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OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Francisco Pinedo: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this session, California Adult Education Digital Learning Guidance presented by OTAN. And here in the room I have Christina Hyatt.

Christina Hyatt: I am from Corona-Norco Unified School.

Francisco Pinedo: And online, we have John Fleischman.

John Fleischman: Good morning, everyone.

Francisco Pinedo: And myself Francisco Pinedo from Soledad Adult school and an OTAN subject matter expert. So welcome to this session. Welcome to the session people who are joining us virtually. And thank you for joining us virtually. So today, we're going to be talking about the Digital Learning guidance, or as many of us refer to as the guidance or the guidance document, which was recently published. And it is on the OTAN website. So many-- I've had a few people ask me where is this document at, where is it? I'm like it's on the OTAN website. And also if I could just put you in a plug. Next week I'll be doing a Ted Talk about this subject as well. So maybe, for those of you who are online and want to share this information. Next Friday, I'm doing a Ted Talk on this subject as well.

John Fleischman: So again, good morning, everyone. Francisco said he's a OTAN subject matter expert. I'm an old time adult educator. I've been around for many, many years involved in adult Ed. As a matter of fact, in 1989, I started OTAN. I'm amazed that it's gone for this many years. It's fascinating how much things have changed over the past 20, 30 years. But things really accelerated during the pandemic. And it was really stressful for a lot of adult educators, even more so for K-12 educators. And there was a fair amount of learning loss.

In some ways, we were fortunate with adult Ed because we've been doing distance learning for a period of time and online learning. But still there were many adult educators that were ill-equipped. And likewise, many learners that were really ill-equipped. The State Director of Adult education spoke with Renee, the OTAN director. And there was some discussion about what do we need to do, what can we do to help adult educators along. And the idea was to develop a guidance document to take what we know and to provide guidance to adult educators in all aspects of digital and online learning. Next slide, please.

So this was the team that put together. Renee Collins, who's the director of Adult Ed Scoe and oversees OTAN. Penny Pearson, a colleague I worked with for many years. Neda who you all know and I'm sure is very present at the TDLS. And I was asked to come back and assist with the guidance document. There is something, I guess, about this age of experience and the wisdom of having done something for so long. But we very wisely hooked up with ISTE.

And they have really made a foray into adult Ed, which I couldn't be more pleased. There are wonderful organization. They do great international conferences. So we had these folks that were involved, which you can see on the screen. Caitlin McLemore did a lot of the heavy lifting. And she's really brilliant. She doesn't have a super strong background in adult Ed, but she sure picked up on it quickly. And obviously, we involve the other leadership projects because they have a lot of expertise among them. So CASAS was actively involved, CALPRO and WestED. Next slide, please.

So, hey, look, I know you guys can't read these names. But what it does is it gives you a sense of the depth and breadth of the guidance that we took from the field, the advisory group. There are people from ESL, AB basic skills, high school subjects, career work. It really covered the gamut. And it was really all levels and program areas. Both community colleges and K-12. So the advisory was actively involved. I believe there were three meetings during the year. They read drafts. They provided feedback and so on. So we really do appreciate the inputs from the advisory. I think the document really reflects the expertise and the broad degree of expertise across California. Next, please.

Carolyn Zachry: You know I hate this. Why is it paused right there, John?

[laughing]

John Fleischman: I'm sorry. I didn't hear that.

Christina Hyatt: Carolyn wants you to fix her front picture there.

John Fleischman: Oh. [chuckles] Well, Carolyn Zachary, there's been a lot of leaders in adult ed in California over the years. Carolyn really embraces the work of the leadership projects and really, I think, understands the role of technology in supporting adult ed.

So part of what we did is we did videotapes-- and I'll discuss that more in a moment. But go ahead and play this short clip. And Carolyn--

[video playback]

- --Dr. Carolyn Zachry. And I am the education administrator and state director for the California Department of Education, overseeing the Adult Education Office. Adult educators are looking for a roadmap that will help them to continue what they have put into place over the last two years. This guide will help reinforce areas of strength that they have seen and they've been able to adapt.

