eVALBEC March 2008
This is the electronic newsletter of VALBEC, the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Education Council, and is sent to about 850 practitioners on the first of each month (other than January). It is also available in the ‘News’ section of our web site http://www.valbec.org.au
Disclaimer: The activities, goods and services mentioned in eVALBEC are not endorsed by VALBEC in any way. People should make their own judgment about the suitability of each item.
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IN THIS ISSUE OF eVALBEC:
1. Thirty years of VALBEC Celebration Dinner
2. VALBEC Annual Conference 2008
3. VALBEC presents the first Twilight Forum for 2008 -  Ballarat
4. ACAL’s Next Literacy Live
5. Fine Print’s in production
6. CAE Workshops: Literacy & Numeracy resources for the CGEA, VCAL & Middle years
7. Member Offer – Tickets to Comedy Festival show: Nelly Thomas is not a Yummy Mummy
8. Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL)
9. ACFE Funding
10. Adults Learning Mathematics Conference - call for proposals
11. Subscribe to eVALBEC?
12. Unsubscribe?
13. Contact VALBEC
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1. Thirty years of VALBEC Celebration Dinner
What ever happened to ….? Remember the time when ………?
So good to see you again after so many years……?
These words may be the start of many conversations and there will be lots of exclamations and renewing of friendships at the
30 years of VALBEC Celebration Dinner
Thursday May 15, 2008
7.00 – 11.00 pm
RACV Club Restaurant, 501 Bourke St Melbourne
Cost $75 – three course meal with drinks at bar prices
VALBEC invites members past and present, colleagues and friends from around Australia to join us for a celebratory dinner. The 30 years of VALBEC Celebration Dinner will provide a special occasion for people who have been associated with VALBEC over three decades to come together and celebrate.
We are compiling a contacts database to send invitations far and wide so if you would like to be included or know of others who you think would like to be invited, please forward the name and contact details to conf@valbec.org.au
People who receive eVALBEC will automatically receive an invitation.
Online registration will be available via the web site shortly.
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2. VALBEC Annual Conference 2008
Put these dates in your diary now!!!!
Still glides the stream  VALBEC conference 2008
William Angliss Conference Centre, corner La Trobe and King Sts, Melbourne
Friday May 16  8.30am-4.30pm
Pre-conference workshops  Thursday May 15 , 3.00 – 5.30pm
The program is currently being finalized; more on the website soon
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3. VALBEC presents the first Twilight Forum for 2008 -  Ballarat
“But that’s not ALL the story?
The results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALLS) survey with a focus on numeracy”
This Forum will look at the results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALLS) survey that was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in Australia in 2006 and early 2007.
The ABS figures released in late November last year showed that about 7 million adult Australians lacked the literacy skills to cope with the demands of modern life and work and understand, for example, a newspaper article or read a bus timetable. The figures were worse in other domains of the survey including in numeracy and problem solving. The forum will look at the structure and content of the ALLS survey and what range of information is tested and collected. Key results of the survey data will also be presented with a focus on the numeracy results, including what the figures were for Victoria, what the differences are across different ages, between men and women. Questions and implications for teaching literacy and numeracy will be posed and considered too.
Information about the ALLS is available via the ACAL web site (Australian Council for Adult Literacy) http://www.acal.edu.au
You can download the ACAL position paper 'Moving forward: Towards a Literate Australia' (Jan 2008) prepared by Dave Tout and also find a link to the ABS summary.
Presenter: Dave Tout, Centre for Adult Education and numeracy consultant, and a member of the international numeracy team responsible for developing the numeracy component of the survey and a member of the Reference Group for ALLS in Australia.
Date: Tuesday March 18th
Time : 6.00pm (sharp) – 8.00pm
Venue: Venue: Oscar's Hotel and Cafe Bar, 18 Doveton Street South, Ballarat [opposite Target]
Drinks and meals available at bar prices
There is no fee but it is essential you RSVP
RSVP Friday March 14th to  info@valbec.org.au
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4. ACAL’s Next Literacy Live
Adult Literacy in the 21st Century – New literacy skills and new clients.
Monday 3rd March 8:00pm-9:00pm (AEST) in the Literacy Live Room
More session details and how to use  Literacy Live at http://www.acal.edu.au/litlive.htm
The presenter will be Steve Goldberg. Steve has been the Coordinator of the Reading Writing Hotline since 2000 and has, in that role, overseen 40,000 enquiries. Steve has some special insights into where the new demand for literacy teaching may come from.
Some callers to the Reading & Writing Hotline are telling Steve and his team that they need help, not with basic literacy but with the skills to deal with all the new, complex digital environments and technologies they encounter in every aspect of their lives. "I feel overwhelmed by all the new technology around and inadequately prepared to take on new roles" callers often report. Many of these callers are older Australians, who have not been able to find suitable IT training courses or have enrolled in "beginner" courses and have discovered that the teacher expects them to have some pre-existing knowledge including the language of computers.
More at http://www.acal.edu.au/litlive.htm
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5. Fine Print’s in production
The May issue will include
The Pink Room - Helena Spryou describes her and Photographer Angela Bailey's work on the Arts Project 'The Flats'.
ESL & Aged Care - Sue Wallis and Luzma Sanchez from NMIT describe a program that combines the Cert 3 in Aged Care with ESL 3 Employment (Frameworks).
