Ontario Literacy Coalition's Weblog

Spotlight on Learning offered adult learner delegates some additional skills to promote literacy at the local level.

In what ways can adult learners continue to promote literacy within their local communities?

What additional supports would assist adult literacy learners in building leadership capacity?

Here are a few successes and highlights that demonstrate the success of the Spotlight On Learning conference:

• 277 delegates attended the conference
• 58 workshops were offered

“A conference like this is the one place that people from different regions, streams and sectors (colleges, school boards and community based) can get together. The inclusion of learners is great.”

• 97% reported the workshops as good or excellent
• 94% of delegates said the conference would contribute to the effectiveness of their work

“The workshops provided practical as well as theoretical content. I got information that I can implement in my own program. The focus on practicality is exactly what we need and want.”

Who were the conference delegates?

• 9% were adult learners
• 39% were practitioners
• 6% were researchers
• 32% were administrators
• 7% were volunteers
• 7% were other literacy stakeholders

The event was valuable on several different levels. It spoke to literacy professionals from different fields. I wasn’t at a loss as to what pertained to me and my organization.”

As you can see from the evaluative comments on the conference, participants provided both qualitative and quantitative feedback. The Spotlight On Learning conference, through its keynote presentations, offered qualitative and quantitative perspectives on the value of literacy work. What do you think are the pros and cons of describing the value of literacy work in qualitative terms (stories and comments)?  In quantitative terms (statistics)? What are your experiences?