LITERACY AND TECHNOLOGY:
Lyn Bray
Research Officer
South Australian Council for Adult Literacy

In an era of increasing dependence on electronically-based communication, "computer literacy" is becoming an essential component of general literacy skills. adult literacy programs in South Australia have responded to the new dimension of literacy in varying ways; the extent of use of computers in these programs has been influenced greatly by issues of access to computers and professional development of staff.

This report was commissioned by the South Australian Council for Adult Literacy (SACAL) with the support of the Adult Literacy Research Network (ALRN). Questionnaires were sent to all adult literacy providers, including TAFE (Training and Further Education) Institutes, ACE (Adult Community Education) community houses, Correctional Services, SkillShares, and private providers. The evidence sought was about:

An important assumption behind the questionnaire was that adult literacy teachers were in fact using computers as tools in the provision of their programs. Possibly the most significant result of the survey was that the majority of ACE community houses were not doing this. In some cases the reason was the availability of separate computer training, or else the perceived necessity of teaching reading and writing skills first; either of these indicates that computer training was seen as being outside the domain of literacy teaching. However, some community houses did not use computers because they did not have any; at times their comments took on the quality of a cry for help.

In terms of computing skills, the overall confidence levels of ACE teachers and tutors was lower than in TAFE; however, there was little difference between those community sector practitioners who did use computers for literacy and those who did not. This fact, viewed in the context of the low levels of access to computers in the latter group, suggests that the simple introduction of computer equipment would enable them to establish computer-based literacy education. This group also displayed a less positive attitude to the Internet than other groups, presumably because of the prior necessity of having a computer to gain access to that resource.

SkillShare reported good use of computers for literacy programs and also high levels of staff confidence in their computing skills. They also showed the highest degree of satisfaction with technical support, depending heavily on the skills of their own staff.

Correctional Services indicated some use of computers for adult literacy teaching, but in general could not include Internet access for security reasons.

Private providers indicated a sensitivity to financial pressures; one was forced to sell off a suite of computers and cancel certain subjects that depended on them.

TAFE campuses in country locations needed access to the Internet because of the limited nature of other sources of information; technical support services were often unsatisfactory because of delays in obtaining help from campuses in different towns.

In TAFE and other areas, computing is routinely integrated with the teaching and learning of literacy. However, the community sector is seriously disadvantaged by lack of computer resources.