 OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network. Hello everyone, I'm Melinda Holt. I'm a project specialist for OTAN, the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network, and I will be your host for this OTAN Tech Talk. The title for this OTT is Guiding You Through the Digital Guidance. Our presenter today is Francisco Pinedo and OTAN trainer and let's get started, Francisco. Okay, so good afternoon everybody and welcome. Once again, my name is Francisco Pinedo, subject matter expert here for OTAN. A little bit about me again, as I just mentioned, I'm an OTAN subject matter expert. I'm also the lead instructor for Solid Data Adult School, and I'm also a contributor to the guidance document. So that's going to be what we will be discussing in this video, the guidance document. So it's not just the random person that I'm going to present, but it's actually somebody who did contribute to this guidance document. My objective is for you to go into the OTAN website and get the guidance document. So that's going to be my main objective that I'll be presenting in. So what is the guidance document? So the guidance document is a resource for adult education staff and administrators to look and to see how can I use it in my agency. Also, it could be a resource for your local kid consortium, which is what we are using it with in my local consortium. Just want to make clear to let you know that this is not a set of standards for teachers to remember, that's a question that I have been getting asked a lot. Is this a new set of standards in adult education? No, the guidance document does talk about standards for example, the IST standards, the International Society for Technology Education. It also talks about the CASAS competencies, it talks about adult education standards. So this document does talk a lot about standards, but this is not a new set of standards, but it's a document that includes all the standards in adult education. So just want to make sure that's clear because people have asked me, is this something new? It is also not how for your agency to do things, but it's rather a framework that you are going to be building over time. So the keyword here is over time. You know, once your agency and your agency, you get this document and you disseminate it, it's a framework for you to be building it over time, not meaning it's going to happen this school year, but it's something that you could start incorporating this school year and next school year and building upon. The guidance is not meant to be done by one teacher or one administrator, but rather by a collaboration of admin, teacher, and staff. And I would also say students, you know, students are the ones who are going to be benefiting from this, so why not invite them to the table as well? The guidance will benefit, as I mentioned, your students, thus increasing student retention. So we have seen since we've been using more different types of learning models that student retention is the increase in some of our local programs. So where can I get the guidance? So if you visit the OTAN website, on the upper right-hand corner of the screen or section of the screen is going to be the link to the guidance document. So right here, you would be able to go onto the OTAN website and then on the upper right-hand corner, there will be an area where you can download the document, just do that, and then you will be able to have this living document. So this is a living document, means it's changing constantly, so it's not that it's just published and done, but it is going to be updated quite regularly as new information comes along. So if we look at digital learning, the big picture, so we have equitable access, meaning the students have access to different sorts of technology, more so than a four-inch screen, because we know it's very difficult to function on a four-inch screen, like a smartphone screen, but that the student has equitable access to different sorts of technology, whether it's like a tablet, it's a laptop Chromebook, or a desktop computer. Also, when we talk about digital learning, we're talking about appropriate content, content that is culturally sensitive to our students, but also at the same time, is appropriate for the students. It's not going to be something that is like cartoon based or geared for elementary, but it's geared for adults with a cultural sensitivity. And also, and most importantly, I would say is prepared teachers. It's having teachers in enough professional development, having them, giving them the access to PD at your district level, consortium level, and also a different level at the state level as well, like OTANXCC and other agents at CalPRO as well, to prepare the teachers. So then that way, we, that way we have all of these three components, equitable access, appropriate content, prepared teachers, and that's going to add to equal to happy students, a happy school where learning will happen, both digitally and in person as well. If we look at the digital guidance, it does have seven chapters. It has the introduction, where it's going to be giving you a brief history of adult education. It's always important to know where we come from, to understand where we are, to lead us into what is coming next. Chapter two is talking about ensuring equity and access, mainly talking about devices, connectivity, understanding the learner's needs and accessibility, also talking about universal design, which is very important in the universe. Other information that you could find on the OTANXCC inside of you about universal design. Chapter three talks about the foundations of adult education and digital learning. So here is where it's going to be talking about the different theories, the different standards that I mentioned previously. It's also going to be talking about professional development. Chapter four, designing flexible learning experience. So here we're going to be, you will be reading about blended learning, digital learning, OERs, the open education resource, and how to evaluate that content and tools to evaluate that content. Chapter five is talking about adopting models that work. So different digital learning models, planning, reporting as well. Chapter six is data-driven instruction by an digital assessment. So we all know in our programs, we do a lot of data-driven instruction. So here it's going to say how to use this data to help your students succeed. Chapter seven, fostering healthy, equitable, and inclusive