Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

This project focused on the problem of the participation rate of adult learners in training in Quebec, which is below the Canadian average. One of the ICEA’s objectives was to raise the awareness of education professionals to the low participation rate, to equip them to better understand the nature of existing barriers, and to promote the sharing of innovative solutions among them. Knowledge sharing and cooperation workshops were held in five regions of Quebec, allowing not only for dialogue at all levels, but also for regional cooperation around solutions identified in working sessions. Furthermore, the follow-up reports from these workshops were in the form of regional action plans that the participants were able to comment on, improve, or implement. As a result of this project, a summary document was produced, as well the production of over a dozen summaries of Quebec, Canadian and American studies involving adult education, and the development of a model for an electronic self-training module based on this documentation. For further information please visit www.icea.qc.ca.

This project established a Community of Practice for information sharing, promotion of resources about promising practices and networking opportunities to enhance the capacity of practitioners who are supporting learning among young adult early school leavers under age 24 in Ottawa. An important accomplishment of the project was the creation of a profile of early school leavers in Ottawa. The profile includes a statistical analysis of custom data purchased from Statistics Canada, geographic information system mapping, a literature review, and findings of focus groups held with a total of 47 young adults who were early school leavers and key informant interviews with community agency staff. The resulting document has provided service providers in Ottawa with an invaluable tool for service planning, staff development and community education with their stakeholders. For further information please visit www.spcottawa.on.ca/YALLE/YALLE_welcomepage_e.asp

The purpose of this project was to further develop a website that supports knowledge exchange among audiences interested in improving the learning success of marginalized learners, including learners with disabilities, and learners from aboriginal and immigrant communities. The audiences involved in the project were diverse and rich in scope, comprising learners, educators, academics, therapists, healers, artists, and multi-media innovators. The key outcome of the project was the re-design of the website www.learningandviolence.net. It now features engaging multi-media and interactive materials, enhanced accessibility for marginalized learners, as well as an increased array of innovative learning resources and links. The project also helped strengthen and expand the knowledge exchange network related to marginalized learners nationally and internationally.

This project involved implementation of a symposium to focus on family literacy in Francophone minority communities. Nearly 150 participants including the literacy, health, education, international development, research and university communities from 10 provinces, two territories and two African countries were able to exchange knowledge, network and acquire tools to promote, support and stimulate family literacy. The symposium included a broad range of topics such as parents' role, literacy and health, international perspectives, and reading promotion strategies. A report on the symposium was distributed to participants and is posted on the FCAF website.

The goal of this project was to develop training resources for community groups, educational institutions, and workplaces to use in helping people with weak literacy skills:

• Acquire basic computer literacy skills;
• Understand the use of personal electronic information;
• Understand how personal electronic information affects decisions involving individuals, groups, and society as a whole;
• Identify knowledge gaps, concerns and experiences of working with electronic information.

The key outcome of the project was the development and testing of a training session on electronic information with a focus on how personal information is collected and used. A facilitators’ manual and other instructional materials are available at the Communautique website: www.communautique.qc.ca.

This project facilitated knowledge exchange among individuals and organizations involved in the Mayor of Surrey's Crime Reduction Strategy. Collaborative learning strategies were applied in order to design a process that allowed academics and community members to share knowledge and experience about crime prevention. The project was effective as a catalyst for building and deepening relationships between organizations concerned about crime prevention. Key knowledge exchange outcomes included: development of a new concept for a program on working with youth at risk, implementation of a community safety survey, and a literature review on ethnicity. Most significantly, the project successfully engaged various community groups through collaborative learning strategies; this process allowed different voices to surface, conversations to take place, and understanding to be built. Information about the project is available at: www.surrey.sfu.ca/surreycommunity/crime/index.html.

This project was designed to enable the exchange of information about innovative and successful professional development practices for teachers in the K-12 system in Newfoundland and Labrador. Members of the network were provided with information on proven successful professional development models implemented in jurisdictions across Canada. The project included face-to-face as well as technology-mediated dialogues to support the exchange of knowledge and experience. Key outcomes of the project included: a website (www.virtualteachercentre.ca/ken) to support ongoing collaboration and knowledge exchange between network members; establishment of a network of education institutions and organizations focussed on the professional development of teachers; and better informed policy-makers, administrators, and professional development officers.

This project brought together seniors from all walks of life to share and document stories from times past. As a result of the project, the Red Lake District now has a compilation of local stories - some personal and many dealing with pioneer life. The project proved to be a very rewarding experience for seniors; some felt that it gave them a sense of purpose while others felt it was a good mental exercise. An instruction manual was also developed to assist other communities in implementing a written legacy project. Information about the project is available at www.redlakeadultlearning.org.

This project aimed to raise seniors' health and safety awareness by developing health literacy modules on key topics (falls prevention, prevention of elder abuse and neglect, safety in the home, healthy eating, medication awareness, mental health, care giving and receiving, sleep problems, chronic diseases, and social interaction), delivery of training to senior volunteers as facilitators of the health literacy modules, and delivery of health literacy workshops throughout BC. Feedback from workshop participants has been very positive. To expand the project's reach, the Council of Senior Citizens Organization of BC (COSCO) has distributed its workshop materials to national and provincial health and seniors-related organizations. Information about the workshops is available at the COSCO website: www.coscobc.ca/.

This initiative was designed to establish a structured and ongoing communication process to stimulate knowledge exchange between career development practitioners, human resource professionals, and prior learning assessment and review (PLAR) practitioners. Focus groups were conducted to gather information on shared needs and priorities for the project. E-leaning technologies including web-based meeting, live and archived webcasts and online discussion forums were used to deliver information sessions on topics of interest. Key results of this project included the establishment of a new knowledge exchange network for human resource, career development, and PLAR practitioners. The section on ‘Communities of Interest’ on the website www.recognitionforlearnng.ca and a contact list of interested individuals and organizations were developed to support ongoing communication. Results from the application of new e-learning technologies were very positive. A basis for ongoing work involving the three professional groups was established.

This project involved the development of a comprehensive website (www.learningandviolence.net) to build understanding and provide a broad range of educational resources including original, creative and appealing multi-media resources to address the impacts of violence on learning. The project also developed a knowledge exchange forum - supported by web-based forums and interactive materials on the website - for researchers, educators and others concerned about the impact of violence on learning. The website models a new direction for educational websites designed to provide a hub for collaboration, reach diverse audiences, and achieve a broad range of goals. Given the project's success in terms of the website's effectiveness, the highly involved and synergistic forum, and the forum participants' commitment to further development of the website, partners are eager to continue the project.