A Skills for Life Resource Guide
Electronic resources have a lot to offer learners and teachers in Skills for Life. They can be a good way to offer learners a chance to learn in an individual way and to practise valuable ICT skills at the same time.
The following tables give examples of sites and organisations that can provide information about resources. The information here is not exhaustive, but readers are encouraged to use the websites given here as a starting point and to expand their knowledge by going beyond these suggestions.
ORGANISATIONS OFFERING ADVICE, INFORMATION AND RESOURCES
aclearn.net
A major adult and community learning resource with key sections on learning content, skills development, technical guidance and leadership and management. The content section contains web links to a wide range of sites that support tutors with ideas and tools for content creation.
Skills for Life Strategy Unit (previously ABSSU)
The website of the DfES Skills for Life Strategy Unit for all aspects relating to the Skills for Life strategy.
ALI Adult Learning Inspectorate
BSA Basic Skills Agency
The leading authority on basic skills in the UK. There is a free basic skills magazine available online with a regular website guide.
Basic Skills Observatory
www.basic-skills-observatory.co.uk
A resource area from the Basic Skills Agency.
Becta British Educational Communications and Technology Agency
DfES e-strategy
www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy
For information about the Government’s e-strategy.
Ferl
Practical resources and information provided by Skills for Life professionals.
FENTO
Information about teaching qualifications.
Institute of Education
A substantial resource of Skills for Life materials and other information.
JISC Joint Information Systems Committee
Key skills support programme
learndirect
LLU+
This is perhaps the most important site for adult literacy professionals.
LSC Skills for Life Quality Initiative
The LSC Skills for Life Quality Initiative website, a source of information about Skills for Life.
LSDA Learning and Skills Development Agency
For information about LSDA e-learning training programmes and resources.
Move On
Information about the national tests in adult literacy and numeracy.
NIACE National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
For publications and e-learning resources and information.
NLN National Learning Network
For information about e-learning resources.
NRDC National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy
Formed to research all aspects of adult basic skills teaching and learning as part of the Skills for Life strategy. Has some recent research on e-learning.
Ofsted Office for Standards in Education
QCA Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
South Notts Webography
www.south-nottingham.ac.uk/21kproject/basicskillssites.htm
A webography of useful basic skills sites developed by South Nottingham College.
Talent
Talent is the online community of adult lliteracy, numeracy and ESOL teachers. This dedicated website for Skills for Life teachers gives information about initial teacher training and professional development, sharing teaching resources and job vacancies.
Techdis
UK Online Centres
A key government site for adult and community learning covering a wide range of themes. Tutors may be particularly interested in the ‘Activity Blogs’, which contain many ideas and Internet links for topical themes.
The Workplace Basic Skills Network
Focuses on basic skills in the workplace.
WEA Workers’ Educational Association
WEA is the largest voluntary provider of adult learning.
AWARDING BODIES OFFERING SKILLS FOR LIFE ACCREDITATION
AQA
Assessment and Qualification Alliance.
CCEA
Council for Curriculum Examinations and Assessment – relates to Northern Ireland.
City and Guilds
Edexcel
LCCIEB
London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Examinations Board.
NCFE
Northern Council for Further Education.
National Open College Network
Oxford and Cambridge RSA
SOFTWARE AND MEDIA SUPPLIERS
CTAD
Suppliers of Target Skills and other learning resources for key and basic skills.
West Nottinghamshire College
Basic and key skills assessments and learning resources.
CLASSROOM E-LEARNING RESOURCES
There are a lot of joke sites, but some are quite unpleasant. This is one that claims to be clean and safe (but still funny, well, some of the time).
Basic IT course with accreditation.
Free CD and magazine for learners who want to improve their financial literacy.
City College Manchester Online Learning.
www.aclearn.net/content/toolkits/webquests/
Web Quest
LITERACY AND ESOL WEBSITES
A huge site for adult literacy and numeracy aimed at teachers and learners.
Melvyn Bragg’s Routes of English series is on the web with many lovely features, such as sound files to illustrate different dialects including the ‘Ashington Burr’. A seriously useful resource to stimulate discussion about different Englishes, the rise and rise of estuary English etc.
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learnenglish
An ESOL resource from the BBC World Service.
Web cards are a great activity for learners, are free and are relevant all year round. There are many sites – for a huge listing try a search engine, but this site is a good start (it had the marvellous Santa’s Amazing Holiday Snowrun).
This is a great site for much more than word work. An excellent activity for learners is to ‘ask Dr Dictionary’ any question about grammar. You’ll get an answer from a human being. There’s a daily interactive crossword and word search game.
The Schoolsnet is a superb resource for teachers and has lots of useful ideas, worksheets, activity plans and links. Although the activities are mainly school level, there’s plenty that can be used or adapted for adults.
There’s a great set of quizzes on this site.
A new and exciting site offering resources for key skills but relevant to literacy and numeracy.
This National Literacy Trust site is excellent, with information, resources and discussions on literacy at all ages and in all settings.
Take your learners to the NHS Direct site, one of a growing number of authoritative medical sites. It’s marvellous for Family Literacy. It covers healthy living, common conditions, symptoms using an interactive body map, and there are audio files in English, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and Urdu. Look at the medicine chest – useful for both holidays and spelling challenges.
A large US national literacy site with plenty of ‘lincs’(sic).
Paragraph Punch lets you try some online teaching in paragraph work. You can get quite a long way for free, but you have to pay for the whole package.
Richard Lederer is a verbivore; find out what that is at this site. He wrote a very good book called Crazy English and his website is full of things like: Where did Noah keep his bees? In the ark hives, of course. A must-see.