But the guide will also give them additional tools to ensure that they're meeting students' accessibility needs, that they are looking at other ways of instruction. Perhaps they're used to doing synchronous only, and they're going to dive into that idea of doing something asynchronously. That's where I really think this guide will help those educators throughout the state of California to move beyond what they've been doing and to make it part of their normal practice of using technology and online instruction.

[end playback]

John Fleischman: I think Dr. Zachry does a nice job in summarizing the overall purpose. Like I said before, it is a very comprehensive guide. But the role of the adult ed office at CDE is extremely critical in rolling out guidance like this.

Again, it's not policy. It's guidance. And there is a difference between policy and guidance. But ultimately, guidance does inform policy. So in many ways, this is a key document as we continue to move down the road with online and distance learning. Next slide, please.

[video playback]

- I am Dr. Carolyn Zachry--

[end playback]

John Fleischman: Whoops. We got that one again. There you go. So there are seven chapters to the overall guidance. The first one is an introduction, which provides a good overview-- the purpose, the audience, the history of distance learning in California, and a brief summary of the lit review.

Chapter 2 talks about devices, connectivity, understanding learners' needs, accessibility, and universal design for learning. Chapter 3 goes into adult learning theory, standards, distance learning. Chapter 5 is models of digital learning, planning, and reporting.

Chapter 6 is all about assessment. And I think you know who had a real hand in that was CASAS and goes into the purposes, the advantages, and various testing modalities. And I think that's still an emerging area. We still have a lot to learn about distance-based assessment. And then chapter 7 focuses on community building, social-emotional learning, educator well-being, and digital citizenship. Next slide, please.

One of the things that I think brings this guidance to life, it's not just a printed document. Initially, it was posted as a PDF. Last month, it was posted in full HTML. But really, what helps bring it to life are the videos and vignettes that were created as part of the process.

But the idea of the video is just to get educators excited about the guidance, wanting to learn more, and brings the content to life. Interviews were conducted around California-- four state-level administrators, seven California adult educators, site leaders-- and recorded at three different locations. So we did, I think, both Northern California, Central, and Southern California-- Hacienda La Puente, which is my old stomping grounds in Southern California. Next slide.

I had my hand in doing a K-12 guidance document before we created this adult ed one. And one of the things that the State Board of Education said, you know, we really enjoyed hearing from actual educators. And so we followed that format and did 18 written vignettes that are interspersed throughout the guidance.

Programs covered the gamut from small to large and representing multiple locations around California. And a total of 18 written vignettes are integrated throughout the document. Some are a couple paragraphs. Some are as long as a page or two. But the topics really cover the gamut and the things that we're concerned about today in terms of implementing distance and online learning. Next slide.

Any document like this is not worth its salt unless they do a comprehensive literature review. What have we learned in the past? What can we learn from the past and programs and so on? So the first thing we did as part of this project is a comprehensive literature review.

We looked at peer-reviewed documents, documents that were published and studies in the last 20 years focused on digital or distance learning, non-traditional programs, looked at it through an androgog-- log-- andralogical lens. That's a tongue twister. But the idea was that this kind of sets the tone.

I think, as many of you know, where distance learning is done well, it can be just as effective as a classroom situation. So I think that's borne out over and over again over the past 40, 50 years in all levels of online and distance learning. Next slide, please.

And by the way, the literature review wasn't a part of the PDF, but it is now. It was posted as a separate document on the website so that you can download, or you can review online, the actual research that was done.

So if I was to say, give me an elevator speech, you got 30 seconds, or you got a minute, this, to me, is the big picture of digital learning. Number one, it's the three-legged stool, like I see it. It's about having equitable access. And that means appropriate digital devices, something larger than a mobile phone, a 4-inch screen.

The second is appropriate content-- and we've come a long ways in the past 10, 15 years-- but content that meets the needs of adult learners, is appropriate adult learners, and has good instructional design. And the third part of that stool, of course, is prepared teachers. Because any distance learning program is only as good as the teachers themselves that are administering the program. So that, in an essence, is the big picture, if you will. Next slide.

So as I mentioned before, chapter 1 is an overall introduction. So if you don't have time or are not inclined to read the entire document-- and it's not really meant to be read from page to page, anyway-- but I think chapter 1-- there is an executive overview, but chapter 1 really goes more in depth about the audience, the history, how we've gone from distance to digital learning. It touches on standards, the whole milieu of standards that we have in adult education. And it offers a preview of the guide, an overall preview. Next slide, please.

