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University of California San Diego, ranked 15th in the US and 19th in the world according to the Shanghai ranking, confirms the high quality of the tools developed in the AlphaBetter project.

Check it HERE.

The project "Alphabetter - learning tools for preventing functional and secondary illiteracy" has been completed. This is a joint venture between the WSB University, ENAIP Veneto from Italy, MEPCO, s.r.o. from the Czech Republic, ECECE from Austria and Prof. Megan Hopkins from the University of California.

Over the past months, a team of WSB University researchers, in cooperation with international partners, has been working to develop effective strategies and tools to counter functional and secondary illiteracy. The joint efforts have resulted in comprehensive solutions that have the potential to change the lives of many people through education.

On 1 December 2023 WSB University organised the final conference to summarise and disseminate the results of the ERASMUS+ project Alphabetter - Learning Tools for the Prevention of Functional and Secondary Illiteracy.

The event gave the opportunity to present the results of the activities of all international project teams.

The purpose of the Alphabetter project was to develop and test a set of tools to support the inclusion of adults who are functionally illiterate. An adult who is functionally illiterate has difficulty engaging engage in activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning in their community and/or is necessary for their own development. Each Alphabetter partner opted to design and implement a set of tools around the specific needs of their communities. These needs were identified through a community engagement process involving focus groups with members of the target populations identified; then, each team developed a unique set of tools to support the specific functional literacy needs identified.

In Poland given recent war-related migration trends in the region, the team from WSB University developed a card game to support Ukrainian refugees’ acquisition of basic Polish as a means for learning about and incorporating into Polish life. Then, in Italy, ENAIP identified the need for to support the labor market literacies of adults over the age of 30 (and mostly over the age of 50) who have experienced long-term unemployment. As such, they designed seven short video clips to expose adults to job training organizations and websites and to illustrate effective written and oral communication skills in the job application process.

Turning to Austria, the team from Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt noted that an increasing proportion of migrant families needed support to engaged in their children’s schooling. As such, they designed a set of tools to support parents’ information literacy that visually conveyed important school-related communication, such as what activities their children would be participating in, and what supplies they would need to bring. Finally, based on the difficulties that many adult employees and residents in the municipality had engaging in formal municipal processes, the team from MEPCO in the Czech Republic adapted a set of written forms into condensed and visually appealing documents to promote employment and legal literacies.

Each team tested their tools with the community of interest and evaluated their effectiveness in supporting the specific literacy needs identified. Overall, each set of tools was deemed helpful by community members in promoting their engagement in the identified literacy practices. Across all contexts, users also suggested improvements to the tools, which each team plans to incorporate into future iterations. The team is very well-poised to have a profound impact on their respective communities as they engage in this and future international collaborations to support adults’ effective functioning and personal development.

On September 21-22, 2023, another team meeting of the project “AlphaBetter - learning tools for preventing functional and secondary illiteracy”, was held in the center of Prague where partners were hoted by MEPCO. The University was represented by Maciej Witkowski, PhD, Professor of AWSB, Michal Szyszka, PhD, and Katarzyna Katana.

WSB researchers, together with representatives of international partners (ENAIP Veneto from Italy, MEPCO, s.r.o. from the Czech Republic, ECECE from Austria) and Prof. Megan Hopkins from the University of California, San Diego, are working on strategies and tools used to prevent functional and secondary illiteracy as part of this activity.

An international meeting of partners of the project “Alphabetter - learning tools for preventing functional and secondary illiteracy” was held in Padova on May 11 and 12.

During the meetings and workshops, the project partners presented the first results of the tools they developed and disseminated in the pilot phase, including: video tutorials for job seekers, proprietary “memory” cards as language learning aids, and short illustrated tutorials for parents of immigrant children and office petitioners. These materials have been tailored to the needs of users in each country and will be used in educational activities.

The ALPHABETTER project aims to reduce the incidence of secondary and functional illiteracy among adults. The project consortium, led by WSB, includes partners from ENAIP Veneto of Italy, MEPCO, s.r.o. of the Czech Republic and ECECE of Austria, as well as the University of California at San Diego. Project activities include the development of educational materials and methodologies specifically tailored to different target groups such as immigrants, immigrant families and unemployed people over 30.

Alphabetter partners met at in Klagenfurt to discuss current stage and national input to Project Result 1. Methodology for courses/training for educators of people experiencing secondary and functional illiteracy.

Partners had discussion on “Diversity and inclusion in an international educational context: How does an inclusive and culturally sensitive educational environment work in practice? Projects, practice and experiences”

Partners were hosted by Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt.

Partners planned next steps for project implementation.

Prof. Maciej Witkowski, together with partners from Italy and Austria conducted a workshop for doctoral students of Pedagogy at the University California San Diego on 2 June 2022. 

The meeting focused on working with people experiencing secondary and functional illiteracy and ethnic minorities.

The lecture was organised within the framework of the project "Alphabetter- learning tools for preventing functional and secondary illiteracy" co-financed from the Erasmus + programme. The WSB University is a leader of this project. The project is carried out in partnership with the University California San Diego and expert organisations from Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic. 

During the research visit representatives of the Alphabetter Consortium:

• From WSB: Prof. Maciej Witkowski, as well as Ewelina Widerska and Sebastian Kwaśniewski
• From ECECE – Riccardo Carini and Veronika Michitsch
• and online Martin Guba (MEPCO) and Emanuela Vizzarro (ENAIP)

conducted research in the US-Mexico border area supported by University California San Diego researchers Megan Hopkins, Cheryl Forbes, and Maxie Gluckman.

The research involved a series of meetings with representatives of institutions dealing with bilingual teaching and representatives of migrant communities, e.g:

• Individuals involved in helping refugees on the border with Mexico: Paulina Olvera Cáñez from Espacio Migrante and Lourdes Medrano from Centro 32/Families Belong Together, 
• Representatives of Somali Family Services, 
• Volunteers and activists from MAKE PROJECT - Merging Agriculture, Kitchens, and Employment (https://www.sdmake.org/), 
• Kate Anderson - representative of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians,
• Casey Myers - founder and president of One Digital World
• and University California San Diego researchers Megan Hopkins, Cheryl Forbes, and Maxie Gluckman.

Alphabetter partners met at WSB University in Dąbrowa Górnicza (Poland) to discuss illiteracy state of art in Austria, Poland, Czechia and Italy.

Megan Hopkins presented UCSD tool for bilingual education for bilingual education.

Partners planned next steps for project implementation.

Presentations about illiteracy in project countries can be found below.