Application for the support of the interdisciplinary

research project

ICT-Enhanced Teaching
of Literacy
www.eLitNet.at

submitted by

Professor Dr. Wolfgang Pree

Chair of Software Technology
University of Salzburg

Department of Computer Science

Jakob-Haringer-Str. 2
A-5020 Salzburg
Tel.: +43 662 / 80 44 – 6444
Fax: +43 662 / 80 44 – 6446
E-Mail: Pree@SoftwareResearch.net
www.SoftwareResearch.net

Professor Dr. Jean-Luc Patry

University of Salzburg
Chair of Education

Department of Education (Erziehungswissenschaft)

Akademie-Str. 26
A-5020 Salzburg
Tel.: +43 662 / 80 44 – 4225
Fax: +43 662 / 80 44 – 141
E-Mail: jean-luc.patry@sbg.ac.at
www.sbg.ac.at/erz/people/patry.htm

12 December 2003
 Table of Contents

1 Project context 3

2 Aims and research scope of eLitNet 3

2.1 Status Quo 4
2.2 Expected results of eLitNet 5
2.3 Research areas of eLitNet 7

3 Concepts and methods for achieving the eLitNet goals 8

3.1 Networks in addition to centers as basis for blended learning 8
3.2 Student motivation through constructivist learning modules 10
3.3 Pen-based user interfaces 12
3.4 Teacher training and supervision 13

4 Required resources and resource planning 15

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1 Project context

The University of Salzburg is in the process of establishing four research focus areas
as its profile. One of these research focus areas concentrates on the field of
information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their impact on society.1 This
proposal describes the interdisciplinary research project called eLitNet that is lead by
the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Education to serve as a
model project for the research focus mentioned above. The aim of the eLitNet project
is to evaluate, develop, and implement a didactically sound computer-based program
and course structure to help functionally analphabetic adults (secondary
analphabetism) to re-learn to read and write.

Presently, the University of Salzburg is supporting the research of the eLitNet project
in its pre-phase, which has been in progress since September 2003. The team
conducting the pre-phase research is lead by professor Pree and professor Patry. The
team members include: Dr. Angela Gastager, Mag. Thomas Hruschka, Mark Kramer,
MA. and Dipl.-Ing. Christopher Rettenbacher. The pre-phase research being
conducted is focused on evaluating the present status of adult literacy programs and
training in Austria and determining which ICT-support is available for teaching literacy
and which curricula are used.

The intended outcome of this pre-phase research is to help ascertain which ICT-
support will effectively enhance the teaching of reading and writing skills and to help
develop innovative and practical ideas to ensure an original approach to literacy
development. The research conducted during this pre-phase, which is scheduled to
conclude in February 2004, will help determine the practicability of such a pioneering
project and also facilitate the establishment of conditions to help guarantee the
success of the eLitNet Project.

2 Aims and research scope of eLitNet

The principal aim of eLitNet is to adapt ICTs to enhance the literacy instruction
conducted by practitioners in the field of literacy and to assist overall in reducing adult
functional illiteracy in Austria.2

1 The Austrian Ministry of Education (bm:bwk) has awarded an advance payment of two professorships
(“Vorziehprofessuren”) to help establish the ICT&S focus (Information Communication Technologies &
Society): one for human-computer interaction & usability and one for Internet & Society.
2 eLitNet defines adult functional illiterates as persons older than 16 whose knowledge of reading and
writing is not sufficient for the society in which they live.

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The eLitNet project is determined to:
• significantly extend the capacity of currently existing teaching centers by providing
the communication infrastructure for blended learning;
• come up with an innovative curriculum and content, that is learning software, that
relies on an appropriate mix of constructivist and instructionist didactical
approaches, to teach both reading and writing to functional illiterates;
• come up with cutting-edge user interface design that is adequate for teaching
reading and writing on tablet personal computers (tablet PCs);
• increase awareness and understanding of new uses of ICTs in the field of literacy
and adult education.