So chapter 2 really gets into the whole area of in-depth into digital devices, connectivity, understanding learners' needs. Most of our learners-- probably, what, 90%, I think, the surveys that I've seen-- have mobile device, mobile phones. But it is tough to learn on a 4-inch screen. And although there's some interesting software out there, we still need to ensure-- an ideal situation is a larger screen.

Perhaps the biggest issue right now is about connectivity. And that's the thing that we heard over and over again during the pandemic in all levels, that learners just don't have the connectivity. Connecting via a mobile device, a lot of learners pay fees for that for their cellular devices.

I couldn't be more thrilled with the national effort, the Digital Equity Act, and literally, the hundreds of millions of that will be coming down to support connectivity. Yes, the cable providers and the internet providers had their arms twisted by regulation to provide low-cost access. But really, a lot of learners didn't take advantage of that.

So this new initiative, I think, is really critical. And if nothing else, I think you owe it to the learners within your agency to understand more about this whole new act, how learners can access low-cost internet connectivity. Because that, again, is so critical.

The other thing is really understanding learners' needs-- that's a part of it-- and really understanding, both in terms of software and where that fits into the whole process of digital learning, and then building digital infrastructure. I think as we continue to grow out our programs, it's both within the agencies but ensuring connectivity beyond. Next slide.

So we hear a lot about digital learning skills. And I think they've become necessary life skills, in so many ways. Without those digital learning skills, you can't apply for a job. Heck, at a lot of restaurants now, you can't even order a meal without digital learning skills.

But it really goes into more depth about what those skills are, the resources that are available, the frameworks that are available, such as SkillRise and the Digital Navigator model. So it provides additional information to help guide adult educators on ensuring that their learners acquire and improve their literacy skills, digital literacy skills.

Accessibility is another key area. We know that many of our learners have various kinds of learning disabilities. So accessibility becomes a critical area. This chapter goes into more depth on accessibility, likewise, into the Universal Design for Learning-- UDL-- multiple means of engaging learners, multiple means of representing content, and multiple means of action and expression. It's something that many programs don't really embrace, but they're beginning to and understand the role and the importance of UDL in adult education programs.

And next step is one of the little video clips, hearing from Alisa Takeuchi. She's an ESL instructor at Garden Grove Adult Education. She's also a remote ESL instructor for Mount Tamalpais Adult School. And she talks about-- and this is just a clip from the video-- about the importance of making digital instruction practical and relevant for the lives of students. So if you can go ahead and play that segment.

[video playback]

- 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.

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 in that 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.

[end playback]

John Fleischman: So Alisa-- Alisa really gets it, I think. She really understands the role of technology. And she's doing some amazing things with her program. So thrilled to have her working with OTAN, doing some projects there, as well. So I'm going to turn it over to Francisco at this point.

[video playback]

- My name is Alisa.

[end playback]

John Fleischman: He's going to focus on chapter 3, Foundations of Adult Education and Digital Learning.

Francisco Pinedo: OK. So again, good morning, everyone. Francisco Pinedo. So chapter 3, I believe, has one of the more-- I call it the bulkiest of the chapter. Because it really covers a lot. It covers about adult learning theories, research-based practice, and then also standards.

So in one of the sessions that I've done, one of the trainings I did, that school really just focused on chapter 3. And it was an hour and a half. And we spent-- it was two chapters that we were going to cover-- I spent the most of it here because it really talks about the different theories of better understanding the adult learner, while it acknowledges each learner is very unique in its own ways and has its different characteristics.

It highlights, also, research-focused practices. It also has recommendations for stronger digital learning design implementation. So in this chapter, it introduces, also, the various roles in adult education, from administrators to certificated staff to classified staff, also for any other support staff that they have.

And then the relevant standards for adult education are briefly introduced and then, also, how it's used for professional development to support educators and preparing for digital learning.

And this is the point where people, colleagues of mine, would see standards. They think, oh, is this a new set of standards that we have to learn? No. This is just talking about the standards that are already in place for adult education.

One of the ones that I had a lot of questions were the ISTE Standards. So with the ISTE Standards, we see how it ties in with technology and learning. So I think mostly everybody has heard about the CCRS and the adult education standards, the CASAS competencies, as well.

