How Adult Literacy Practitioners are Using the Internet

David J. Rosen, Ed.D.
Adult Literacy Resource Institute
Boston, MA

September 12, 1996

"To use the Internet is to enter a 'techno culture' and for some this means culture shock. There are parallels with language learning. One has to take risks, to feel okay about feeling stupid. But the Internet doesn't have a system the way a language does -- and the organization it does have changes all the time."

"I am teaching VESL (Vocational English for Speakers of other Languages) and I am trying to tell my students when you get out in the workplace you can't just go ask people things; you've got to figure it out. I'm trying to get them to read manuals and troubleshoot...don't be afraid to press a key. And that's really been hard for my students and for me, too, to get over that fear. We have to push self sufficiency."

"We should think of the Net as an 'open entry' adult learning class."

"It's a Sorcerer's Apprentice -- it's important to know when to pull the plug."

(From participants in the focus groups)

This is a summary of the results of research I conducted in the Winter and Spring of 1996. The study was made possible by a fellowship from the National Institute for Literacy. The results provide a snapshot of how a small sample of adult basic education teachers, including teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), from Northern and Southern California, and from Southern Ohio, are using the Internet: it details their online frustrations, satisfactions, and hopes; the obstacles they have faced; and the supports which have helped them to overcome these obstacles.

The summary is organized as follows: Description of the Focus Groups; Findings; Conclusions; and Recommendations .

This research is preliminary, not comprehensive, and not generalizable to the whole population of adult basic education/ESOL practitioners. It is a companion piece to " How Easy is it for Adult Educators to use the Information Superhighway?", the results of an online survey I conducted of adult basic education practitioners in November, 1995. The two studies, one based on responses to a questionnaire, and the other based on focus groups, have similar findings. I believe we should look at them as early evidence of what lies ahead for many more practitioners. I hope this will interest teachers who are using the Internet now, and those who plan to get online; and I also hope this will be used by those who plan and carry out technology staff development for adult basic education/ESOL practitioners.

Description of the Focus Groups

Four practitioner focus groups were held in California from February 12th-15th, 1996. Two were held in Southern California, the first at the Beverly Hills Public Library and the second at Rancho Santiago Community College in Santa Ana; and two were held in Northern California, at Mission College in Santa Clara. On April 24th, another practitioner focus group was held in Southern Ohio, at the Hamilton ABLE program. There were a total of 40 participants across the four focus groups; most were paid a stipend to attend, and the focus groups lasted approximately two hours. I used the same group interview protocol with each of them.

The Rancho Santiago College group and the two Mission College groups were similar in makeup, primarily ESOL teachers: All 7 of the Rancho Santiago College group were teachers, 3 from the ABC Adult School, 3 from San Diego Community College, and one from the El Camino College Workplace Learning Resource Center; the first Mission College group consisted of 5 teachers and a program developer from Mission College, and a project supervisor from a different community college; the second Mission College group had 7 ESL and basic skills teachers, one of whom was also a program coordinator. The participants in this group were from a community-based program, from a public school adult education program, and from Mission College.

The Beverly Hills Public Library group had no classroom teachers. It was a mix of a volunteer tutor, 5 literacy/education organization administrators, and 2 librarians. Several people fit several categories as former librarians, writers, tutors, and teachers. At least one librarian was also an administrator. All, however, regarded themselves as involved with literacy as educators or practitioners.

At the Hamilton, Ohio ABLE program, there were 11 participants: 9 teachers and 2 coordinators. They worked at ABE programs in Southern Ohio: Talawanda City ABLE, Hamilton ABLE, Queen City Vocational Center (Cincinnati), Great Oaks I.T.C.D, and Columbus City Schools ABLE.

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Findings

Percentage of these Practitioners Using the Internet

14 of the 40 practitioners (35%) described themselves as "regular" or "experienced" Internet users; 17 (43%) said they were new users; 5 (12%) said they wanted to use the Internet but hadn't yet; and 4 (10%) said they were unsure about this, that they had mixed feelings.