2.1 Status Quo

Currently there are four teaching centers in Austria that engage in activities to help
reduce adult functional illiteracy. These centers are located in Vienna, Graz, Linz and
Salzburg, and they collectively form the Netzwerk Alphabetisierung.at (www.alphabet.
co.at), which represents an Austrian-wide initiative to combat adult functional
illiteracy, which, by recent conservative estimates, has reached the level of 300.000
adults.3 To serve this cross-section of Austrian Society, these four centers teach
literacy mainly based on conventional teaching methods and have limited capacity.
More teaching capacity required. In our pre-phase research we found that the
capacity for teaching functionally illiterate adults does not meet the demand. Many
functionally illiterate adults have to be turned away as not enough capacity and
resources are available at the existing teaching centers.
Inadequate (re)design of state-of-the-art eLearning software. We regard the
appropriate design and implementation of ICT-enhanced learning in literacy
instruction as one means to increase the capacity of these literacy centers. Our
preliminary findings corroborate that the potential of ICTs for supporting literacy
teaching is largely untapped. The report attached separately to this proposal
summarizes our preliminary study and describes the ways that ICTs are currently
used.
Just to highlight the findings of our preliminary study, we have discovered that most
software used for literacy courses is badly designed from a human-computer-
interaction perspective. Sometimes, we have found that even the basic expectations
are not met, as one would need to be able to read and write fairly well to use
most of the software.
On the other hand, most ICT-based means are not designed for adults. It seems that
the software that is designed for teaching children is not, or only slightly, adapted for
adults. There are several implications that can be derived from these findings:

3 Source: Funktionaler Analphabetismus: Individuelles Problem und gesellschaftliche Herausforderung,

2002

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• Above all, many students using the currently available software say it is not
fun at all. None of the motivational elements (e.g., attracting attention of the
students, providing relevant information, taking into account competence
attributions, providing satisfaction – see the ARCS approach by Astleitner & Keller,
1995)
• The approaches are designed for teaching people with primary reading/writing
deficits (learning to read and write to people who never were able to do so),
whereas we need teaching materials for secondary illiterates.
• The software does not take into account the situations which the functionally
illiterates may have to cope with, for this reason transfer is very unlikely.
We expect that the software can be significantly improved. One means is to take
constructivist teaching approaches into consideration with regards to software
development.

More anonymity desirable. Another aspect points in favor of an ICT-enhanced

literacy curriculum. One fact we have discovered in our preliminary research is that
functionally illiterate adults prefer to engage in anonymous teaching settings. This
helps avoid the embarrassment associated with being functionally illiterate. We
believe that an adequate set up of ICTs could satisfy this requirement of anonymity
very well.

2.2 Expected results of eLitNet

A successful eLitNet project contributes to overcoming the problems summarized
above. As a target group we have selected those functionally illiterate persons who
can barely read and write at all, that is, those who are at the lowest level of
literacy. The eLitNet project results should raise their literacy proficiency to a
level where they become socially inconspicuous.
Figure 1 sketches the overall project framework, which consists of the following
entities:
• hardware platform: we have chosen a tablet PC (with an optional keyboard) as
pen-based computers allow the recognition of handwritten input
• Internet-based communication infrastructure that heavily relies on voice
and gestures so that teachers and functionally illiterate students can exchange
information
• learning modules (software for students) that is motivating and resembles real-
life problems that students face in their daily lives and include evaluations and tests
• software for teachers: that allow the guidance of students through the
curriculum and contains evaluations
• teaching-learning arrangements with blended learning.

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 blended learning and teaching

learning modules
communication software for
hardware platform (software for
infrastructure teachers
students)

Figure 1. The eLitNet project components.

The design and implementation of these components relies on an in-depth study
about the status-quo of ICT-enhanced teaching of literacy, which is supposed to be
the first result4 of eLitNet:
• State-of-the-art report about the usage of ICTs in teaching reading and
writing skills a) in Austria b) in Germany c) in selected developed nations. The
report describes, for example, the overall theoretical background of teaching
literacy, characteristics of curricula and comprises a scientific evaluation of the
status-quo.

