National Adult Literacy Database

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The author has combined a literature review with in-depth interviews with educators who are using digital technologies in adult basic education (ABE) programs and to support professional development.

The report explores four themes: how digital technology is shaping and transforming literacy and learning, with implications for policy and practice; promising practices in incorporating digital technology in ABE; digital divides and inequality in access to digital technologies for learning; and professional development for educators and related curricula and delivery policy.

The author notes that research is needed to explore how adults who struggle with conventional print literacies engage with and learn digital literacies.

Other recommendations to emerge from the study include linking the funding of digital technology infrastructure to sustainable funding for ABE and literacy programs; studying digital divides in the context of both federal and provincial employment training, employment insurance (EI), social assistance, and broadband access policies; and addressing patterns of inequality across Canada through a multi-pronged, federally driven social and education policy framework that includes adult education.

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