digital communities is community building and also digital citizenship, which is something that I emphasize over and over is having those digital citizenship skills and also having digital access to your students. Plus a comprehensive literature review, glossary, and executive summary. The guidance document also includes videos from different teachers in different agencies throughout California and also includes teachers and administrators and kind of like their testimony on how they are using digital learning in their programs. So I invite you to please download the digital document and visit on it frequently because the information will be changing. So I will be talking to you about how we use the digital guidance in our consortium. So for example, here in our Salinas Valley Adult Education Consortium, we do have a PD designed for and dedicated to high-flex and hybrid instruction. So the digital guidance, we use it to see how can we as a consortium better help our agencies in our consortium to how we could better our instruction both for high-flex and for hybrid learning and also remote learning. Some programs are 100% remote. Some programs are in-person and that sweet spot in the middle is having both students in-person and online at the same time. And how are we going to do that? So that really has helped agencies like Salinas Adult School, like Soledad Adult School and other adult schools here in our consortium to start looking into, we could serve more students because we'll have them in the classroom, we'll have them outside of the classroom. Thus, it will help our retention and we'll also build our numbers which is something that a lot of agencies are interested in. We are also looking at open education resources used in pathway programs. So in our pathway programs, a lot of the pathway programs that we have in our consortium are using OERs at the adult school and also with our local community college. So this is great because a student no longer has to purchase a textbook that is fairly expensive but they can use OER books that are available because in our consortium we've talked about the importance of OER and also in our local community college is using OERs. Providing our students with access to technology include devices, internet access and digital literacy skills. So in our consortium we really have been looking at a lot is how can we provide our students these devices needed to be successful. The internet access which we know that now in a national initiative is going to be addressing that issue. And also how can we teach digital literacy skills? So that was one of the things that in our consortium is really important and making sure that all of our students have at least access to some devices whether if it's loaned out or they could use it extended hours during our programs that we operate. Also internet and providing those digital literacy skills which I highlight and I always say are very important to make this guidance document work and to helping your students be those happy students I showed you the slides before we need those digital literacy skills. So using the local guidance at the local school level for the students the students always as they come in our program they do the student technology intake form which is what they do and I'll visit that form. You could visit that form and then right there it's on the Cal adult org site and it's the student intake form where it asks the student what type of technology do they have what type of technology do they use? So that one right there we use it to see visually see what is it that our students are lacking what skills they're lacking and what skills they know and we kind of build from there. So every quarter, every semester we look at the results and then we also look at previous year results and we're able to see okay, students are having a hard time accessing for example, their email or students don't know how to respond to an email or things like that and then we're able to address those little gaps within each school I mean each school site is very different and then we determine what barrier students face in technology. We also use local nonprofits to help students get devices here locally there is an organization Low Species and Computers based in Salinas and I know there's many more in the state of California that and beyond that do offer students help getting devices based on you know different, different parameters like if the student is in free lunch K-12 students if for example they would qualify to get a low cost computer or that they could keep also it provides them with help to getting access to internet having access to and then this organization also offers digital literacy programs online both in English and in Spanish. We also offer students help with signing up for the affordable connectivity program at our school site. So right here the students could go get help signing up for this program where it will give them a $30 up to $50 credit every month on broadband internet. We also loan devices to students so these were devices that were purchased a few years ago so we do have a program where we loan out devices we would also be doing hotspots in the past few years in the last year we haven't done that but in some agencies I know they are doing that they're loaning out a device and also a hotspot that way it will help the learner be able to learn using different platforms that are used in the classroom. Also incorporating digital literacy in every program and again that's something that I do stress a lot not only is it for ESL but it's also for your CTE programs it's also for our HSC program or HSC program. So in every program here we are incorporating digital literacy skills literacy skills for example we're transitioning from paper based testing to more having computer based testing so that means that in our HSC program we are having students do typing skills how to use the mouse how to type when you have a little timer on so that way they won't get distracted when they're taking the HSC exam and they see that little clock. So doing all this in your classroom is going to prepare your students to be more successful when they take for example the HSC exam. Also in our CTE programs all of the CTE programs that are offered here in our consortium use technology to some extent especially like in the medical field. So teaching the students how to capture data how to read data how to incorporate data into a spreadsheet for example or how to