With 1990 being International Literacy Year, we thought what better time to find out what's happening in basic adult education, at the new Willfiled Open Learning Centre, but we found the Centre isn't just about learning to read and write..... |
The first thing to strike you about the new Willfied Centre is the total lack of classrooms, or a 'schoolroom atmosphere'. Hardly surprising when you learn that the place is, in fact, the old caretaker's house {at the Lauder Place North end of the site}, and not a school at all. Gone are the rows of Victorian wooden desks, and hard chairs, and in are padded chairs, private study booths, and all the best in hi-tech learning aids.
But just what could one of the county's 180,000 people with reading and writing difficulties expect if they went along to the place?
Firstly, you can forget about having to be here at set times, wading through textbooks designed to be as boring to read as possible, and having a teacher constantly breathing down your neck.
After an intial chat, a tutor will talk with you to find out just what you wish to learn, where your interests lie, and what method of study you feel would suit you best.
For example, when a man who wanted to improve his reading and writing skills was asked what his interests included, and replied 'dog racing', they sat down and wrote a practice sheet based on dog racing.
When another man revealed an interest in boxing, they sat down and wrote a practice story titled, "The Big Fight".
This method is called the 'language experience' approach to reading, and is used for all those who are at the most basic stage of learning to read and write.
After this stage comes 'easy readers': short books, written in Basic English, but with storylines designed to appeal to an adult reader.
And after you've completed your course {at whatever pace suits you}, there's the chance to get a City & Guilds' certificate to show employers just what you have acheived.
But, added the Centre's administrator, Peter Marsh, Open Learning is about more than just gaining certificates, it's about being open to everybody.
This includes not just those who have difficulty with their reading, not just people who have trouble with numbers and maths, not just those who want to work towards some kind of examination, but everybody.
A trainee nurse who 'just wanted' to have someone around she could discuss her college work with; a local man who wanted to get to grips with 'Information Technology' so he could help his son with his computer studies; and another man who just wanted to master the maths his school teachers had never been able to 'drum into him'.
Open Learning, Peter Marsh concluded, is as much about people coming together to share their skills, and help each other to learn, from each other, as it is about traditional learning.
But the Centre's openness
doesn't stop there....The Centre's policy of openness extends to ensuring that the Centre is accessible to the hearing impaired as well as those with normal hearing.
This includes a loop system for the hard of hearing, and a minicom telephone attachment so that the Centre can be contacted by the 'profoundly' deaf (ie those with little or no hearing at all).
Plus a part-time tutor (who is herself profoundly deaf) who teaches basic English to other deaf people, who want or need to improve their English communication skills, and who'se already taught the British Deaf Sign Alphabet to several of the hearing students and tutors!
All part of the Centre's policy to encourage the sharing of skills, and mutual support, between the students.
I.T.And lest you start thinking that the Centre's only concerned with reading and writing afterall, let's start talking "Information Technology", or I.T. for short {That's computers to you and me -- Ed}.
Despite the fears of some of the students (and, dare I suggest, staff members?) that the new administrator might turn out to be a Luddite who'd want to rip out everything more complicated than a calculator, Peter Marsh has pledged his determination to carry on the Good Work of his predecessor, Duncan Leake.
In his won words, his aim is to make Willfield a "centre of excellence", not only in the area of basic skills, but also in the frontline field of I.T.
This not only means making available a fifteen part home study course, leading to a City & Guilds 444 certificate in I.T., but also ensuring that the Centre's five computers (which include two BBC micros, an IBM PC, and two Nimbus 'IBM compatibles') are as accessible as possible to anyone coming along for the first time -- regardless of their previous level of experience in I.T.
By preparing simple introduction sheets to as many of the computer 'packages' as possible, so that 'people will be able to come in and sit down at a computer, possibly for the first time in their lives, and begin to get to grips with the 'new technology' right away." And to make sure he isn't left behind by the technology, he's even been coming in Sundays to get to grips with them himself!
Helping him in this task are 'user friendly' menu screens, 'idiot proof' booklets, and even a typing tutor program which helps you find your way around the computers' keyboards.
All in all, an exciting new project (the only one of its kind in Staffordshire) which we're lucky to have on our doorstep. As one of the students said, "If Bentilee residents don't take full advantage of this place, they must be the biggest pack of fools this side of the House of Lords."
Copyright John Steele, 1990, 1999
As the Willfield Centre allowed me to typeset The Bentilean on their office Apple Macintosh systems, I was more than happy to write an article about them in the mag. He must of liked it as he later used in the Centre's publicity, even after I'd left the Centre. Nice to know something in the mag came in useful to someone. Unfortunately, the Centre has since closed.Back to: The Contents Page | The Archive | The Bentilean Main Page