Education

Education

Have a project or an idea that focuses on education? Join our conversation to discuss innovations in literacy, lifelong learning and more!

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Join our Open Dialogue Series to discuss opportunities, challenges and trends affecting education and literacy in communities across BC.

Join our Open Dialogue Series to discuss opportunities, challenges and trends affecting education and literacy in communities across BC.

  1. 254 days ago

    Kate Harrison Whiteside

    I am getting my Putting Plain Language to Work training session ready for literacy leaders in the region. We are going to look closely at seniors as a target market. How to analyze their needs. Going to explore some myths and realities about the over 50s! Looking forward to the discussions.

    • Sonia Bianchi

      Thanks for sharing Kate, sounds like a really interesting project. Can you explain a bit about what ‘Plain Language’ is and how it will help seniors?

      254 days ago

    • Kate Harrison Whiteside

      Plain language is user-oriented. Readers help define the content, design, and are part of the testing process. This ensures readability, comprehension and usability. For seniors, a growing percentage of the population, creating information they understand is important. It’s important for their health, for safety and for learning.

      253 days ago
  2. 254 days ago

    Laurent Imbault

    On a recent trip to India, I had the privilege of meeting with the wonderful people at YUVA (www.yuvaindia.org), a learning center for underprivileged youth, where, among other things, they are taught how to use video to produce short films in the Mumbai slums.Those films are then shown on large white sheets in the alleys of the slums. The thing that really struck me was that I was told it takes 2 or 3 years to teach someone how to read and write but only 15 days to teach him/her how to operate a camera and edit a film. Thus, modern technology now offers new ways of communicating and expressing ideas that were impossible just a few years ago.

    • Leona Gadsby

      Hi Laurent, It is interesting how quickly young people learn about using technology. In BC, there is a group called Reel Youth – check out their website – that works with youth to create videos that are amazing.

      253 days ago
  3. 254 days ago

    Jessica Hannon

    Being able to read and gain knowledge/information, and write to communicate thoughts–these are what we think of when we think of literacy. Is anyone working on a literacy project that uses a different or adapted definition of literacy?

    • Leona Gadsby

      In most literacy programs in BC, practitioners consider problem solving, analysis, computer skills, oral communication and understanding numbers to be parts of literacy learning. Depending on who is participating in their programs, they will find ways to assist people to learn all of these things.

      253 days ago
  4. 254 days ago

    Leona Gadsby

    BC Ideas is an opportunity for literacy practitioners to talk about the wonderful work going on in communities across the province. We know that there are hundreds of literacy building programs doing interesting and innovative things. Share your stories!

    • Sonia Bianchi

      Thanks for joining us Leona! You’ve worked on a variety of literacy projects, can you tell us a little bit about 2nd sector learning and how communities can foster learning that happens outside of the traditional classroom?

      254 days ago

    • Leona Gadsby

      People learn all the time in the course of their day to day lives – but we can be more conscious of this and intentional about it. As parents, we can think about what children are learning when they help with cooking – measurement, following directions, sequencing, being organized. This is informal learning. Sometimes we develop more structured learning that is still outside of formalized education such as English language circles, writing clubs, conversation cafes, literacy programs, community kitchens. This is non-formal learning. All of this kind of learning could be considered in the realm of the Third System – not the more formal and credentialled K-12 system or the post-secondary system.

      253 days ago
  5. 256 days ago

    Sonia Bianchi

    Welcome Innovators! Tell us about your work, what have been some of your interesting lessons learned? Any advice for community education projects?