So many people were under the impression that this guidance was a new set of standards for adult education. And it's not. It's just talking about the current standards that are in place.

So I had to drive that point several times because teachers were thinking, oh, new standards, oh, new standards. And if they're like me, they hear something new, they break out. But no, it's just to say that this is available, these standards and how it's incorporated in a lot of our curriculum that we use.

And I told some of the instructors, if you look at the front part of your curriculum, you'll see a lot of these standards and how it's being met through your lesson. So it's not something that you have to redo.

It also talks about the different types of theories, like we have in bullet point number one, which, it has a K-12 approach, which focuses on educating/transmitting content. It also talks about the areas, like we have the andragogy the experimental.

The new one, which I had a lot of questions, but what do you mean by heutagogy? And I think I'm pronouncing it right. It's where the student has the more self-directed approach. It's where the student is going to really taking charge of their actual education, where they pretty much are in control of their learning-- self-directed. It was transformative.

A research-based practice that we also talked about-- highlight the key findings and recommendations from formal literature review, including the effectiveness of delivering instruction, learner outcomes, the benefits of digital learning, which, in this conference, we've been hearing a lot of. And I think it's getting that message that digital literacy is very important to start teaching our students to be able to be in different types of online platforms, as well.

It gives recommendations for educators when designing digital learning experience. And the key word here is recommendations. You can customize it to any way that will fit your agency's needs. It doesn't mean that we have to do it like it's in the guidance. We can all really customize a lot.

And then the last bullet is talking about those standards. So this one is talking about the important standards and how they're pertinent when using and designing digital instruction. This includes the California Standards for the Teaching Profession.

It includes the ISTE Standards for educator standards with quality focused on best practices using technology, and the National Standards for Quality Online Learning, which includes indicators for improving online courses, teachings, and implementation at the program level.

There we go. Again, in this slide here, it's talking about how classroom educators section addresses the role of the adult instructor in the digital age. It also talks about the information offered about core competencies that are important for providing this high-quality instruction.

The next section identifies how many different roles an academic, like the support staff, counselors, transition specialists-- tremendously depends on these factors for these programs, includes the budget and the size of the students, so how much support staff are we going to have, also providing support for the teachers. That means, in my agency, I'm able to compensate instructors a little bit more for doing a lot of the online content, sometimes over the break, sometimes over the summer.

And then the two important sections in this section is focusing on professional development. Because that is what's really needed a lot in order for teachers to provide this high-quality instruction is the professional support development.

Programs that implement models for digital learning need to include basic digital learning skills development for both learners and for educators. Because it's not just teaching the learner this, but the educator also has to have some knowledge of, how am I going to do this?

Because three years ago, it seemed that, in adult educators, we're ready to fly. Once the pandemic hit, within a week, most of us were already teaching on Zoom, whereas in the K-12 world, teachers were not prepared. There's not a lot of-- most of their PD is on evidence-based reading and in classroom instruction, PDIS, things like that. But they were not teaching them how to teach virtually.

So in my district, we were all called in and said, hey, can you guys teach us in the K-12 how you're doing Zoom, how you're connecting the students, how you're this, how that? So we were actually training our district on how to implement online learning with Zoom, Google Classroom, things like that.

And then there was a pause about three weeks into K-12. By the second week, we were rolling, and most of our students were connected. And so the district was really impressed. They were like, why don't you guys go for-- how did you do the technology?

Well, we used the iPad that you lend out to your students. They have Zoom. They have all the apps that we were going to use. So we saw that, and we said, OK, we're going to only do Zoom. We're not going to do anything else. Because they're already installed in the students' iPad that they took home.

And we scheduled classes at the times when those students were not using Zoom for the instruction, which meant early afternoon or right before lunch and then, of course, in the evening, as well. So we kind of worked it that way. But professional development is very important for staff in doing this type of work.

Let me show you. So now I want to introduce Yecsenia Delgado from Hacienda La Puente. She is an instructor. And she's going to talk about how professional development and bringing technology to the classroom.