After the six months pre-phase of the eLitNet project we plan for a 1.5-year initial
phase from March 2004 until September 2005 where we will focus on setting up a
pilot project in the Province of Salzburg in collaboration with the abc
(“alphabetisierungs-center”) in Salzburg. The objective of this pilot project is to show
that the eLitNet project results are useful in practice and to get feedback on how to
adapt the components. The pilot project would pave the way to transfer the results to
the rest of Austria or even to other German speaking countries.
The pre-phase, which is financially supported by the University of Salzburg, should in
addition to the state-of-the-art report deliver draft specifications of the curriculum, of
the communication infrastructure and of the learning modules.
The expected deliverables for the 2-year initial phase, for which this proposal is
written, are the following:
• a well defined curriculum for the target group that we have chosen, that is, for
those who can barely read and write. The appropriate description of the curriculum
forms the deliverable result.
• set-up of the blended learning environment in cooperation with the abc
Salzburg: development of a scenario on how potential students and eLitNet
teachers get in contact through the abc; how they interact virtually (online) and

4A short version focusing on ICT-support in Austria is produced within the six months long
pre-phase of the eLitNet project (September 2003 – February 2004)

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 through real-world meetings. We expect that in a first phase, 7-10 students, which
would otherwise have been turned away by the abc Salzburg due to its limited
capacity, should benefit from our project. Later on and with more experience with
the approach, the number of students can be significantly increased, with the upper
limit being defined by the availability of competent teachers. 5
• specification of the ICT-based communication infrastructure and software:
based on the curriculum and the learning modules an appropriate ICT set up will
need to be defined. Which hardware will be used for the pilot (which specific tablet
PCs) and how should the software used by teachers and students look like.
Furthermore, the requirements for the Internet connection between teachers and
students will be determined.
• prototypical implementation of the eLitNet infrastructure and software:
initial empirical studies on how the ICT support performs should start as early as
September 2004. The ICT support should evolve in a prototyping manner: based on
feedback from teachers and students the eLitNet project members define the next
evolutionary development steps.
• accompanying study on the effectiveness of ICT-enhanced literacy
teaching (e.g., analyzing the motivation of the learners with the eLIM
questionnaire [see Patry, 1997] , the electronic lesson interruption method)

2.3 Research areas of eLitNet

From a computer science perspective, the main areas of research required for a
successful eLitNet project are:
• software engineering: the design and prototypical implementation of the eLitNet
components, in other words, the communication infrastructure and the software for
students and teachers requires a sound software engineering background
• human-computer interaction: the adequate and optimal user-interface design of a
platform for blended learning for functionally illiterate persons represents a
formidable challenge that requires adaptive user interfaces which integrate voice
and pen-based gestures
The Software Engineering Group has the know-how in these areas. Furthermore, we
will make an effort to establish a collaboration with the human-computer-interaction
professorship that should be appointed in Summer Semester 2004.
From a pedagogical and educational perspective, the main areas of research required
for a successful eLitNet project are:

5 Students of the Education Department will cooperate in the project as teachers and hence acquire the

necessary competence, so that the question will not be whether such teachers are available but rather
whether the financial resources are available to pay them once the approach is implemented and the
present project has ended.

–7–
• Identifying the particular needs of the functionally illiterates: The software to be
designed must take into account the particular motivational background of the
participants
• Developing an adequate curriculum: This is based on the curricula for functionally
illiterates, not on those for first reading and writing learning of elementary school
children.
• Formulating appropriate didactical approaches: The basic didactical framework is
constructivism comprising as central element what we call "viability check" as
developed at the Department of Education;
• Application of an appropriate evaluation design according to the principles in
practice at the Department of Education, particularly based on the approach of
"critical multiplism" (Cook 1985), also further refined at the Department which has
a particular strength in the domain of evaluation and evaluation designs.

3 Concepts and methods for achieving the

eLitNet goals
The following sections describe ideas that we regard as crucial for the project success:
more teaching capacity through many small teacher-student networks that use the
teaching centers as real-world meeting place; student motivation and fun through
constructivist learning modules as well as pen-based user interfaces.

3.1 Networks in addition to centers as basis for blended

learning
The name alphabetisierungs-centrum (abc) already reflects its core characteristic, that
is the center approach (Figure 2). Currently, the abc Center in Salzburg has a capacity
of roughly twenty seats for students to attend its traditional classroom setting. This is
a common arrangement in which students and teachers meet weekly at the abc center
located within the city of Salzburg. The size of the classroom and the location of the
abc in Salzburg place physical restraints on the number of students attending courses,
which limits its capacity to instruct more students and caters more to those who live
within a reasonable commuting distance to Salzburg.

Figure 2. Conventional center-based approach.