Motivation for "Wannabees" to use the Internet

Individual focus group participants who hadn't used the Internet described their general (personal) purposes and their professional purposes for using the Internet as follows:

a) general purposes

• One participant said she felt "the world is going this way, and so is my family. "
  Another said, "it will soon be as common a tool as the telephone, a fact of life."

• Another said "It's a challenge" we should accept.

• Another felt that getting information is attractive.

• One participant said he was skeptical about whether the Internet will improve our quality of life
  (and the quality of students' lives, and classes)

• One participant said she wants to know what the Internet is, what's going on. She sees URL's on T.V., and writes them down. She also said she's interested in getting health information.

b) Professional purposes

• One participant said he is a free-lance writer, and needs to network with other writers to access information, and to communicate with his colleagues.

• Another wanted to share ideas with other adult education teachers.

• Another wanted to help students communicate with others around the country, and the world.

• One participant said that because it will be a common tool, students need to know how to use it.

New and Experienced Users' Motivation

The categories below -- in this, and in the subsequent sections -- are mine, and the specific examples could often fit more than one category, but I thought it might be useful to try to group some of the purposes which practitioners said they have for using the Internet. The categories are not in order of importance.

a) General Purposes

1) Family (parent and children) uses

• "Going online to the (San Francisco) Exploratorium; there's a web list on that site called 'Andrea's School List'....Parents are getting hooked on the mini-lessons."

• Children using the Internet for research

2) Research, searching databases, using search engines to find a variety of kinds
of information, such as:

• Weather

• Travel information

• Labor law

• Using online library catalogs

• Research on a personal legal case

• Joining listservs to get information

3) Shopping

• Airline reservations

• Shopping for a car in "classifieds 2,000" a "cool" site

• Investment information

4) Entertainment

• Meeting people and chat using "IRC," "MOOS," "MUSHES," and "MUSES."

• Finding humor sites on the Internet

• Virtually touring cities around the world

• Looking for pornography

5) Hobbies

• Getting geneology information

• Investment information (stocks)

• History

6) Communication

• Email -- "fun, useful (any time of night or day) to write to friends and family in distant places"

• Email -- "to communicate with partner who travels"

• Email -- "It's my answering machine"

• File-swapping

7) Employment -- Looking for jobs online

b) Professional Purposes

1) Online instruction/learning/skills improvement

• Students using the Internet for distance learning. One participant -- an experienced user -- offers an ESOL class by e-mail at Spectrum Virtual University and has 174 students from around the world.

• Another participant teaches a reading class using e-mail and has eleven Mission College students.

• Students use the Internet for reading and writing skills improvement through email and real-time chats

• Matching students with "Key pals" to help them improve reading and writing skills

• ESOL Students using "Aspects", an internal "chat" program at Mission College

• Project-based learning (pen-pals, Internet projects, publishing) "hoping to put this in the classroom"

• Creating multimedia programs and putting them up on a server

• Math teaching applications

• Using the Web with ESOL students (E-zines, newspapers, online cultural sites such as Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, etc.)

2) A source for classroom ideas and materials

3) Communication with colleagues through email and listservs

• "Email within my department, then college-wide, now with colleagues on the Internet"

• Being able to reach other teachers (if they regularly read their email -- through asynchronous communication -- to share important recent information about students who they both teach)

• "To connect with my school while I am on sabatical"

• California TESOL's Legislative Network listserv

• To enable project directors to stay in touch with each other

• TESL listservs -- for collegial sharing

• OTAN -- information from the state D.O.E. by email

• To stay in touch with other Ohio adult educators (through the Ohio Literacy List)

• Trading Information with other (math) teachers around the country

4) Research/getting information

• Downloading Reuters' news summary from AOL

• Staying up on national public policy (using NLA listserv)
  and distributing this information to other teachers, supervisors

5) Professional development

• Taking a class through a BBS (one teacher has done this)

• Informal training

• Exchanging lesson modules -- on America Online in the education section

6) Marketing, and disseminating information

• Marketing what we do through the Internet

• "Getting familiar with the Internet so I can 'talk the talk'
  when I go out to market the College to companies"

• Publishing (e.g. Literacy Network of Greater L.A.
  has Internet publications: articles by Chip Carlin, LVNY Magazine)

7) Other purposes

• Introducing students to the Internet ("We owe it to our students to teach them this.
  We have to pay attention to it. It's everywhere.")

