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For the past few months I have been working on a project in coordination with the Secretary of Technology’s office (yes, Virginia has a Secretary of Technology) to make a series of popular GED programs available to subscribers of digital cable. Previously, these programs, part of the GED Connection series produced by PBS and Kentucky Educational Television, were broadcast, one episode at a time, on PBS stations at odd times–5:30 am on Sunday for example. Now, Cox and Comcast cable subscribers can access all 39 programs anytime they want. The partnership has gotten some good press–pretty unusual, I think, for adult education. Governor Kaine put out a press release and a brief televised promo on the initiative, and the project got some ink from the Richmond Times Dispatch:

The partnership between the Virginia Department of Education, Comcast Cable and Cox Communications was announced yesterday by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. Nearly one in seven adults over age 18 in Virginia lack a high-school or equivalent diploma, said Julie Grimes, Education Department spokeswoman.

The most common obstacles to getting a GED are scheduling conflicts, transportation to and from classes and lack of availability of child care or the inability to pay for it, experts say. In a statement, Kaine said the on-demand service “provides convenience and flexibility for adults who want to increase their income potential by earning a GED.”

On-demand adds to the ways people can study for GED certification and builds on the state’s Race to GED program, said Randall Stamper, communications specialist at the education department’s adult education office. Race to GED seeks out folks who may need just to brush up on certain skills before testing, to help them earn certification faster.

People can take classes at adult learning centers, cram via the Web or watch scheduled programs on Public Broadcasting Service stations. The on-demand option lets people watch half-hour lessons — 39 of them — at any time.

Of course, not all adults in need of a GED subscribe to digital cable, but at least this project makes these programs available to those that do. And hopefully the success of this partnership will lead to other coordinated projects between adult education and the business community

Here are 4 promotional spots for the GED created by the Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Adult Education and Literacy. I think they are pretty well-done, and am impressed that the VADOE/OAEL had the foresight to post them to YouTube.

One of the reasons I created this blog was to establish a place to warehouse my thoughts on my research, namely educational alternate reality games (ARGs), virtual learning environments (such as Second Life), and participatory media and its possibilities for learning. During the day my concerns mostly involve the political, financial and technical minutiae of setting up a web-based learning program for adults, and I get little time to think about other things. Don’t get me wrong: while adult basic education can be very different from K12 and post-secondary learning, in many ways I think it could benefit from being included in the conversation on using such novel approaches as games and virtual worlds in the classroom. But the field of adult education is, I am sorry to say, a technological backwater. There are reasons for this: adult ed is typically the red-headed stepchild of K12 programs, and there aren’t enough full-time teaching or administrative positions to make it an attractive career option for younger (and more innovative) teachers. Typically, adult ed teachers work as K12 teachers during the day, or are retired K12 teachers. Also there isn’t much money to invest in technology. So, there are so many more basic, proven technological innovations that need to be incorporated into adult ed that considering something like Second Life or an ARG would just be too much of a jump forward.

Perhaps I am wrong about this. But when I suggest looking more closely at these new tools during meetings with my colleagues, who, compared to much of the field, are pretty forward-thinking, technologically, I get a pretty tepid response.

Well, I will have time to devote some more thought to my research when I formally begin working part-time next week. In preparation for this, I have been making contact with many of the people active in the ARG community about my interest in studying the use of ARGs for pedagogical purposes. Everyone has been very encouraging, and very enthusiastic about this topic. Especially helpful was the release of the ARG Sig Whitepaper on ARGs. There was an entire section of ARGs in academia, both as a topic of study and a tool being used to teach. But I can’t seem to find anyone currently using (or planning to use) an ARG in this way. I have also been making connections with folks on the campus where I work (VCU) to propose creating an independent study ARG design class to create an educational ARG. There has been nominal interest, but not enough for any signatures to be applied to the necessary forms to make it happen in the next year.

As I am able to spend more time tracking possible research subjects, perhaps I will have more luck finding someone (anyone) producing an ARG with some kind of pedagogical goal.