Hello adult education and technology professionals:

You are cordially invited to participate virtually in the Virginia Adult
Learning Resource Center at VCU's Summit on the Future of Adult Education in
the New Digital Age <http://newdigitalworld.ning.com/>.  During this event,
which will take place in Richmond, VA on November 5-6, 2009 , a group of
invited experts in the fields of education and technology from across the
nation will convene to discuss technology use in adult literacy education
and the challenges and opportunities it presents. Keynote addresses will be
offered by Dr. Stephen Reder of Portland State University and Marian
Thacher, Director of Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN), with
recorded remarks offered by Virginia Senator Jim Webb. During the summit,
attendees will participate in working groups to generate a research agenda,
along with policy and practice recommendations, that will provide guidance
for the integration of technology into the field of adult literacy
education. Virginia will use these recommendations to inform a new adult
education technology plan.

So, how can you get in on some of the conversations happening at the summit?
Both the opening keynote and closing plenary sessions at the summit will be
streamed live on the web, and there will be an ongoing discussion forum,
live chat, and, of course, Twitter feed available to field questions and
comments from education professionals interested in participating virtually.
You can watch the stream and chime in via chat with your questions, or,
anytime before or during the two day event, you can post questions or
comments for participants on our discussion forum.  Event organizers will
attempt to get your questions addressed during the summit activities.

If you are interested in participating online, please follow the
instructions below to join Ning and familiarize yourself with the features
of the summit site.

Before the summit
Anyone can *view* the summit site. However, we encourage everyone who is
interested to formally join Ning in order to fully participate. Here's how:


   1. Join the summit Ning site by clicking on this link:
http://newdigitalworld.ning.com/?xgi=1pLoJSUghfblzf
   <http://www.ning.com/>
   2. If you don't have an account already, you will be asked to create one.
   No worries--it's quick and it's free.
   3. Once have logged in, be sure to explore the summit site by reading the
   participants' bios and position papers, viewing the schedule of summit
   events, and posting any pre-summit questions or comments you have to the
   site forum.


During the summit

   1. Log in to the summit Ning site at http://newdigitalworld.ning.com
   2. Watch a live stream of the keynote and plenary sessions from the
   summit home page (see the Schedule page for live streaming times).
   3. Participate in ongoing discussions with summit observers through the
   Ning forum.
   4. For those with a Twitter account, be sure to follow @vaeln for summit
   updates and use the summit hashtag #AdultEd2020


 If you have technical questions during the event, contact Karen at(888)
589-9003.

I hope you enjoy being a part of this exciting event.

Sincerely,

Richard A. Sebastian
Instructional Technology Specialist
Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center
Virginia Commonwealth University
(804) 828-7537
rasebastian at vcu dot edu
Twitter: @rasebastian
Twitter: @vaeln
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