• Reference (This comment was made by a reference librarian.)

• Training librarians to use the new technology. ("Training is a huge issue.")

• Searching for information on grants
  ("Using 'YAHOO,' I keyword search for "literacy" and "grants")

• Using the Internet is a way to help students (and help oneself, as a teacher)
  to knock down barriers to learning

Difficulties Encountered

1) Costs

• Cost of hardware, software, Internet service provider, training

• Feeling that the "meter is running," that one cannot afford the time to play, to learn

2) Time -- The Internet requires a big investment of time to learn and to use.

3) Hardware and Software problems

• Hardware that doesn't work together

• Not having enough memory to do what you want

• Modem problems (slow, not connecting)

• Getting software configured right (TCP, TCP/IP. etc.)

• "Appletalk active/inactive " error message

• Software/hardware incompatibilities resulting in crashes -- equipment failure
  (like a power lawn mower that runs for a minute then dies....),
  the "frozen hourglass" experience (referring to the hourglass icon
  on DOS/Windows platform PC)

• Having a primitive email system

4) Web sites which are not maintained well

• Addresses of good sites change

5) Connectivity problems

• Phone lines to the server which are often busy

• Sites which go down

• AOL slow, getting bumped off the server

• Using the Internet in class is risky; it's unpredictable.

• Getting connected, waiting, getting cut off, waiting... the amount of time this all takes

6) Finding the information one needs

• Search time is a problem

• Internet indexing doesn't do a good job with "see also" -- cross-referencing needed.
  The Net needs to be better organized.

• Knowing how to use search engines, browsers

• "It's still hard to find an answer to a specific question."

• "Search engines produce...so much. It is hard to get a good summary.
  There are lots of mindless comments, but not a central core of good stuff.
  One has to plow through so much to get quality. It is still superficial,
  and doesn't have enough substance."

• "I don't know where to go once I'm on, what questions to ask. I understand
  the organization of libraries and bookstores, but not this."

• "When I search (using a search engine) I get 25 references back --
  this is too much to go through in the15 minutes I have available."

7) Need for staff development

• Teachers need to learn how to do economical searches.

• Workshops have often been disastrous -- they go too fast, nothing is explained --
  or they are too basic.

• Being trained on one system, then using another with no transfer of learning.
  Instead, some people experience interference with learning

8) Access

• Teachers don't have access to the Internet, especially not in their classrooms.

• To use email, one has to have convenient access.

• Needing to have a computer at school and at home.

• "Some students have access, some don't. It's an impediment to curriculum development when some students don't have access. It creates divisions: haves and have nots."

• "With my current provider I am limited to one hour online at a time."

9) Security -- system security is an issue, for example for libraries

10) Offensive materials/censorship -- Access to inappropriate
or offensive materials, and censorship are problems for libraries and schools.

11) Listserv difficulties

• Mistakenly sending a personal message to a list can be embarrassing.

• Readers replying to a forwardee instead of the original poster of a message

• "It was overwhelming when I first signed on to listservs and I didn't know how to get out!"

12) Internet Service Providers

• Choosing the right Internet provider where there are many to choose from

• Lack of collaboration of service providers -- Listservs could help build collegial attitudes among service providers.

13) Terminology (especially for wannabees and new users)

• Getting mysterious messages like "login invalid" and not knowing what to do to solve the problem(s)

• "When you're on the Internet and run into difficulties, sometimes it is hard to know what the question is to ask the techie, the terms to use; and manuals are often not reader-friendly."

14) User feelings

• "I'm in the same place with my students -- frustrated, overwhelmed."

• Teachers and students' fear of using this technology

• Feeling that computers are invasive, not wanting one at home, for example

• How the technology affects us personally, lowering our self-esteem (by making us feel incompetent)

• Because there is so much to learn and things are happening so fast, feeling overpowered, overwhelmed, behind, feeling "how will I ever catch up?"

