DL Phase One Final Report
March 7, 2008
Filed under Distance Learning, Frameworks, Online Learning, Operation Bootstrap
Report on Operation Bootstrap DL Pilot Program Phase One
Timeline and Costs
The Operation Bootstrap Distance Learning Pilot Program started on September 3, 2007. There was one month of preparation followed by ten weeks of student participation from October 1, 2007 through December 7, 2007. This was followed by two weeks of post-testing, exit interviews, evaluation and reporting through December 21, 2007.
Hours worked (as of 12/14/07): 282.5 hours
Hours paid: 15 weeks x 10 hrs/wk = 150 x 19.50/hr. = $2925.00
OB Support Staff Time: 7.00 hours
Cash Expenditures $117.47
OB Supplies including blank CDs, binders, stamps, etc.
Outreach and Recruitment
At onset of the program, it was decided that we would recruit participants for the DL program from the existing population of students who are currently enrolled in DOE-funded class at OB, as well as wait-listed and non-enrolled students. Of the ten students enrolled in the pilot, 6 were currently enrolled in DOE-funded classes and 4 were not. Five of the students completed all 20 of the EFA episodes within the ten-week pilot time period. All five of these were DOE-enrolled students. This I believe is due, at least in part, to their being present on site for their regular classes twice a week and there was greater communication between them and the DL teacher and reinforcement and support from their Operation Bootstrap teachers. Of these, three were ESOL Level III, one was ESOL Level II, and one ABE.
For those students who were not enrolled in Operation Bootstrap classes at the time, there seemed to be a great number of obstacles that interfered with their success in the DL program, for example: personal and family medical problems, and excessive work hours, two jobs, etc.
Fee-for-service
It was decided that Operation Bootstrap would test the fee-for-service model of program and charge the participants $50. It was originally intended that those students who completed the final test and exit interview would be refunded $25 of their fee. The fees were collected from all 10 participants in the form of money orders totaling $500. These money orders were turned over to the Operation Bootstrap financial staff person, Marcia Kane, on order of the executive Director of OB, Mr. Don Edwards. For reasons beyond my control, these money orders were neither deposited nor processed through the Operation Bootstrap financial accounting system. Hence, the original money orders were returned to me and I was directed to return these to the students. All of these money orders have since been returned to the students.
Technical Problems
Most of the technical problems were encountered by the Operation Bootstrap enrolled students. The non Operation Bootstrap students reported few if any technical problems. Technical problems included the whole range of difficulties: internet connectivity, EFA CD’s did not function properly; faulty video and audio. DL students’ utilization of the Operation Bootstrap computer lab was minimal. Technical problems were encountered there as well. One student reported being able to compensate for the video problems on EFA by tuning in to COMCAST ON DEMAND to view the videos.
Communications
As mentioned previously, communications with DL students was greatly facilitated for those who were currently enrolled in Operation Bootstrap classes. 5 of the 6 students who attended the mid-course meeting were Operation Bootstrap enrolled students. Communications to the students by e-mail, either the EFA-embedded e-mail system or independent e-mails, were seldom responded to by the students. I had at least one phone contact with each of the non-OB students, but generally voice mail messages were not responded to either.
Assessment and Evaluation
All the participants in the DL pilot took pre-tests consisting of reading and grammar. The total possible number of points for the tests was 29. Of the students who completed both the pre- and post-tests, the average percent change was 6.9%. The students completed an average of 57% of the supplementary exercises which were provided to them at the beginning of the course. However, it must be stated, these averages are statistically insignificant due to the small number in the sample. Three students actually scored lower on the post-test. These results would seem to have very little to contribute to the evaluation of program success. Based on anecdotal evidence and student comments, however, there seemed to be overall participant satisfaction with the program.
Student Commentaries
“The video lesson on looking for an apartment really helped me with my problem with my landlord.”
“I liked the lessons about apartments and courts.”
“It was very convenient for me to work at home. I liked learning about American customs.”
“I liked the people in the videos. I liked the grammar exercises.”
“It was convenient. It helped me a lot to be able to repeat the lessons as many times as I wanted.”
“I would like to have more grammar practice.”
“I had too many problems with the computer and the EFA CD’s.”
“My EFA CDs did not work at all.”