Youth & Technologies - Kerryn Prior describes an action research project the integrates new literacies into classroom practice.
Cert in LLNP - Philippa Mclean discusses the need for this new Certificate.
The St Mary's Project - Jenny MacDonald describes a digital story telling project and the experiences of participants.
New Literacies & the Role of Digital Migrants - Roland Maxwell discusses the digital age through the eyes of experience.
Open Forum - Pauline Morrow looks at the implementation of the new CGEA
What's Out There - Corinna Ridley and Robyn Hodge review a new VCAL textbook.
Foreign Correspondent - looks at the Lifestart Foundation in Vietnam and its work in education.
Beside the Whiteboard - where are they now? Lynne Matheson interviews Kay McCrindle
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6. CAE Workshops: Resources for all. Literacy & Numeracy resources for the CGEA, VCAL & Middle years
This one day set of in-depth workshops presents an excellent opportunity to discover a whole range of practical and real world based resources that support delivery of innovative and engaging literacy or numeracy programs. Participants will be able to take away practical resources and ideas and a comprehensive understanding of the related teaching and learning strategies applicable to their own programs.
The final session of the day brings together a resource display from a range of resource developers and book shops that specialise in resources for delivery of VCAL and the CGEA.
Date and time: 9.00 am to 4.00 pm, Wednesday, 19th March 2008
Where: all workshops will be held at CAE, 253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Cost: One day workshops: $230.00
For further Information please email projects@cae.edu.au  or go to the PD section of the SAALT website at: http://www.saalt.com.au/profdev.html  for more details and an enrolment form.
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7. Member Offer – Tickets to Comedy Festival show: Nelly Thomas is not a Yummy Mummy
Award-winning Melbourne comedian and first time mum Nelly Thomas ( http://www.nellythomas.com ) premieres her new stand-up comedy show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 19 March–12 April 2008. See one of Melbourne’s favourite funny women tackle the pressures of modern parenting, pilates-free pregnancy, pilchers and a future for Incy Wincy on a planet with no water.  
This show is not suitable for kids except the Cry-Baby Session on Sunday 6th April at 4pm where all hell could break loose. The cry-baby show is the same as all the others but babies can come...and cry.
This show is part of Comedy @ Trades http://www.comedyattrades.com.au/, Trades Hall, cnr Lygon and Victoria Sts, Carlton; $22.00/$16.50; all shows 8.15pm except the Cry-Baby show on Sunday 6th April at 4pm
Bookings:  http://www.comedyattrades.com.au/ or 03 9659 3569
VALBEC has 3 double passes for each of the shows on the opening weekend (Wed 19th, Thurs 20th, Fri 21st and Sat 22nd March). Go to the VALBEC web site http://www.valbec.org.au and follow the links to ‘member offer’.
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8. Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL)
RaPAL's annual conference will be held at the National University of Ireland, Galway on 20th and 21st June 2008, with an optional, free pre-conference event on 19th June.  The conference theme will be Inclusion and Engagement in Adult Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL.  You are invited to participate by offering workshops, taking part in panel discussions, contributing to practice-based workshops or presenting posters.  For more information please visit http://www.literacy.lancs.ac.uk/rapal/
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9. ACFE Funding
Each year the Adult Community and Further Education Board provides funding to peak bodies and professional associations – collectively known as ACE Network Organisations – to provide specified services to adult community education in Victoria. These services complement the work of the Board and ACFE Regional Councils.
- An ACE Business Coaching Program targeting ACE Managers and Coordinators, with business coaches and mentors drawn from the sector, run by ACE Vic.
Information on this project is available on the ACE Vic website at http://acevic.org.au/Content/category/ACE-leadership-coaching
-  Contribution to a suite of professional development workshops and a conference and production of resources focusing on adult literacy and numeracy education, run by the Victorian Literacy and Basic Education Council (VALBEC).
Details of these activities are on the VALBEC website at http://www.valbec.org.au
-  Two workshops on change management and organisational culture in the ACE sector, run by the Victorian ACE Coalition (VACEC) trading as Community Colleges Victoria. Enquiries  through Janet Russell at jrussell@cebendigo.com.au.
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10. Adults Learning Mathematics Conference - call for proposals
The fifteenth annual conference of Adults Learning Mathematics - A Research Forum (ALM), A Declaration of Numeracy: Empowering Adults through Mathematics Education, will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from June 30, 2008 to July 3, 2008. ALM is an international research forum that brings together those engaged and interested in research and developments in
the field of adult mathematics/numeracy teaching and learning. Information about the 2008 conference can be found at http://www.alm-online.net
Researchers and practitioners in the fields of adult numeracy and mathematics education and related disciplines are invited to submit proposals for contributions to this international conference.
The organisers particularly welcome contributions from members and non-members that help us to:
 Please submit abstracts of proposals for papers by 31 March 2008 to Joanne Kantner at jkantner@kishwaukeecollege.edu  
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11. Subscribe to eVALBEC?
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13. Contact VALBEC
eVALBEC is the monthly electronic newsletter of (VALBEC) the Victorian Adult Literacy  and Basic Education Council.
E-mail: info@valbec.org.au
Web: http://www.valbec.org.au
Postal: Box 861 Springvale South VIC 3172
Ph: 03 9546 6892
Fax: 03 9546 0421