• Feeling intimidated

• "A true ESL experience" (I believe the participant meant that learning how to use the Internet is like learning a new language -- requiring risks, sometimes looking foolish, being frustrated when you need to get something done but don't have the words or tools.)

15) Administrative support

• Lack of administrative support for using the Internet. Some administrators don't understand that the hardware is only part of what's needed, that teachers also need training and support.

16) Reading online text -- the screen text is hard to read; the type is too small.

17) The "Black Box Effect" -- when there's a technical problem it's hard to know
where it's happening -- your computer's software? Hardware? Local Area Network,
Connection to server? Server? Netscape? Another Site's server?"

18) Technical Support

• The "right question" problem -- when something goes wrong and you need help from a "techie," it's hard -- if you're a novice -- to frame the question so the "techie" will understand. (Combined with the "Black Box Effect" this is very problematic. One participant commented that chat rooms in AOL are helpful with this.)

• Disdainful technical support (and then feeling like it's an imposition to ask for help)

• "Learning all the pieces and how they go together in a shifting world. Every time you take a step, there are so many more steps to take. You ask for technical assistance and the person says 'just use the file capture' and hangs up. But I don't know what 'file capture' means. Sometimes the T.A. people assume you know things that you don't. I need a patient teacher who will understand where I am."

• Technical problems can be discouraging -- and it is difficult to find out who knows how to solve them.

• "We don't have a telephone near the computer, so when I need T.A. by telephone, I can't sit next to the screen with the phone in my hand and go step-by-step."

19) Documentation

• Manuals (Some people like to use them, some don't.)

• Being able to find the answer to a problem in a manual, especially when you can't accurately name the problem, and when the manual doesn't have a good index

20) Other

• Public users (in libraries) must have limits on sizes of files they download because of the time some files might take.

• How to access the World Wide Web

• Netscape has too many choices.

• Netscape doesn't direct one.

• It takes a lot of time to get to the sites you want.

• Sometimes Netscape won't open up.

• "Getting wrong information, e.g. from salespeople
  who don't know what they're talking about"

• "Getting too into this, getting sucked in, and then finding it's not worth the time"

• Lack of experience

Training or Supports Which have Helped Practitioners Overcome These Difficulties

1) Having clear purposes for using the Internet

• Participants/trainees need to have a compelling reason to be on the Internet
  (take a course, get training, find specific information, look for funding sources, etc.)

• "In training, a participant should have to learn one thing they need to use back at work."

• "When there's a real reason to do something, then people learn what they need to do it."

2) Having a "Techno-buddy", a friend or family member who can help

• One-to-one mentoring

• Support from friends

• Online or telephone "tech buddy" or "tech guru"-- a sponsor or support person

3) Clear, easy-to-use directions and instructions

• "It would be helpful if there were 'Steps to Get Online' in print, in newsletters for example, with the steps in the fewest words possible which would explain what to do clearly, logically.

• A good teacher training manual

• The Netscape descriptions of search engines are helpful.

• Follow-up support should include manuals and online help menus (if they are developed well, which they often are not)

• "For some, manuals (For example, many students will learn this way -- if they are charged up) We need to work on getting people to use manuals, helping them to pick good ones (with good indexes), to get over 'manual phobia', to relate to books". A manual with good cross referencing, organized intuitively, separated by hardware type would be helpful.

• "Cheat sheets" that explain what to do

• Netguide is a helpful, readable monthly journal. It has interesting stories about possible ramifications of technology, pointers, tidbits.

• The Internet Guide for Dummies is easy to read, not technical.

4) Training

• workshops

• Training in a real training room, an Internet lab

• Training which takes into account participants' goals, and which is leveled: beginner, intermediate, advanced. Training must be customized to the participants' needs. Training programs are usually either too elementary or too advanced

• Training should use a combination of presentation with an LCD or InFocus machine and hands-on in the lab.