[video playback]

- My name is Yecsenia Delgado-Lorenzo and I am a counselor and instructor at Hacienda La Puente Adult School. The most impactful professional development is going to be working with OTAN through the Digital Learning Academy. I had the opportunity to collaborate with two other teachers, and we were able to take a whole course on how to bring technology into our classrooms.

And I think the support of the administrators through that process and allowing us to try the new ideas in the classroom was definitely impactful. Because we saw the growth. We saw the growth from using no Chromebooks in the classroom, teachers being scared of using the Chromebooks themselves, to fully engaged classrooms where the teacher was at the front of the class, teaching, and the students were following along with their Chromebooks.

So that has been one of the most rewarding and most impactful experiences. Because we saw the growth as we went through the Leadership Academy. So it was a two-year program. So we saw it from zero, and then it kind of went into the pandemic. So by the time pandemic started, we were ready.

We saw the difference in how quickly our classes moved to Zoom, how quickly we moved everything online. And I think a lot of it had to do with us being really well prepared and having that action plan ready to move forward with digital technology in the classrooms.

[end playback]

Francisco Pinedo: And I think what Yecsenia said was something that put us in the forefront when the pandemic hit, that a lot of us, prior to COVID, were already experimenting. Well, how are we going to take our distance learning to the next level? And a lot of agencies were already doing that.

Us, in my consortium, we were asked, and Salinas Adult was kind of experimenting with it. So we, actually, in our consortium, became the leaders of professional development for distance learning instruction.

We would have weekly meetings, PD meetings, and all these hours of OK-- at one point I did a OTAN training, and I had about 270 students. That's the most participants-- that's the most I've ever had. And it was talking about how to onboard these students. So in adult ed, I think we're at a very big advantage. We're well prepared. We have all this great resource.

In chapter 4, it's talking about designing flexible learning experiences. So here, it's talking about the different starting points for design, different technology integration frameworks. We're talking about models that are introduced to help educators with instructional design.

Design learning tools are discussed in terms of helping educators and learners to communicate, collaborative, be productive, and use a learning management system to organize learning experience. I've heard Google Sites, Google Classroom, other LMS like Canvas, "Schoo-ology," or Schoology, and so many more that are out there. This chapter discusses the strategies for evaluating digital tools for classroom learning.

Digital learning provides an opportunity to take advantage of basic modalities available to engage the learner, primarily through in-person learning or asynchronous and synchronous online activities, learning activities. Each of the different modalities provides different opportunities to engage the learner, share content, monitor learning, as well, and provide feedback, which is very important when students are only in the virtual. They want that feedback.

In the classroom, they would see my reactions, like, uh-oh, I did something or something. But online, it's very difficult. The students don't pick up those cues that I'm very good at expressing sometimes. So providing them that feedback, if it's just a simple text or an email-- whoops, my time is almost up.

Sorry. I set the timer because I tend to talk too much. And this one, it reflects also a reflection of instructional design and teaching practices in the classroom.

Let's see here. It's also talking about the different frameworks, like the SAMR framework, which I've learned from Diana years ago, the TPACK model, the Triple E Framework. So again, all this information in the guidance document will give you, of course, a lot more information on it.

Choosing the right tools, depending on the intended learning goals and outcomes. And that's something that I also brought up in one of my previous sessions is, what is your goal for this teaching? What is your goal? Select goals for your classroom, for your program, and then develop around it.

Many agencies, again, use LMS. We're talking about Open Education Resource, which I started using for my early childhood education pathway course. So instead of having the student buy a textbook, using an OER book, it's a book that's well worth close to $200, and the student had it for free.

And then evaluating content, as well, personalized learning pathways. And, again, kind of enforce the importance of, and the great benefit of, OER, so using it in the classroom where the student thinks, what book do I have to buy? It's like, you don't have to buy anything. Here's a link where you can go and download it. So Christina is next with chapter 5.

Christina Hyatt: I was really enjoying the presentation right until your alarm went on.

Francisco Pinedo: [laughs] Sorry.

Christina Hyatt: I read in the book because I got this.

Francisco Pinedo: Me, too-- yes.

Christina Hyatt: And when I started reading it, my first impression was, wow. This is all the stuff we wish we had known and more. Because it wasn't just the stuff I learned, but it went beyond. And it's research-based. And it's full of content that's going to help your new educators know how to do online learning, how to create the best programs for your new administrators.

