchi: Making it practical for the students is really important too. We shouldn't be teaching them things that may not be relevant for them outside of the classroom. But navigating systems or using their phones more, I think would really be helpful. Back in the day, we used to say no phones in the classroom.

But now we're at that point it's like, yeah, pull out your phone. Let's go ahead and start exploring some of the things that you can do with your phones and using that beyond the classroom so that you are successful with going to school or getting a new job or family life. And those are the things that are going to make students feel like they're OK with technology. And then they can move on to other things as well.

Speaker: Development of the guidance was made possible by the California Department of Education, Adult Education Office through Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Title II Funds. The videos were produced by the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network at Sacramento County, Office of Education in partnership with the International Society for Technology and Education.

To find more resources for implementing digital learning in adult education, please visit the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network website at otan.us.

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