Population Served:
46,646 Project Contact: Christina Conklin Project Title: American Dream Computer/Language Lab Project Description: The Moline Public Library wished to create a portable language lab to benefit ESL classes. Up until now students had to use the computers with other patrons which limited their time and did not give them a true classroom environment. The teacher could not teach everyone at the same time or demonstrate and students could not practice their language skills without causing disruption to other patrons. Having a portable lab has addressed these problems and has allowed us to teach additional topics such as library skills. |
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Notable accomplishment, promising practices, or human interest stories: This has been a positive program. In past years, the computer portion of the ESL group has been small. I thought that purchasing 7 laptop computers would give us more than enough for students to work on. Last week we had 13 students! The teacher told me there are many others wanting to participate. I have also been contacted by 2 other ELL teachers who are interested in bringing in their classes.
Key lessons learned: I knew when I requested the funds that there was a need for this service. However, I did not realize how great a demand there would be. Seeing students work on the computers for the first time struggling to use the mouse made clear to me how important this service is to the community. There are not many places for adults with limited English language skills to go to for learning these valuable skills.
Advice for other libraries serving adult English language learners: Working with organizations for English language learners has made this project easier. They are making the contacts and providing a structure for classes. I am able to do classes on library skills, but the teacher is working with them on language and computer skills.
The library purchased a computer cart to house and recharge computers. This makes moving the computers to another part of the library easier and more secure.
Although I did purchase a computer program for learning English, the teacher prefers a free program: Pumarosa.com. You may want to look into this program before making a software purchase.