“I liked everything!”
“I liked the story about the family problems with the children.”
“Sometimes I didn’t have enough time to do the lessons.”
Recommendations
1. Clarify fee-for-service financial processes before undertaking further fee-for-service programs.
2. Recruit students from non-DOE-enrolled populations.
3. Decide whether to continue to use EFA for the ESOL distance learning course or some other program. Also, decide whether to expand the scope of Operation Bootstrap distance learning to include ABE and GED courses.
4. Develop a specific online communication mechanism that will facilitate the exchange of course assignments, exercises, and assessments between the students and the teacher. This could be a wiki, a blog, Moodle, FirstClass, or some other appropriate program designed for this purpose. Allow for at least one home visit per student during the course.
5. Develop more stringent criteria for participation in the DL course. These would include: level III or higher English ability; proven computer skills in using the internet and e-mail;
6. Provide more face-to-face orientation of students prior to enrollment, including training in the use of whatever intermediary mechanism is decided upon (see #3 above).
7. Develop and implement a website for the purpose of informing the community and especially prospective students of the concept of distance learning, to recruit new students, and to allow direct inquiries from the website to Operation Bootstrap regarding the DL program requirements. This last will also serve as a way for Operation Bootstrap to evaluate the applicant’s basic computer literacy level.
8. Develop a ‘pie-in-the-sky’ long-term proposal for a comprehensive DL program for OB, including ESOL, ABE, pre-GED and GED. This proposal should include fair compensation and clearly defined roles for a project coordinator, instructional staff; and support staff. It must include adequate funds for materials and supplies, including textbooks and instructional materials, instructional technology, including software and applicable licensing fees, and non-instructional supplies. Each DL teacher should have the use of a dedicated computer (laptop) for the exclusive purpose of distance learning activities with her/his students. Allowances must be made for contractual services from consultants and specialists for the implementation of the appropriate technology; for the training of DL teachers; for the development of a website and other recruitment and promotional materials; and for the development of assessment and evaluative instruments.
Distance Learning
March 7, 2008 
Operation Bootstrap launched its pilot ESOL Distance Learning (DL) program in September 2007. We ran it for 10 weeks with 10 students. We selected both DOE-enrolled and non-DOE enrolled students. I have included my final report on that pilot phase in a separate posting named DL Final Report. You can click the English for All link to see the website that we are using for this course. You may remember that COMCAST has been broadcasting the videos from English for All on Channel 1 ON DEMAND. It was originally scheduled to run until March 31 and only in the North Shore area, but, due to its success, COMCAST has decided to broadcast it nationwide indefinitely.
Phase 2 of the pilot has started as of February 2008. I am following most of the recommendations found in the report, including stricter standards for participation, no fee charged, greater outreach to non-DOE enrolled students. I am aiming to recruit 10 students for this phase also. At present there are 5 slots still open. So, if you know any students, whether or not they are enrolled at OB, who have a computer at home with a fast internet connection, have a working knowledge of e-mail, and have at least intermediate English language skills, please refer them to me. Also, click on the Distance Learning link in the sidebar.
As part of phase 2, Dulany is working on putting together an ABE component. If any ABE teachers would like to recommend good programs they may know about, or work with Dulany to find one, please contact Dulany.
We are currently operating under a Verizon grant which is limited and which will be depleted soon. We are hoping to approach Verizon and COMCAST to see if they would be interested in providing any continuation funding. If you have any questions, feel free to see me or e-mail me.
Frameworks
I know that the constant concern of all OB teachers is, “How can I use the Frameworks to inform my teaching?” We are told to make weekly lesson plans and tie them in with the Frameworks. So, what I do is plan my lessons to comply with the current OB theme (e.g. Health, Culture, etc.) and the language needs of my students at their level, and then go through the Frameworks to try to pick out the ones that are covered in my plan. Then, I save a copy of the plan in the Lab folder for lesson plans, and print out a hard copy for my use. Some teachers keep hand-written plan books; others print them and place them in a binder. Over a period of time, many different lesson plans are written and stored in one format or the other, and they are very hard for anyone, say another teacher looking for ideas, to access and use them for their own lessons, if appropriate. Individually, I may review my past lesson plans and find some that are appropriate for recycling for this week’s lessons. But, I almost never look through other teachers’ lesson plans to find something I can use because they are not indexed in any way!
