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Software Review |
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2001 - 2002 Edition |
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Supplement |
The Northwest Region Literacy Resource Center
The
Northwest Regional Literacy Resource Center (NWRLRC) was created in 1993
by Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington with state literacy resource
center funds authorized by the federal National Literacy Act of 1991 and
distributed by the U. S. Department of Education to the Governor of each
state. In the summer of 1995, federal funding for state literacy resource
centers was rescinded, but the partners in the NWRLRC agreed the
activities and efforts of the Resource Center were too valuable not to
continue and each made financial commitments to continue the Resource
Center. Since 1997, Wyoming and Oregon have joined the consortium. It is
governed by a Board of Governors composed of each member state’s
adult basic education director. In addition to setting
policy for the operations of the Resource Center, the Board of Governors
has been exploring interagency collaboration, particularly through staff
development
Our mission is to provide
resources, develop training opportunities and enhance communication for
practitioners in adult education. The Center enables practitioners to
share the best practices and materials within the region through its
Resource Library, Technology initiatives, and the development of a shared
teacher-training systems.
Resource Library:
The Resource Library is a professional collection of over 2,000 items in the field of adult education. Our collection includes books written by instructors, policy makers and researchers, videos from major production companies, professional journals and special topic article files, available for free to all adult education practitioners in the Northwest region. The Resource Library Catalog and Lending Library Guidelines are available on line or in hard copy if requested.
The Resource Library is a free mail-order lending library for
anyone in the region working in adult literacy and basic skills .A central
clearinghouse of teacher resource materials, the library is continually
acquiring quality resources on topics that most impact classroom practices
and program effectiveness.
Technical Assistance:
The Resource Center staff is
available for information, research and guidance in developing or
searching for curricular materials and training packages.
· The Software Buyer’s Guide, in its third edition. is a list of peer reviews of educational software. The NWRLRC encourages literacy practitioners to use technology more effectively in adult basic skills instruction by providing information, referrals, training at state and regional conferences, and published articles and software reviews in state newsletters. The Resource Center relies on local instructors and students to evaluate a variety of technologies for use with adult basic skills students, and publishes reviews in an annual technology Buyer's Guide. Still available and in print are the Video User's Guide (1993), the ESL Technology User's Guide (1994), and the Software Buyer's Guide (1996 edition). The 2002 Software Buyer's Guide is also mounted on our web site at: www.nwlincs.org/softreview/toc.htm
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The Professional Development Series is a series of
training modules in topics such as, multi-level classes, assessment,
workplace literacy and ESL.. To share the best instructional
techniques and strategies, the states designed a uniform regional training
development process and assigned multi-state teams of teachers to develop
or revise training modules. The Center has developed a system of regional
trainers to deliver in-service trainings in high-interest topics. We have
created or adapted 17 training modules ranging from The Adult Learner and
Case Management to Learner-Centered Assessment and Cooperative Learning
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Publications are curricula created by Northwest
practitioners and free to the regional ABE membership . In 2001 and
2002,The Center coordinated regional efforts in program improvement called
The Quality Initiative and
workshops in the use of classroom
technology .