• Having public domain training modules

• Training sessions are useful (but frustrating if you can't then use the same kind of equipment you learned on)

5) Daily practice

• An opportunity to use the Internet daily

• Hands-on practice continued after training is critical.

• Doing things routinely, regular practice. "I have to do something over and over until I get it."

6) Ongoing technical assistance

• A two-person support team -- one who is a person who has human relation skills, the other who is a "techie" -- or one person who has both sets of skills

• A cadre of technical consultants, perhaps out of the SLRC's, matched with a "techie"

• Having a designated group of users in the district, who are paid for providing support

• "Warm bodies who can use simple terminology. If you get a 'techie', forget it." "People who don't treat you as if you're stupid. " "A tech support person you can call who talks to you like a friend."

• A technical support person who comes to your house or work

7) Online help

• District online helpline

• Help bubbles, help menus

• Technician in online, real time chat rooms to give support (e.g. AOL and Compuserve do this)

• Chat rooms of technical questions which are then archived and key-word searchable

• "I have friends on the Net who help me, who will email answer my technical questions. I have developed an online support system for myself."

8) Administrative support

9) Time to learn

10) Combinations of the above, e.g. formal presentations plus mentoring

11) Other Ideas

• Training and support available when you need it

• "Having [a person like] Susan Gaer (an ESL teacher in Southern California) to help, advocate, pester me to use this"

• Having a tech person in the lab for training and support or someone who gets back to you immediately

• CUE (Computer Using Educator) meetings -- where there are presentations on technology

• Having lab models available which detail information that might persuade administrators, for example which include how much it costs to set up and operate a lab

• Inviting a "techie" teacher to lunch or giving her a book in compensation for her t.a. time

• Student internships to help with technology, using students who have tech skills

• Organizing the class to learn how to use technology and to teach each other (e.g. Susan Gaer does this.)

• Hands-on learning (co-operative learning)

• "It's helpful to have a schema to hang the information on."

• Standardization (of formats?)

• Some books make it clear.

• "The hardware and software has to be immediately accessible, one's own. We need high-end laptops to send home with teachers and students."

• "Computers anonymous" groups

• An email soap opera (Apparently at Mission College someone developed a soap opera to get peoples' interest in using e-mail. Messages were delivered daily and people got "hooked" because they wanted to know what was happening next.")

• A central facility to send questions to

• "It is helpful to have experience using a computer first, then to learn how to use the Internet
  ( e.g. word processing, saving files, etc.)"

• "I have been learning by looking over my colleague's shoulder."

• "Different people have different learning styles -- it is important to take that into account."

The following are categories of sites that practitioners feel are, or would be, especially useful to them.
(There are already some examples of all of these on the World Wide Web.)

1) Research Sites (e.g. National Center for Adult Literacy, NCAL)

2) Curriculum materials Sites (e.g. OTAN)

3) A database of information about computer software for adult learners (NCAL)

4) Actual interactive online lessons (OTAN)

Specific Internet Sites and Listservs which were Cited as Useful

• Portland, Oregon Marathon Site

• Apple computer's homepage

• Altavista, "a good search engine, with tools to limit the search terms"

• Bob Allison's homepage, "a useful resource if you want to make homepages"

• "Grassroots" Web Site

• Eisenhower National Clearinghouse (Math and Science) Digital lessons, useful for GED students

• Frog dissection site

• Sea World - lesson plans

• Adult education listservs
  `
  • DISTED (Distance Education listserv)

  • AEDNET (listserv)

  • NUMERACY (listserv)

  • "Beat Calc" a one time per week mailing from a student showing ways to beat the calculator

Categories of Sites and Features Cited as Useful

• Travel, e.g. KOBE, Japan

• Teaching, language teaching sites.

• Health/Disease networks/support groups

• Local newspaper's "customized comics" page

• Public library online catalog

• Telephone book database sites, searching for long-lost friends or relatives, then writing them letters!

