Topics Of Interest

Digital Learning Day 2013 will be held on Feb. 6, launching a variety of activities at the national and local levels. In concert with a national focus on digital learning during February, the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN) for adult learners will host its Technology and Distance Learning Symposium (TDLS) on Feb. 22–23, 2013, at Berkeley Adult School in
Berkeley, Calif. The symposium will feature promising practices, strategies, lesson ideas, technology integration, and distance and blended learning.

The TDLS is targeted to administrators, coordinators, and teachers who are planning for or already implementing distance, blended, and online instruction, as well as integrating technology in the classroom. Registration is open through Feb. 14, 2013.

The event program so far includes Online and Blended Instruction Delivery; Moodle—Your Learning Management System; Presentation Tools in the Classroom: Interactive Whiteboards, Document Cameras and More; Productivity Tools for Classroom Projects; Web-based Activities; and Online Resources for Adult Education. For more information, including the final schedule, and to register, please access Technology and Distance Learning Symposium.

Adult educators may wish to access the Digital Learning Day site to learn more about this national campaign to celebrate teachers and publicize successful instructional practices and effective uses of technology in classrooms. The Feb. 6, second annual Digital Learning Day, will provide access to activities, ideas, and collaboration opportunities. To date, some 16,000 teachers representing 46 states, D.C., and more than 3.3 million students have signed up to participate.

To culminate Digital Literacy Day activities, the Alliance for Excellent Education will hold a Digital Town Hall on Feb. 6, 2013, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. (EST). The town hall will focus on how excellent teaching, combined with effective technology, can make an impact on improving America’s schools, particularly those that serve high-risk and high-poverty populations. It will profile teachers, students, schools, and districts that are implementing digital learning in innovative and successful ways. National policy and education leaders will attend as part of a live studio audience. Interested parties may sign up now to watch the live simulcast of the Digital Town Hall

• New Commitments to TBED
• Commercializing Research
• Investing in a Skilled Workforce & STEM Initiatives
• Re-Organization/Branding
• Strategic & Competitiveness Plans
• Tax Incentives
• Local & Private Activity on the Rise
• Federal Efforts Strengthened

The Second Chance Act of 2007 provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of incarcerated adults and juveniles who are released from prison, jail, and juvenile residential facilities and returning to communities. There are currently over 2.3 million individuals serving time in our federal and state prisons, and millions of people cycling through local jails every year. Ninety-five percent of all offenders incarcerated today will eventually be released and will return to communities. The coordination of reentry services for members of Native American Tribes is even more complex given that they can return from Federal, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), state, local, and tribal facilities.

Programs funded under the Second Chance Act help ensure that the transition individuals make from prison and jail to the community is successful and promotes public safety. Securing employment can facilitate successful reentry for people leaving correctional facilities. However, there are many barriers people with criminal records encounter as they attempt to re-enter both the community and the workforce. Improving employment outcomes for this population can contribute to recidivism reductions and increased public safety.

Section 115 of the Second Chance Act authorizes federal awards to states, units of local government, territories, and federally recognized Indian tribes to provide technology career training to persons confined in state prisons, local jails, and juvenile residential facilities. This program supports the education, training, mentoring, support services, and job placement for incarcerated/detained adults and juveniles in a technology field.

On January 9, 2013, the Bureau of Justice Assistance within the Department of Justice announced it is seeking applications for funding under the Second Chance Act to provide technology career training to incarcerated individuals. Justice anticipates that it will make up to 10 awards of up to $750,000 each for a 12-month project period to begin on October 1, 2013. Applications are due by March 11.

Some examples of technology-based fields include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Computer-assisted design in engineering and construction
• Information technology development and design
• Green-technology"-related projects
• Wireless and broadband deployment
• Computer science and programming
• Engineering technology fields
• Other fields as justified by the eligible applicant based on the assessment of local demand for employees in the areas to which program participants are likely to return and that improve the likelihood of post-release employment.

Also see:

Employment and Training Administration's Reintegration of Ex-Offenders Webpage

The Post-9/11 GI Bill is enabling hundreds of thousands of recent Veterans to obtain the education they need for success during and after their military service. Unfortunately, it is challenging to determine program completion rates or degree conferral. We know how many Veterans receive funds and how much money has been spent, but not the explicit results achieved by this investment. Today Student Veterans of America (SVA) and VA announced a major step in changing that.

SVA, working with VA and the National Student Clearinghouse, will lead an effort to research the completion rates of Veterans and their dependents using the Post-9/11 GI Bill. This is an unprecedented effort, and rarely has a government program been studied for efficacy during its execution. We firmly believe it is essential to know just how successful our student Veterans have been as they take on their next mission in the classroom.

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Click here for Keith Riggs' survey of various programs and services with many links of potential benefit for the workforce community serving our youth and veteran populations.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) has announced an $800,000 grant to the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Research Foundation of Washington, D.C. The investment will help IEDC and NADO develop a regional post?disaster recovery program that will provide technical assistance, training, peer?to?peer learning and mentoring, and best practice information dissemination to communities in 12 states and two territories that were impacted by natural disasters in fiscal year 2011.

IEDC and NADO will help communities in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands to identify economic recovery, resiliency and redevelopment strategies and efforts that have proven to be effective in other communities. The program will also assist individual communities locate and access necessary resources and build capacity to maintain the momentum of long?term disaster recovery.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has announced it is seeking Office of Management Budget approval for the "Veterans Supplement to the Current Population Survey."

The Veterans Supplement provides information on the labor force status of veterans with a service-connected disability, combat veterans, past or present National Guard and Reserve members, and recently discharged veterans. Also, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam veterans are identified by location of service. Data are provided by period of service and a range of demographic characteristics. The supplement also provides information on veterans' participation in various transition and employment and training programs. The data collected through this supplement will be used by the Veterans Employment and Training Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs to determine policies that better meet the needs of our Nation's veteran population.

The January 10, 2013 FEDERAL REGISTER provides complete background, describes the desired focus for public comment, and furnishes the respondent estimate. The notice also provides instructions on obtaining a copy of the collection and submitting comments. Comments are due by March 11, 2013.

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF) represents an approach to transforming lives and communities that positions the federal government to be a catalyst for impact - mobilizing public and private resources to find and grow community-based nonprofits with evidence of strong results. SIF has awarded grants to 20 intermediary grantmakers, which have selected 197 nonprofit subgrantees working in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

The Corporation for National and Community Service has announced it is soliciting comments concerning clearance of a new data collection -- the Social Innovation Fund Continuation Application Guidance. Social Innovation Fund grantees seeking continuation funding will complete the application. Continuation funding is dependent upon submission of the information requested in this collection.

Comments are due by March 1, 2013. Click here for full background and instructions for submission of comments.