So I got chapter 5, which is all about instructional models. So it introduces the most widely used models-- distance education, blended, and hybrid learning, and the HyFlex models. Maybe your sites used some of these. Maybe you've been exploring using some of the others. And this is all about figuring out what works best.

We heard in Martha's session earlier about them trying a lot of different things before they found something that worked for their site, for their students. And so maybe what you're using now needs tweaking. And this guidance is going to help you figure that out.

Also, you're going to hear about the planning and implementation-- addressing the challenges. What's going to work? Are the systems going to talk to each other? And they go through the advantages and the considerations for each model.

And then, of course, the all-important, the reporting considerations so that our programs can stay open. And it's not really just about the money, but it's about providing programs where students stay and flourish. And then your reports are easy from there. Because the students are there, and they're getting their measurable skill gains, so making sure that the one you've chosen fits that model. Not yet.

It also addresses the barriers to learner participation and how to have a better successful implementation. Oh, and also, just so you know, and the reporting considerations, we're talking about your data integrity, your payment point summary, your fiscal reports, your professional development, technology and distant learning plans, and assessment plans.

It's a lot of reporting, a lot of things that they want. And it goes through those and the considerations on how to have the best reporting and what to consider.

On the next slide, we're going to hear from Ryan de la Vega. He is an ESL teacher at Torrance High School.

[video playback]

- 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 kind of experimenting with all different kinds of models-- a HyFlex hybrid and 100% online, 100% face to face.

One class, we're doing-- 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. My name is--

[end playback]

Christina Hyatt: I love that they're trying something that works for their site, a modified HyFlex. And I appreciate Ryan's comments. Moving on to chapter 6, data-driven instruction and digital assessments.

So chapter 6 begins by going through the purposes of assessments and how digital assessments inform instruction and enhance our teaching and learning. And then it goes through some of the aspects, including your standardized assessments, remote testing, and other formative assessments. So it's all the assessment chapter.

And it starts with why. Why would we assess? What's the whole point? Because it helps the student know where they're at. It helps the teacher know where their student's at. It helps the teacher know if their teaching's effective. There are so many great reasons.

When it's digital, that feedback's immediate. I always think back to a time when I was working with a student. She was a high school student. And her teacher would take a month or two months to give her tests back.

When she got that score, that score meant nothing at that point. There was no looking at it and going, oh, yeah, I see what I did wrong, or I see that mistake I made. I'm not going to make that again.

She didn't have that opportunity because so much time had passed. When she looked at the test, she probably didn't even remember what she was thinking at the time. And part of being able to correct our thinking is recognizing the mistake. And when you do with digital assessment, that feedback's immediate-- ah, that wasn't quite right.

And I always talk to my students about, I made mistakes in junior high that I still remember. It's because that feedback was immediate, and it didn't feel very good. And not only do I remember the mistake but I remember how I fixed it. So it's kind of a powerful tool when you can get that more immediate feedback.

Standardized assessments are including-- oh, I think I talked about that, well, no-- your high school equivalency, your GED, your HiSET, your [ INAUDIBLE ] That's not in California, I know, but your performance-based assessments, such as your COAPPs, your citizenship tests, your high school diploma, External Diploma Program-- all different kinds of assessments that are standardized for students.

Also included are several pages devoted to remote testing and the description of the remote testing. It goes over California's rules, which I didn't know. I did a ton of remote testing, and I had no idea that-- this was like the state of California came in and said, OK, you can remote test for classes. So it goes through all of those policies, as well as the challenges that come from the remote testing students at a distance.

You could have talked way longer because I'm a fast talker. [laughs] OK, chapter 6, data-driven-- oh, no. We're continuing on chapter 6. Sorry-- still chapter 6, digital skills assessments.

So we're now instructing students online. Students are coming in person. They need to have the skills to be successful, and they need to know how to protect themselves. And so in this ever-evolving technology world, we need to make sure that we are giving students the tools that they need.

We need to know where they're at. We need to know where they need to go in their digital skills. And so it does go through digital skills. And it does refer to the Northstar, Digital Literacy Assessment, which is nationally known and used.