• Web searching on students' own interests (self-directed)

• Public domain resources: e.g. graphics which can be copied for free

• Whole documents on line

• Compression schemes

• Lists of legislators' phones, email

Sites Which Practitioners Would Like to Find on the Internet

• Databases of materials for students, by level

• A filter which could be tailored to search based on one's own interests
  ("a mind like mine to search for me")

• More whole articles on line

• "It is important that Internet resources are adaptable to learners' styles: visual, tactile, auditory. Some people, for example, learn from manuals, some don't."

• It is important to have large type, bullets, direct access

• Web design: don't put a big graphic on the first page -- it takes too long to load.

Other Comments:

• "The Internet is a 24 hour library."

• It is important to title web pages so that when they are key- word searched the right ones come up.

• Closer collaboration is needed between literacy programs and libraries.

• The Internet is an exciting information tool but people turn off if it is too hard to use.

• Libraries need to have Internet training rooms.

• I am worried that information which is now free on the Internet will cost in the future, limiting access.

• We need to know how to use the Internet because students graduating from high schools, coming to us, will know how to use it.

• We must remember that there are always new people coming onto the Net. We should keep sending out information for neophytes. We should think of the Net as an "open entry" adult learning class.

Conclusions

At least in some parts of the country there is an extraordinary increase in the use of the Internet by teachers, including adult literacy/basic education/ESOL teachers. From these focus groups several conclusions can be drawn about how the Internet is being used by these practitioners:

1) Whether to Go "the Way the World Is Going"

Adult education practitioners, like many other Americans, feel the pervasive and persuasive impact which the Internet explosion has had on our culture. As one participant said, "The world is going this way, and so is my family." Or as another said, "It will soon be as common a tool as the telephone, a fact of life." Some, however, said they feel left behind or intimidated by these changes. And at least a couple of people expressed skepticism that these changes cannot yet be shown to improve the quality of anyone's life.

2) Feelings about Using the Internet

One of the important findings, I think, is that practitioners have strong feelings about the Internet (and computer technology) in their lives. These feelings, both positive ones like enthusiasm and empowerment, and negative ones such as fear and frustration, affect Internet use. One participant said, "I'm in the same place with my students -- frustrated, overwhelmed." Some others felt that computers are "invasive," "overpowering," "overwhelming," and that they "lower our self-esteem." Most of the participants, however were enthusiastic, if sometimes frustrated, users.

3) Purposes for Using the Internet

These practitioners want to use the Internet for a wide range of personal and professional purposes. Many who are teachers feel that they owe it to their students to prepare them to use the Internet -- and computers in general -- as tools for survival and success in our society. They use the Internet at home with their children; to communicate with family and friends around the world; for shopping; for entertainment and hobbies; to look for jobs; and to get a variety of information. At work they use the Internet for online instruction; as a source of classroom ideas and materials; to communicate with colleagues (through email and listservs); to do research or get information; for professional development (through on-line classes or email); to market their programs; and to publish/disseminate information and student writings.

4) Problems with Using the Internet

Practitioners experience a huge range of (sometimes overwhelming) problems in using the Internet: lack of administrator support; lack of easy, regular access; the costs of hardware, software, and an Internet Service Provider; lack of training and staff development for using technology; the huge amount of time it takes to learn and use the Internet; software and hardware problems; connectivity problems; problems searching for information; inadequate or nonexistent technical support; the terminology; changing web page addresses and poor web page maintenance; equipment and data security; access to offensive materials/censorship; difficulties using listservs; and difficulty with reading on-screen.

Two problems articulated by focus group participants, I think, deserve special attention:
the "Black Box Effect" and "The Right Question."

The "Black Box Effect"

"When there's a technical problem it's hard to know where it's happening -- your computer's software? Hardware? Local Area Network, Connection to server? Server? Netscape? Another Site's server?"

The "right question" problem

"When something goes wrong and you need help from a 'techie,' it's hard -- if you're a novice -- to frame the question so the 'techie' will understand."

Many participants -- and technical assistance providers I have talked with, too -- agreed that the "Black Box Effect" is getting to be a big problem. Combined with "the right question" problem, some new users are easily defeated as they try to use the Internet.