–8–
On the other hand, the center forms a valuable contact point: it has established itself
as a brand. Numerous functionally illiterate adults contact the abc Center. People who
would have to be turned away due to the limited capacity could be those who are
selected for The eLitNet Pilot Project. We also consider a real-world meeting place of
students and teachers crucial for the success of eLitNet.
Teacher-student networks. The Internet-based communication infrastructure forms
the back-bone for each teacher-student network, which connects a human teacher
with the student(s). Section 3.3 presents how tablet PCs enable the design of the
communication infrastructure that is suitable for functionally illiterate persons. Each
teacher would deal with approximately 1-3 students depending on his or her
availability. Teachers and students are asynchronously and sometimes synchronously
connected through the proposed communication infrastructure.

Teacher training and

supervision

Figure 3. Teacher-student networks and teacher-teacher networks

envisioned in eLitNet.
We see the following advantages of virtual teacher-student networks in addition to the
abc:
• Increased teaching capacity: The eLitNet communication infrastructure will allow
us to harness what we expect to be a vast number of potential teachers. There are
many people around who can read and write and would have the time, motivation
and passion for being a qualified eLitNet teacher6. Nevertheless, they would have to
have certain qualifications. We expect that the more standardized the curriculum
and ICT-support is, the more people could qualify as teachers, as they have to
follow appropriate guidelines. The Kumon7 method, which was invented in Japan in
the 1950s and has been developed for teaching mathematics to children aged 3-18,
is an example of how this kind of standardization could be carried out. Thus,
teacher training and supervision will be one aspect considered in the realm of
eLitNet.
• Better anonymity. The usage of ICTs will contribute to a more anonymous set up.
Students can work with the tablet PC more and at any time. The tablet PC is a
small device which easily hides in a drawer.
• Individually adjustable teaching capacity. The students could fine-tune the
speed of learning better as the groups (one teacher – one to three students) are

6 Examples of eLitNet teachers are qualified volunteer university graduates and retired
persons. Particularly the students working within the project (in form of a project seminar for
one semester) can qualify as teachers both during the project seminar and later on (the latter
with an appropriate contract).
7 See www.Kumon.com for the Kumon-based education program in North America. Overall, ca.
3 Mio. students use Kumon worldwide as school supplemental education program.

–9–
 smaller and as the software allows for customized training. For example, jobless
illiterates can spend much more time learning reading and writing skills. Due to
their limited capacity, centers cannot spend more time teaching a particular
student.
• No complex software for feedback to complex exercises. The teaching
software does not have to be advanced regarding the capabilities of providing
feedback to more complex exercises. The human teacher on the other side of the
communication component can do that job. The main task of the teacher in this
eLearning environment is to guide the student. For that purpose eLitNet will come
up with a standardized curriculum for different levels of illiteracy. Both, the teacher
and its student(s) should meet on a regular basis with more frequency in the
beginning.
• Easy-to-adapt software. Usually the development of software is very expensive, but
a particular program can be used only once. It is envisaged that a concept of
software engineering will be used which permits to keep the general framework of
the program, yet the actual content is changeable. For instance, for the purpose of
practice, a teaching-learning situation is conceived in which the functionally
illiterate person is required to find his or her way going from one city to another;
the software is such that there is a file with the necessary information (e.g., going
from Salzburg to Graz) which easily can be changed so that the same program can
be used, this time, for a trip from Linz to Bregenz or from Prague to Munich or from
Los Angeles to Sacramento.

3.2 Student motivation through constructivist learning

modules
Constructivist teaching-learning approaches are based on the concept that the
students must become active themselves to learn, according to certain principles. The
learning process is conceived as a problem solving approach with, as the most
important principle, the use of viability checks. The problem solving process with
viability check follows the quasi-algorithm represented in Figure 4.

– 10 –
Figure 4. Algorithm for a viability check.
The approach has already been tested in e-learning environments. In the particular
case of functional illiterates the challenge is to conceive appropriate opportunities for
viability checks and appropriate viability criteria. The pen-based user interfaces is a
particularly valuable tool for writing experiences in this regard. One of the sensitive
areas is how to have the students learn without providing written instructions and
feedbacks which illiterates would not be able to read.
A second approach used is the motivation model developed by John Keller (adapted to
computer assisted instruction by Astleitner & Keller, 1995), namely the so-called
ARCS-model: Attention, Relevance, Competence, and Satisfaction.
In order to demonstrate that the proposed approach works, we will focus on the most
difficult phase of education of the illiterates, namely at the very beginning when one
can assume that the participants are not able to read or write at all so that no written
interaction is possible.

