Volume #2 Issue #1, February 1998
Volume #2 Issue #1, February 1998
Cross Canada Computer
Conference Unites Students
BY LIANNE CALVERT
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Students and teachers from across Canada have recently completed a national research project sponsored by the National Literacy Secretariat. The project, Adult Basic Education in Canada: A National Study of Access to Programs and Services, was a unique opportunity for adult literacy teachers and students to actively conduct research within their own classrooms over a period of thirteen weeks. The project, which started in September and concluded in December, involved adult literacy classes in Kentville, N.S., Montreal, P.Q., Ottawa, Ont., and Vancouver, B.C. Each week the four classes would discuss and answer questions on a common topic. The students would record their responses in a "journal", which, when completed, became a primary resource for the final stage of the research project. The four teachers also maintained parallel journals, which were also an essential resource for the final report. |
 Students from across Canada met each other on-line. |
Throughout the project, the students and teachers communicated with each other on-line on a special conference site set up on AlphaCom. Depending on how frequently the classes had access to computers, messages were left, retrieved, and responded to on a regular basis. Since the class in Montreal was a French as a Second Language class, all messages were translated and appeared in both English and French on the AlphaCom conference. For many of the students, this was their first experience with the Internet, and in some cases, they were novices at computers as well.
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For the most part, the experience was a positive one for the students. They enjoyed checking for new messages online, and were genuinely interested in hearing about the experience of other literacy students across Canada. There was some initial apprehension about taking part in the discussion and posting a message for everyone to see, but this was quickly overcome by the desire to be included and share experiences.
There were a few frustrations as well, both for the learners and the instructors. These frustrations stemmed mainly from technical difficulties involved in getting on-line and which interfered with what should have been a spontaneous exercise.
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