Keeping it simple

I work in education for adult learners who generally face a few hurdles in their learning.  They are immigrants with limited or no English.  They average an 11th-grade educational background.  Many have not worked in a mainstream US job; some have never worked in an hours-and-wage job at all (they might have been in farming).  Some have hardly or never used computers before.  Instruction for them has to take into account a  range of limited entry skills.  It also has to include a presentation of material that is not too unfamiliar or overwhelming.  Being able to break down instruction into non-threatening, understandable, yet intriguing elements, is crucial to my work.  Using simple English is a given, unless, even better, audio or visual support can communicate much of the message even without use of language.

Unfortunately, keeping instruction or communication simple and effective is usually not simple, nor quick.  Some of the most simple and effective communication is among the most time-and-resource-consuming and expensive to produce.  Watch some of the luxury auto or investment firm commercials on CBS's TV program  Sunday Morning (9am on Sundays) and you will see beautiful visuals with simple, limited monologue that took a lot of professional work and money to produce.

I will use this blog to gather ideas and resources for keeping instruction simple yet effective.  I hope that it can collect content that will be interesting, and perhaps even useful, for others working in instruction for other populations of adult learners -- learners who may be different from my English-learning immigrants, but may still bring a range of entry skills and challenging levels of learning readiness that make "keeping it simple" a wise practice.