I propose the setting up of a lesson plan data base, indexed by the Frameworks Strands, Standards, and Benchmarks for each of the DOE curriculum areas. It should be online and available to all ABE teacher across the Commonwealth. It should be interactive, allowing teachers to access existing lesson plans as well as contribute some of their own. I’m not sure at this point if it should be a web site, or a wiki, or a blog, or something else. I think DOE ACLS should undertake to put together this project.
Maybe something already exists and I’m not aware of it. If so, please let me know. I know there are tons of websites for ESOL teachers and learners, including thousands of lessons, exercises, quizzes, flash games, etc., etc. But, they are not indexed to the MASS DOE Frameworks. In case you might be interested, I’ll add some links to the sidebar of this blog.
Please click on the word ‘comments’ under the heading of this post and give us some feedback, if you are so inclined. It’s easy!
Bootstrapper Bloggability?
Here’s an idea whose time may not have come. The idea is a blog for Bootstrappers! The Wiki idea certainly fell flat on it’s face in no time. Granted, there’s a learning curve for people (newbies) who are not in the blog habit. Hey, I’m doing this to learn, too! I’d like to have a place on the Web where we Bootstrappers can go and discuss topics relevant to OB. Of course, it will fizzle if nobody is willing to work through the learning curve to become comfortable with it.
Originally, I started this blog as an exercise in a workshop conducted by David Rosen and Akira (SABES tech guru) last summer and was focused on English. So, that’s why you’ll see all the links to online English sites and ESL podcast sites. But, there’s no reason why we can’t use it for a general Bootstrap blog. This is not just for ESOL teachers, but for ABE teachers, counselors, support staff, etc.
My rudimentary understanding is that you can write posts that anyone can read. Then, anyone who wants to can write a comment on the post. I have written a few posts already. Once you are on the blog site, you can click on the word ‘comments’ under the title of the posting. It will open a window where you enter your name and e-mail address and a space to write your comment. So, go ahead and give it a try. A single post can have unlimited comments. If you want to start a new topic of discussion, you write a new post. So far, I’m not sure other visitors to the blog can create a new posting. But, I know you can all add comments.
I say, “What the hey!” Let’s give it a try. What have we got to lose? I’m going to start a new topic now.
Managed Enrollment
How’s that for an exciting topic? I like the idea of managed enrollment. I just wish we could close our eyes, and then when we opened them, everything would have magically converted to managed enrollment (ME). It’s the difficult transition from non-ME to ME that’s really complicated. I think that was quite clear from our brief discussion of it in our last all-staff meeting. There seems to be a whole plethora of unanswered questions, but I guess that’s what pilot projects are for.
I’d love to find out how other centers are doing ME. It seems like 6-week cycles are too short. I would have thought something like a semester-long period, like 12 to 15 weeks would be more effective. I would like to see managed curriculum, too. Not only do you have a fixed length of time, but you narrow the curriculum to focus on certain areas, like a course in writing, or grammar, or conversation, etc. I’m thinking more in terms of a college model. (Forgive me for my ESOL bias; I realize ABE is transitioning to ME at the same time.)
Personally, I am looking forward to ME! But, to be honest, I’m kind of glad not to be part of the pilot. Good luck to the teachers who are the brave pioneers!
I’m going to try to figure out how to invite you all to contribute to this blog. I guess when I have figured it out, you will receive an e-mail inviting you to the blog. You may have had to sign in to get here. Please be patient and let’s work out the peculiarities.
Tools for Teaching in Cyberspace
August 29, 2007
Filed under Computer Learning, Cyberspace, English, Online Learning, Online Teaching
In the digital age of the 21st century, the true educators will be able to survey all available information/knowledge available on the universal brain and synthesize, aggregate, organize, disseminate, and facilitate the knowledge for a specific learning goal. What do you know? How do we do this as educators?
Cyberspace
Cyberspace has become like a cosmic brain, containing the knowledge of all the individual brains of the world. It is overwhelming! Learners need skills to navigate this “unversal brain.” The purpose of this blog is to discover ways to make the universal brain more usable, accessible, practical for learners. Any ideas?
