We target those that live in rural NZ and or are isolated to make sure that nobody misses out on help. In 2011 Jo Poland, one of the trustees, was asked by a local Port Waikato woman if she would help her with her literacy. Three months (and, in terms of her progress, the equivalent of 3 years of school) later, she surprised Jo by reading the instructions on some software they were about to try. Her comment was, ‘Yeah! I know! I read things now – because I CAN.’
Spurred on by this, Jo, Vijay Satyanand and Richard Winch started the Trust in August of 2011, recognising the unmet need for daily literacy lessons for adults living in isolated rural areas was not simply a local phenomenon, but a nationwide issue and, as such, needed a concerted, nationwide effort to address it. To guide development of the new organisation Jo became manager, prepared to fill this role in a voluntary capacity for the first few years and the Adult Literacy Trust shifted from her kitchen table to an office in the garage. She was supported in this by a talented and very experienced advisory group: Peter Bright, Jenny Butler and Pat Hanning, all working on a voluntary basis. The original plan was to provide group tuition in isolated rural communities. However, it quickly became apparent that rural adults, feeling the same degree of shame as urban adults with low literacy, were reluctant to make themselves conspicuous by joining a group. (There is a degree of anonymity in the city that is not possible in rural areas.) About the same time, the Trust was approached about tutoring someone 300km from Port Waikato. The only cost-effective way to tutor them was via video-conference. In the past, although computer-aided learning (CAL) had been universally embraced, use of internet presented problems when working with adults who have low literacy. Consequently it was with a mixture of trepidation and excitement that Jo’s theory of how it could work was put into practice. The expected barrier was lack of IT savvy in learners. We hoped that we would be able to find a friend of the learner or a local volunteer who would be able to assist with computer freezes and the like. Additionally, our own expertise was limited when it came to remote support and we were on a shoe-string budget. There were a few initial glitches, but systems were put in place to reduce their incidence. Despite their apprehension at the beginning – “This is doing my head in!” – the learners loved working online, learning how to use a computer as a side-product of improving their reading and writing, meeting other people with low literacy, and using computer games to practice things like typing and spelling. They are now reading on a daily basis – because they want to – and are not embarrassed to write when they need to. We have found video-conferencing a highly effective medium for teaching literacy. It is also fun for both coaches and learners. However we have also learned that the humble telephone and letter are a necessary backup, and that in some areas, and for some people, they are not only all that we can use, but are also effective and surprisingly fun and challenging for learners as well. With more and more students now having smartphones we are sometimes able to use those - the student can take a photo of their writing and the volunteer coach can share reading material by Zoom. Nonetheless most students cannot afford data and, because the Trust struggles to pay operating costs, it can only pay for student data when donations are received specifically for this.
