Session 16

Title: Interactive Television: Delivering Essential Skills Training To Hutterites

Session Description:

Assiniboine Community College piloted an Essential Skills upgrading program to reach Manitoba Hutterites using their interactive television system. This session will discuss some of the challenges that went into the planning of the program, and ultimately the rewards it offered to approximately seventy-five Hutterite men. Through the use of technology, instructors were able to reach numerous colonies throughout the province. Instruction focused on trades related math skills as well as some reading comprehension and document use. Students have since continued their interactive training by upgrading in their respective trade through a trades qualification course in preparation to write their inter-provincial or “Red Seal” exam. The session will also provide a brief technological overview of interactive television.

Presenters: Roger Loewen, Paul Waldner

Roger Loewen is the Essential Skills Coordinator for Assiniboine Community College. This role involves partnering closely with Apprenticeship Manitoba, other government departments and industry in identifying Essential Skills necessary for success in the workplace, conducting appropriate assessments and delivering relative training.

 

Paul Waldner is a high school teacher at Green Acres Colony near Wawanesa, MB. He is a graduate of the Brandon University Hutterite Education Program. In addition to regular classroom instruction, Paul regularly uses interactive television as a means of reaching out to students throughout the province. He worked in partnership with Assiniboine Community College in delivering Essential Skills training to fellow Hutterites throughout the province.