ABE/ESL: Reading: Storybooks Online

http://www.magickeys.com/books/ The title is 'Children's Storybooks Online' but some of the stories could work with low reading level adults. Some stories are read aloud, and can be read word by word. This is another site that you need to spend some time looking at to determine its best use, but there are some real gems in here.

Nutrition Information: Low Literacy Teens and Adults

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/pubs/bibs/gen/lowlit.html
This is a quick guide to articles, books, kits, videos and Web sites that discuss nutrition education for teens and adults with limited reading skills. It also lists resources that will help you create and find easy-to-read print materials. Some English as a Second Language materials are included. However, this is not a major focus of the list.
It has an amazing list of easy to read materials. The creators of the list seriously took on the challenge of providing good information to those who probably need it the most, yet have the least ability to understand what is generally available. Quite comprehensive.

ABE/GED: This Nation: US Government and Citizenship

I liked the self grading quizzes http://www.thisnation.com/quizzes/index.html ,the FAQs about the Constitution http://www.thisnation.com/facts/constitutionfaq.html and the sectionon the American Revolution http://www.thisnation.com/facts/constitutionfaq.html which also include some photographs. The site is developed to correspond with the This Nation textbook, but there are many good tools on here as well.

ABE/GED Soical Studies, Historical Collections

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ from the Library of Congress

A library of Congress on line resource of Historical Collections for the National Digital Library. Learning page includes search help, activities and lesson ideas.

ABE/GED: Library of Congress Website

http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/ Library of Congress website. A treasure trove of information, including resources for:
Kids, Families
Librarians
Publishers
Researchers
Teachers
Braille and Audio Materials
Law Library of Congress
Library Catalogs
Poetry

A great on-line reference service from the Library of Congress for instructors! A Questions and Answers link accepts online questions that are answered by the on-line librarian. A Chat Service is available during designate times. There is an A-Z index for quick information search.

ALL Levels: Basics of Internet Navigating & Mouse Use

http://www2.gol.com/users/billp/course/contents.html This is a link from the Florida Community College at Jacksonville site. It includes everything from clicking (this is a mouse) to using links and email. The level is great for low level readers, and there are excellent illustrations and lessons for each chapter. It is written for Netscape (both PC and Mac) but most of the areas have universal applications. The mouse clicking lesson is interactive, and students can learn a lot quite quickly.

ABE/GED: Social Studies: CNN StudentNews

http://www.az-aall.org/AALL/Pages/Lessons/Support/ACAT%20Social%20Studies.htm ACAT Curriculum from pre-literacy and up. This gives standards and indicators for many social science levels, along with hot links to additional sites that can be used in class.

Summer Musings: Sotir: Vlogging

I know, you thought that since it is summer, you are safe from my threats of new technologies...well, wrong. While checking my RSS feeds (oh you do TOO know what they are, and if not, read all about it a few posts down), I came across an interesting article on blogging and videos=vlogging (of course). Vlogs feature video shorts instead of text. Too bad the name is even worse than blog, not to mention more difficult to pronounce. Sort of a very local cable access channel. If only they had this in Wayne's World.

Vlogs post things like cooking lessons and family events. Politicians are not far behind. Sen. John Edwards is receiving and responding to questions using video. Vlogs, in infant formulations, have been around for a couple of years, but are now toddling out into the mainstream. For those of you who have just become accustomed to blogs...too late...the train is leaving the station...

Vlogger numbers are still pretty small, in comparison to the size of the blogosphere, but they are catching up. The downside is that it takes longer to put together a vlog. You need to shoot the video, edit the video, upload the video...which takes a lot longer than posting to a blog. But just as uploading photos to the blog was made infinitely easier by web sites like HELLO, soon there will be similar tools for video postings. I can post a photo on the blog in less than a minute. I see the same applications for video as well, as soon as more people start using it.

Yes, this is a rapidly changing world. As one of my Luddite (non-techie) friends says...'that blog thing you always babble about...I am hearing it now from normal people too...' He deserves to be vlogged.