– 11 –
3.3 Pen-based user interfaces
The advantage associated with pen-based computers is that they form the basis for a
more natural interaction with the user compared to mouse-based graphical user
interfaces. Figure 5 shows a tablet PC on which a user entered some text with the
pen. Actually, only pen-based computers allow the input of handwritten text.
By connecting a keyboard, the tablet PC becomes a regular notebook PC. The
availability of hardware and software8 forms a solid basis for using tablet PCs in the
eLitNet project. We assess the handwriting recognition capabilities to be definitely
sufficient for the integration into the teaching software.

Figure 5. Handwritten input on a tablet PC.

User interface aspects of the communication infrastructure and the software
for students & teachers
The user interface has to be designed in a way that a functionally illiterate adult can
easily communicate with their teacher. The following aspects have to be considered:
• voice output as guide
• no menus with text menu items, only icons
• no pop-up explanation texts for icons; instead: spoken explanations
If the teacher and student communicate in a synchronous way, both have to be able
to view the same screen, and to accomplish pen-based annotations: if the teachers
scribble a word on their tablets the students also see it on their tablets.
The user interface has to provide a balanced mix of pen input of text, software-based
recognition of hand-written text, pen gestures as commands, voice output and voice-
based communication between the teacher’s and the student’s tablet PCs.

8 numerous tablet PCs run the Microsoft Windows XP for Tablet PC Edition

– 12 –
3.4 Teacher training and supervision
The teachers and the learners (functionally analphabetic adults, students) as well
have to be accompanied by a counsellor, especially during the implementation phase
but also in the actual teaching and learning process. The interaction with the students’
first contact person of the abc Salzburg will be continued.

Besides certain qualifications of the teachers, including reflected knowledge about the
curriculum and the guidelines (see above), the complete teaching and learning
process has to be supervised. In teacher-teacher networks (see figure 3) the involved
persons communicate according to the approach cooperative counselling (see
Mutzeck, 1997, 40-46; Gastager, 2003, 103-106) including the following principles or
values: reflexivity, rationality and ability for realization, integration of thinking –
feeling – acting, communication competence, practical-acting competence and
autonomy. So it will be a main goal for the practical use of the eLitNet program, that
these six values will be integrated; mainly for improving and leading the most
communication situations of the teaching learning process as well as of the teachers’
interaction process.

The teachers’ communication and interaction will be determined and supported

according to the COPING concept of Diethelm Wahl (see Wahl et al., 1995). The
main goals of this concept are the following:

(1) Referring to other models of colleague supervision “communicative coping of

practice in groups” (“Kommunikative Praxisbewältigung IN Gruppen”, KOPING) is a
method for “help for self-help” to solve profession-specific burdens and conflicts of
experts belonging to the same professional field.

{ {
{ { {
{ {
Figure 6. One COPING group in the eLitNet teacher-teacher network
consisting of three tandems and an external counsellor

(2) Differing from other models of colleague supervision COPING is an important

method in modern and (moderate) constructivist adult education, especially for
making secure the transfer of the knowledge elements to everyday professional life.

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With the COPING concept questions and problems, which emerge during the usage of
the developed eLitNet program (within virtual communication situations via tablet PCs
and within real face-to-face communication situations in meetings), are discussed in
small teacher-teacher networks (see figure 6). These networks consist of several
tandem teams. One COPING group will be counselled by an external person, a
member of the eLitNet-Team of the Department of Education. The didactical quality of
this educational work focuses in practical relevance and “learning by doing”, a
simultaneous process for using new (knowledge) concepts, which e.g. is important in
workplaces, but also in different fields of everyday life.