use some types of programs so that is something that is used as well in our consortium. So in every aspect even in our ESL a very low beginning literacy ESL program heavy on technology but with that it also includes having the teachers having that training on how to teach the students to use technology. So in our school we do have a lead instructor who helps the teacher with students to have like teach them how to use basic literacy skills. We also refer them to like I mentioned before local nonprofits that might have more with digital literacy or even partnering adult schools that they have events in our local community college also have events for students with low digital literacy skills. So in our consortium and in our school we are always looking for those resources to help the student be successful. So using the guidance document at the local school level for teachers the teachers again use the teacher technology intake survey and with this one again we see what are some of the areas that the teacher is proficient in and what are some of the areas that the teacher is lacking skills in and then we kind of build a PD around that. We also offer continuous PD for staff on using technology then our district has also invited us in the past for their technology PD days which are usually held before school starts before school returns from spring break and sometimes during the summer so they always invite us to be part of these trainings we're also always get invited from other local community colleges and adult schools also developing mini tech team to mentor your teachers. So some agencies I know are small so that might be difficult but maybe having that one or two people at each side who is going to mentor a teacher on how to use technology. Also allow teacher input when selecting the technology. I've noticed that in the past when I tell my staff where you wanna use this curriculum or this curriculum what do you think? They actually give me input because they're the ones who are going to be using it. So when I allow my teacher input when selecting technology one, they're more likely to use it and two, they're gonna feel like they had a say in it so they're going to use it actually more because they had a say in it. Also continue loaning out devices to students and have drop-in technology hours. So since the beginning of the pandemic we have had a Friday, every Friday where we have drop-in hours for students to come in if they can't access Canvas since we do use Canvas for our ESL program if they're having trouble connecting to their high school diploma program that they were using. So it's having that drop-in technology for students to come into our school and get that help that they need because one of the biggest barriers besides having access to a device is for the students not knowing how to use the different programs that are being used in each of our programs. We're in our learning management system. So for example that one did prove to be a little bit more hard. So we would set time aside for the students to onboard them if they came in later during the program and that onboarding included about an hour or more of a teacher helping the student how to connect to Canvas, how to register in Canvas and how to navigate the coursework in Canvas. So having that time invested does really make a difference because one, it will keep the student in the program. And two, that one or two hour of investment will help the student succeed. Thus the student will also help you students who come into the classroom and help onboarding them. Some of the conclusions that come up after reading this guidance document is one, as it would mention in this presentation main challenge for adult learners in digital learning is of access. Accessing a device, accessing the internet, accessing the programs that are used within the classroom. Also another conclusion, despite challenges from students and staff, we know that digital literacy and digital learning is here to stay. So we see that more and more and more programs are have an in-person, a hybrid component, some of the high flex as well. So we know that it's only going to be growing. So knowing that that right there is pretty much here to stay. And understanding that there are resources that will help as an administrator for your agency to be able to deliver this type of differential instruction to your students. Students also have more control of their education by having greater access to educational opportunities outside of classrooms. So if the student can't come to school because of weather, because of health or because of work, they know that they could go on to the learning management system, capture and see the work that was done the day they were out, maybe some agencies upload the videos of the recording. So the student will have access to that information at any time. They're no longer bound to a set time in a brick and mortar setting. Their education now could be in the palm of their hands or they recommend better on a computer screen. That way the student has greater opportunities to be successful. And it's also one of the things that the students really appreciate. They really like the fact that if I can't come to class one day and I connect or if I do it virtually or remotely, it'll be the same experience as if I was in the classroom. And that is ultimately what we want. We want to provide our students with opportunities to succeed. And I understand it can be a challenge for us educators, but with the guidance document, it will provide you a framework of what you can do or maybe of what you are doing now with the tools to help your agency serve better the students. So that's the purpose of the guidance document. Again, the guidance document is on the OTAN website. So when you go into the OTAN website on the upper right hand corner, there will be an area that says the guidance document and it'll take you to a webpage where you will have, again, access to the document, also access to the chapter notes and access to conclusions and findings. So I hope that you take the time to go to the OTAN site and download a copy today. Thank you. Thank you, Francisco, for presenting this OTT. I'd like to encourage viewers at this time to subscribe to OTAN's YouTube channel where instructional tech videos related to adult education can be found, including OTAN Tech Talks. All of this information and more is available on the OTAN website at www.otan.us. Thank you for watching this OTAN Tech Talk.