Also documented is informal assessments, those formative assessments where we figure out where they're at, how we can fix it, go back, adjust the teaching, try again. And lastly, our digital assessment tools, such as polling, quizzes, gamification, and portfolios. It outlines all of those.

Now we're to chapter 7. It's my favorite. Chapter 7 is fostering healthy, equitable, and inclusive digital communities. Didn't we just hear about this yesterday morning from Dr. Betters? So fabulous.

Students come to us with their whole separate being. They have a whole separate adult life. And now we're adding one more facet to their life, the adult learner. And it's important that when they come into our classroom online that they have a community.

And it's a lot harder to build an online community. It doesn't come naturally, as if somebody's sitting next to you or the teacher does a pair share in a classroom. When it's online, it has to be planned. The effort has to come from the teacher and the students to get to know one another, to have these activities where they build community.

I was really fortunate. I had a class just like that last semester. And I didn't even know the community was happening until the last day and after. In the last day of the class, one of the students is like, I just want to say something to each one of you.

And she went around and said something fabulous about each student. And all the students were like, we think the same about you. And it was this huge bonding moment.

And then I had sent out some certificates. And they didn't come through the way I thought they would. And so this one student said, I've talked to everybody. So it wasn't just community during the class but beyond the class. She's had this communication. They can't get their assessments. You need to fix this, teacher.

And I just loved that. And that's what this chapter is about-- focusing on building a community, taking care of the social-emotional learning. It's not just for K-12. It's for adult learners, too, and I even think more so.

When I started with adult learners, I did not know how much they would share with me. You're so used to-- I worked with preschoolers. They share a lot of stuff. But adult learners share big stuff then. And it's heavy. And they trust you.

And it's amazing to me because I'm like, OK, well, I don't have any of the tools. But this book does talk about developing those social-emotional learning, creating an environment where people can share and be open.

I love this one, too. Don't forget about the teachers, cultivating the educator well-being. There's a huge section on that, as well as in the appendix, on how to make sure that your teachers are caring for themselves and that they have their cup full each day so then, when a student tells them something big, it doesn't empty their cup.

And in that section, it talks about-- what does it say-- positive, safe, and supportive in relationships with your students, a place where the students want to come and want to continue to be successful.

And last but not least, are digital citizenship. And I kind of talked about this before, but how do you protect yourself online? How do you make sure that you're not sharing your Social Security number with the whole world?

How do you make sure that your classroom is a safe space for people to be able to talk about those and then it doesn't go out and get put on the news the next day-- teaching students how to be good people online, not to bully, not to use online forums to hurt others but, instead, to build others up and create positive, safe environments.

So after hearing all of this information, you're going to say to yourself, [gasps] where can I buy this valuable resource? Send in your money order for the decreased price.

[laughter]

No. No, right? Heavens, no. We want everyone to have it. And you're going to find it on OTAN's website. So on OTAN's website, over here, there's a bar with quick links. It's the first one. It'll say Digital Guidance, and it brings you to the website.

Thank you. It brings you to the website, where you've got the full PDF version. You can read it online. What's great is there's links throughout. It's not just, here's what Carolyn thought one good day.

[laughter]

It has links. It's research-based. People didn't just come up with, oh, this is a good idea. It's all linked throughout. And then, if you want, we've got the literature review, the contents.

There's our four videos-- which we just shared little vignettes of those videos, just little pieces, so go back and watch them all-- and then additional resources. OK, I think I'm supposed to turn it back over to you, right, Francisco?

Francisco Pinedo: Yes. So I think now is a good time to look at the-- if we have any-- I see there's some might be questions or comments. So you can [ INAUDIBLE ] into the chat.

Speaker 2: It looks like John was replying to one of the comments requesting the Act and sharing lots of input and feedback. So I'm not really seeing anything else. Thank you very much. Great job.

Francisco Pinedo: So we're almost-- I think we're out of time. But in the guidance doc-- are we?

Speaker 2: I think we still got--

Francisco Pinedo: Oh, OK, OK. So is this guidance, is it useful for supporting an improved digital learning? So some questions to think about. And maybe we could have a discussion virtually/in-person. Is this guidance useful for supporting and improving digital learning? Is there anything missing from the guidance?

So I know we spent the last 50 minutes talking about it. You might not have read the whole thing yet, but is there anything missing? What would be the best type of PD to support use and implementation of the guidance?

