Emerging Technologies for Adult Learners

 As a future ESL adult educator and a current ABE/GED adult educator, the two technologies that I am considering for my Emerging Technologies Proposal are podcasting for the audio application and video publishing for the audiovisual application.

The technologies selected will address the various learning styles and stimulate motivation of the culturally diverse adult learners’ ages 19-55 attending ABE/GED/ESL courses at a community college to enhance their essential skills to qualify for enrollment into occupational courses that will assist them with becoming gainfully employed.

The technology of podcasting is an excellent audio application that can be used with generated content from RSS. It can be implemented through the smart phones, IPods, tablets, and MP3 devices within a laptop or desktop computer. Moreover, adult learners that have access to these devices are exposed through podcasting more frequent content knowledge for the ABE/GED adult learners and more language structures input that leads to language acquisition for the ESL adult learners. Furthermore, research has revealed that the use of podcasting “extends the class beyond normal instructional hours, addresses various skill levels, and individualizes lessons” and a formal evaluation indicated that the students that used the podcasting technology made substantial gains both in English and computer skills in accordance to Warschauer and Liaw (2010).

Likewise, using video publishing in the classroom offers exciting audiovisual materials in language and literacy. Warschauer and Laiw (2010) contend that video publishing promotes collaborative learning and “teachers reported that the students were highly motivated in creating projects  and that the skills acquired were carried over to new settings at home, at work, and in the community” (p.4). Moreover, digital storytelling has been a genre that is supported in language and literacy instruction because it involves incorporating digitized photos, video, audio, typography and texts into personal narratives. Although, today YouTube.com is the most popular video publishing site but there are others that are designed for educational purposes only, such as TeacherTube.com. TeacherTube.com has thousands of student -and -teacher-produced videos and are always welcoming more according to Richardson (2010).

Nevertheless, to implement these two technologies into the ABE/GED/ESL classrooms I would subscribe to a RSS that addressed the needs of my diverse population of adult learners. For example, I would subscribe to ESLpod.com and create specific lesson plans for my ESL adult learners, such as themes and issues that include recent life experiences , feelings, countries and locations and long-term goals, language functions, language structures and strategies. Another way to utilize pod casting is creating learning cells for ABE/GED adult learners. The learners are place into pairs and I would create the podcast content and the learners are “encouraged to actively think about the content , generate thought provoking questions to ask each other and to teach them how to check their understanding” (Barkley, Cross, & Major, 2005, p. 140). This exercise gives the adult learners an opportunity to construct analytical skills, gives them a platform for discussion based on their level of comprehension. Moreover, the exercise helps the learners develop attentive listening and interpersonal skills.