– 14 –
4 Required resources and resource planning

We use the following abbreviations:

• CS= Department of Computer Science
• DE= Department of Education
• PMs= effort measured in person months

Work-package 1:
Evaluation and description of the status-quo in literacy teaching
PMs: 32 (14 CS + 18 DE)
activities:
• definition of the target group: starting level, structure, needs
• interviews to find out which situations are difficult for functionally
illiterate persons in the target group
• investigation regarding the background; scientific evaluation thereof:
• which curricula are used
• which (learning) software and ICTs are available
• didactic concepts
• viability checks
• best practice models
Deliverables: • state-of-the-art report about literacy
teaching and the usage of ICTs a) in Austria
b) in Germany c) in selected developed
nations

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Work-package 2:
Curriculum development and teacher training and supervision
PMs: 41 (13 CS + 28 DE)
activities:
• design of blended learning scenarios
• assignment of teaching elements to different phases of blended
learning:
• when teacher and student are present
• asynchronous setting
• synchronous setting
• providing an answer to the following questions (with a particular
emphasis on the very first teaching phase):
• what should a phase deliver?
• which role and tasks do teachers and students have in each of the
phases?
• what is the information flow and work flow in the different phases?
• what is expected from a phase so that it is assessed as success?
• Providing training and supervision to the teachers during the
implementation phase:
• teacher training
• supervision

Deliverables: • curriculum for the target group defined in

work-package 1
• development of scenarios how students and
eLitNet teachers interact

– 16 –
Work-package 3:
Specification and implementation of the ICT infrastructure and
software
PMs: 45 (39 CS + 6 DE)
activities:
• specification of the communication infrastructure, in particular, the
design of its pen-based user interface
• specification of the learning modules and the teaching software, in
particular, the design of its pen-based user interface
• prototyping-oriented implementation of the communication
infrastructure: that means that a working version of the communication
infrastructure should be available soon so that feedback can be
provided by the project partners; based on the feedback the
communication infrastructure is enhanced or changed
• prototyping-oriented implementation of the learning modules and the
teaching software
Deliverables: • specification document
• prototype system suitable for usage in a
pilot project

Work-package 4:
study on the effectiveness of ICT-enhanced literacy teaching
PMs: 15 (3 CS + 12 DE)
activities:
• design and conception of the instruments for the evaluation (interviews,
online feedback devices, etc.)
• evaluation of the eLitNet prototype
Deliverables: • assessment instruments
• evaluation report
• recommendations for further research

– 17 –
Work-package 5:
project management and cooperations
PMs: 8 (5 CS + 3 DE)
activities:
• eLitNet project management
• coordination with partners, in particular, with the abc (Salzburg)
• contact with students
Deliverables: • project plan
• meeting minutes
• final report
• practical implications

Estimated costs:

yr 1 yr 2 per annum year 1 year 2 total PM CS DE

CS grad.stud. PostDoc 2 1 Ū 45,720.00 Ū 91,440.00 Ū 45,720.00 Ū 137,160.00 36 36 0
CS grad.stud. PhD cand. 1 0.5 Ū 27,620.00 Ū 27,620.00 Ū 13,810.00 Ū 41,430.00 18 18 0
DE grad.stud. PhD cand. 1 0.5 Ū 27,620.00 Ū 27,620.00 Ū 13,810.00 Ū 41,430.00 18 0 18
DE grad.stud. PhD cand. 1 0.5 Ū 27,620.00 Ū 27,620.00 Ū 13,810.00 Ū 41,430.00 18 0 18
DE grad.stud. PostDoc 1 0.3 Ū 45,720.00 Ū 22,860.00 Ū 11,430.00 Ū 34,290.00 9 0 9
CS grad.stud. PhD cand. 1 0.5 Ū 27,620.00 Ū 27,620.00 Ū 13,810.00 Ū 41,430.00 18 18 0
DE secretary 1 0.5 Ū 10,000.00 Ū 10,000.00 Ū 5,000.00 Ū 15,000.00 18 0 18

Travel costs, conference pa Ū 10,000.00

Hardware & Software, books Ū 20,000.00

total Ū 382,170.00 135 72 63

CS = Computer Science Dept.

DE = Dept. of Education

PM = Effort measured in person months

Overall €382,170.00 for a project duration of 1.5 years.

– 18 –
The following figure sketches the arrangement of the project work packages within the
two years:

t0 t0+1yr. t0+2yrs.

status-quo eval.
WP1

curriculum development +
teacher training and supervision
WP2

specification and impl. of

ICT infrastructure
WP3

effectiveness study
WP4

project management +
cooperations
WP5

– 19 –