So maybe we could spend a couple of minutes-- let's say, maybe, 2 minutes-- online in the chat, and here in the room, answering some of these questions. And if some of the comments come up, maybe we could--

Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Thank you for your hard work. I see-- sometimes I'm in meetings or discussions where I feel like we're spending a lot of time talking about what should we do, and how should this-- because we've kind of forgotten. And so we just kind of-- a lot of the bandwidth is wasted trying to figure these solutions out.

And so I'm so glad-- I know this exists, but I'm glad for the refresh. I was just emailing [ INAUDIBLE ] Even though it's a great online tool, I think we need a printed so that we can say, OK, like, in a meeting, I can say, why are we talking about this?

It says right here, here's the guidance. Here's our guidance. Let's just get there. It's a good safety net and a place to keep falling back on, if that-- I'm not articulate on Saturdays.

Christina Hyatt: [laughs] Wait till Sunday.

Speaker 2: We'd save hours of-- like, let's just open it up. Let's see what the guidance says. And then let's make our decision.

Francisco Pinedo: One of the things that, in our consortium, we have a strong PD. And then one of them is talking about HyFlex instruction. And when I talked about, in our consortium, about the guidance document-- I think it was in February, or the most recent one-- someone in our consortium suggested, because this is a living document, maybe adding student success stories.

We have one in Soledad. A student went through the whole HiSET program. And she said how, because it's virtual and she has the resources and links, how that helped her pass her HiSET.

And she's now working in the district in the food service department. Because she said, well, food service is something that I like. I do my own little catering and dessert tables and stuff like that. So she took the initiative, found resources online and how she can-- she did the self--

Speaker 2: Seltzer?

Francisco Pinedo: --certificate, the--

[interposing voices]

Francisco Pinedo: There we go! So she got information how to do that. And just like that, we started hearing other stories of students who, with guidance from our instructors and within our consortium, how they were able to pass the HiSET, the high school diploma-- earned their high school diploma and also finding resources out in the community to help them improve, get more certifications, stackable certifications, and with our local workforce development board.

So it's like it's starting to snowball. And in our consortium, we're going to start having student of the month every month, selecting students specifically focused on how their adult learning experience has been benefited by technology.

Speaker 2: So I do have something back to your point. Cheri Baker shares, thank you all for your hard work. I think that having an administration have regular meetings to go through the guidance with all staff. Also, having staff and administration just because how to best apply to our own programs-- brainstorming, troubleshooting. And thank you all. We'll be looking forward to sharing.

Christina Hyatt: I really loved the idea of adding student success stories. I think that's a great idea. Maybe when we're looking-- when we do next year's-- well, I was even thinking that when we do next year's student success that it's focused on how students that were successful through the technology, and we can add their interview because we review them, right? So it's easy to add them.

But for me, the idea that this is a living document, to me, is so much different than-- I know, John, you worked on the K-12 one-- it's so much different than the K-12 one, which I think is more static. And so I appreciated the-- I only had this idea of-- I saw the K-12 one, and I went, well, they asked us some questions about adult ed, but they didn't put anything in there about adult ed. So we need to do our own.

And that's why I went to SCOE, because I knew that they had done the K-12 one. And the fact that we moved it to this idea of a digital, of it being digital and a living document, so that, as technology changes, we can adapt it for whatever's next.

I mean, we didn't really address a lot of AI in the document, or virtual reality. Well, that's where I see the next pieces coming into this is, how are you using those digital tools in your classroom?

John Fleischman: Yeah, I'm really happy to hear you say that. Because that is the very nature of technology. It's constantly changing.

We've got, I know, just a few minutes left, but I wanted to share-- if you could go to the next slide, Francisco-- one of the things that we believe is really important is to make sure that this guide gets out there in as many hands as possible. We have such a diverse provider program-- very small agencies, large agencies. The large ones can do a lot more to support the implementation.

But one of the things that we're focusing on this over the next-- well, this past year-- is kind of synthesizing some of the information into one-page chapter summaries. Also, there will be some amazing-- we've just knocked the first one out-- one-minute animated videos that concisely tell a story about each one of the chapters. I think those will be very useful for promoting the program internally.