More web cards – on this site, you can find out your local weather forecast and send it as a postcard. Virtual cards are often multimedia – you can add music and sometimes your own voice. Use them tomorrow!
David Wray is Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Warwick. His site contains a mix of practical stuff and descriptions of research projects he has carried out.
www.webster.commnet.edu/grammar
How about a spot of grammar? This is a very big and very comprehensive site with hundreds of exercises and quizzes on grammar. Embarrass yourself by attempting some of them.
An innovative initial assessment tool.
BOOKSHOPS
Amazon, the most famous Internet bookshop.
www.bookfinder.com
www.bibliofind.com
www.abebooks.com
www.usedbooksearch.co.uk
Just four of the sites that let you search for second-hand and out-of-print books (so you can find that copy of Black's Writing Dictionary).
www.sentex.net/~mmcadams/index.htm
Aspiring writers of hypertext (the stuff of the worldwide web and most computer-based books), might have a look at Mindy McAdam’s famous site. Mindy is a journalist (and, incidentally, a professor of journalism at the University of Florida), and a real lover of hypertext (that is, text that lets you click on hyperlinks to navigate the document). At least try the quiz on this page. And ask her if she has a sense of humour.
NUMERACY WEBSITES
www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers
www.cne.gmu.edu/modules/dau/algebra/ basicarith/arith1_frm.html
This site helps with negative numbers.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/netclass/ schools/links/0,5607,81862,00.html
A good maths webography from the Guardian online.
Over the water, marvel at Math in Daily Life, a simple and gently interactive maths site. It has ‘Exhibits’ on gambling, cooking, population growth, decorating and savings, and a piece on the universal language of math (as they say). It’s wordy, so you have to be quite literate, but the content is first rate.
A financial site developed by NIACE and supported by Prudential plc.
www.quickmath.com
www02/pages/modules/numbers/percentages/basic/index.shtml
www.ex.ac.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/revision/maths/rev016.shtml
www.netcomuk.co.uk/~jenolive/percent.html
http://members.aol.com/ukhostmths/mathson/ maths/number/interactive_tests/Percentages.htm
www.hellam.net/maths/mathfun1.htm
http://luna.spaceports.com/~sheilast/pcent10.htm
All these sites give resources on percentages.
A sponsored site for schoolteachers, Maths Ideas is a great resource. Again, teachers of adults will find things that work or can be adapted, and parents can work with their kids on some exercises.
WEBSITES FOR SPECIFIC LEARNING DIFFICULTIES
Focuses on helping children and adults with speech and language difficulties to strengthen their abilities.
Site of the British Institute for Learning Difficulties.
A web-based tool that analyses the accessibility of web pages.
Basic Skills for Inclusive Learning (BASIL).
This site gives information and resources to support learners with dyslexia.
This interactive database of assistive technology can help you find appropriate solutions when you have a learner with a specific disability. The teaching and learning section is a particularly helpful ‘way in’ for teachers.
SKILLS FOR LIFE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TRAINING COURSES
City University offers e-learning courses for professionals in conjunction with London Central north learndirect Hub.
E-version of the Skills for Life Teaching Qualifications Framework: A user’s guide
Part-time distance learning postgraduate Diploma and MA courses in basic skills.
LETTOL is an award-winning course that helps participants gain the skills needed to develop and teach online courses of all kinds.
Part-time distance learning Diploma and MA courses in basic skills.
Online for the Future is a practical online course for basic skills teachers originally developed by a partnership of 22 colleges across Hampshire, included colleges in Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.
RESOURCES USED IN PRODUCING THIS GUIDE
Alan Clarke (July 2004) www.palgrave.com
E-learning Skills
ALI (various dates)
ALI inspection reports
BBC (various dates)
Becta (various dates and publications)
Becta (Bob Powell, Sarah Knight and Ros Smith) (2003)
Managing Inspection and ILT
BSA (March 2002)
Basic Skills Magazine
DfES (2002)
Delivering Skills for Life: The national strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills (the delivering Skills for Life pack)
DfES (2002)
Delivering Skills for Life: Success in adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision: A guide to support the Common Inspection Framework
DfES Skills for Life Strategy Unit (formerly ABSSU) (various dates and publications)
DfES (2005)
Harnessing Technology: Transforming learning and children’s services (the Government’s e-strategy)
Institute for Employment Studies (Dr Penny Tamkin, Jim Hillage, Sara Dewson, Alice Sinclair) (June 2003)
New Learners, New Learning: A strategic evaluation of Ufi
learndirect
Skills for Life Handbook (password protected only)
learndirect: Ufi Northern Ireland (undated) available by request from: www.mmdesign.co.uk/reach/back_issues/ 2003/june2003/2003_3_p04_eng.htm
Using ICT as a Hook
LSC (2002)
Report of the Learning and Skills Council’s Distributed and Electronic Learning Group
LSDA (Lesley Natrins) (2004)
IT can make a difference if IT is fit for purpose
NIACE (2000)
Adult and Community Learning Laptop Initiative Evaluation
National Information and Learning Technologies Association (NILTA)
NLN and LSDA (March 2003)
Raising Quality in Information and Learning Technology
NRDC (October 2004) and www.nrdc.org.uk
Reflect: The Magazine of the NRDC Issue 1
NRDC (June 2004) at: www.nrdc.org.uk/uploads/documents.doc_258.pdf
ICT and Adult Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL
Simon Boyd Publishing Limited (2003, May 2004) Tel: 01223 513551
Basic Skills Bulletin
Ufi Ltd, DfES and BSA (2001)
Using ICT to Develop Literacy and Numeracy: A guide for learning centres working with adult learners
UK Online Centres (2003)
UK Online Centres Annual Report