5) Training or Supports which Help in Overcoming these Problems

Several teachers pointed out that there are different learning styles which need to be addressed. Some people use manuals; some don't. Some like ongoing help; others, only when they have tried unsuccessfully to solve a problem themselves. Those whose work is to support and encourage practitioners to use the Internet, however, should note the major categories of help which practitioners cited: support from administrators; practitioners having real, clear, and compelling needs and purposes for using the Internet; Internet training; time to learn, and time for daily practice; having clear, easy-to-use directions and documentation; having a "techno-buddy;" getting ongoing technical assistance (after training); and combinations of most or all of the above.

One staff support innovation that apparently has helped practitioners is an email soap opera which someone developed at Mission College to get peoples' interest in using e-mail. Messages were delivered daily and people got "hooked" because they wanted to know what was happening next.

6) Internet Resources Which Would be Useful

Participants cited many specific Internet resources which they have found useful, and these are identified in the body of this document. Categories of useful sites included: curriculum materials for students (in databases, by level); interactive, on-line lessons; research; databases of information on computer software for adult learners; listservs; and filters which could tailor searches based on the user's interests ("a mind like mine to search for me.")

Also noteworthy, particularly because the National Institute for Literacy, through its Regional Hubs has begun to do this; practitioners said they want more whole documents online.

Recommendations

1) Access and Support for Practitioners

This study provides clear evidence that adult basic education/ESOL practitioners are using the Internet, but it also suggests that there are many daunting problems before use can be widespread and regular in adult education programs and classrooms. The challenge of two years ago -- persuading teachers and other practitioners to try the Internet -- has changed to trying to provide the access and support to make this a possible, positive, useful experience. Unfortunately, the resources have not risen to meet this challenge. Above all other recommendations is this: we need a massive investment of public dollars to provide access, training and support for adult literacy practitioners to use computers and the Internet. The lack of this support was clear in every focus group -- and these were by and large the people who have received the most support! In addition, administrators need to understand the importance of having the Internet in the classroom, with adequate support for teachers to use it.

2) Support Models

Much more attention needs to be paid to technology (and Internet) support models. Teachers need initial training, paid time for hands-on practice, ongoing technical support by telephone or in person, and regular and easy access to computers so they can learn, practice, and use these tools. A workshop -- or even a day of training-- is not enough. Technical assistance without initial training in not enough. Training and technical assistance without time -- and equipment -- to practice is not enough. All these elements of a support structure must be in place.

3) Good Content

Teachers -- and other practitioners who go on the Internet -- want to find good content: curriculum materials, lesson plans, articles; interactive online instruction or activities for learners; while there is some, it is woefully inadequate. I recommend that resources be found to support talented teacher-curriculum developers to develop useful new content to put up on the World Wide Web.

4) Links to the World of Work

In several focus groups, practitioners mentioned how important it is that students have computer skills to be employable. These include not just keyboarding and wordprocessing, but also using email, and skills in electronic information searching. With an increased emphasis in our society on employment and employability, public resources must be devoted to job readiness for an electronic world.

5) Internet Access for Students

Lack of access to the Internet for low-income students is a major problem. Public resources must be devoted to increasing access through adult literacy/basic education programs, libraries, and community computing centers. Private sector resources should be devoted to making Internet access available to all in the workplace.

6) A Medium for Professional Development

State Literacy Resource Centers and other adult literacy/basic education/ESOL providers of staff development should help teachers to use the Internet for professional development: to take online courses; to use listservs and forums for collegial learning and sharing; and to do project-based learning such as teacher inquiry. For example, on-line, point-to-point teleconferencing, with a reflector dish, now allows up to eight people to be on-screen, from their computer at no cost other than the connectivity and relatively inexpensive hardware and software. This should be explored as a medium for online real-time staff development courses.

7) The Internet Evokes Strong Feelings

This is a technology about which people have strong positive and negative feelings. They feel powerful, resourceful, excited and sometimes amazed. They also feel afraid, frustrated, confused, powerless, and disgusted. If we wish to see the Internet used more widely, and better, in adult literacy education, we need to pay attention to these feelings.

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