More on Writing to Be Understood (via Learning Leader: Notes of the CLO)

Wanted to share a couple of links and more on the Flesch Scale for fellow educators:

• Readability: A simple tool that makes reading websites easier.
• Flesh 2.0: tells you how difficult documents will be to comprehend by calculating a document’s Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease Score
• Bullfighter: software that works with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to help you find and eliminate jargon in your documents
• The Readability Test Tool: provides a quick and easy way to test the readability of your work
• SMOG Calculator: uses a version of the SMOG formula, which gives a score as a “readability level” rather than the American school grade level
• WordCounts Analytics: to help users communicate better in all forms including writing, speaking, researching, educating.

About Flesch — What Does Flesh Tell Me?

In brief, it tells you how difficult documents will be to comprehend by calculating a document’s Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease Score. Like all readability indices, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and the Flesch Reading Ease score only provide estimations and are only meant to be used as such.

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is

The Free Suite

Just in case my fellow educators are in need and not well funded, here’s one of my favorite links:

The Free Suite

Free alternatives for expensive programs

http://www.thefreesuite.com/

Free, open-source alternatives to:

• Adobe Dreamweaver
• Adobe Flash
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Lightroom
• Adobe Soundbooth
• Autodesk Maya
• Mathworks Matlab
• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Outlook
• Symantec Norton

Looking to Lead Learning in The New Economy?

Came across this in my Learning Circuits newsletter today — some very interesting figures, and links to more local folks with whom to connect to get involved in driving Learning for The New Economy:

Training is a Major Focus of the U.S. Stimulus Package

The massive $787 billion dollar stimulus legislation, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (HR 1), was signed on February 17th by President Obama. The bill is designed, in part, to stimulate the economy and to create millions of jobs across the United States.

The stimulus package includes more than $5 billion in training for a variety of programs across a number of U.S. federal agencies. The bill will invest heavily in new technologies, infrastructure projects, and health care. It also calls for investments to help laid off workers get back to work. An important part of the legislation allocates $3.9 billion to the Department of Labor. $2.95 billion will be used for training and employment services through FY09. The Department of Labor has 30 days from Feb. 17th to allocate funding to the states.

Read more here: http://www.astd.org/LC/news.htm#045

Keeping college affordable

from Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team | Blog by Dan McSwain

Claiborne Pell, a Rhode Island senator whose achievements brought about lasting change both at home and abroad, died on January 1st, 2009, at the age of 90.

In a statement, Vice President-elect Joe Biden honored Sen. Pell’s many accomplishments, noting that, “few Senators have done more to expand opportunity in America.”

Pell’s domestic efforts led to the establishment of the Pell Grant, a federal higher education subsidy that has defrayed the cost of college tuition for thousands of American students since their establishment in 1973.

In 2000, nearly 30% of public university students were Pell Grant recipients.

Still, many students and their families worry that the worsening economy will increase the burden of tuition and other college costs.

Carolyn from California shared some of her concerns:

“With the state of our current economy my parents are worried with how they are going to be able to support me and my younger brother as he goes off to college. We are considered upper-middle class (I think) and if we are having a hard time, I can only imagine what other families are facing. Please continue to support federal funding for higher education including the Pell Grant Program. Your proposed changes to the Financial Aid application would be very helpful, but at the same time increased funding of federal programs is necessary.”

Making higher education more affordable is a priority for the Obama-Biden administration.

Learn more about the new Administration’s plan for education: Keeping college affordable

Oakland CC adds 'early college,' eases transfers to Wayne State

Oakland Community College and the West Bloomfield School District last week announced the opening of Oakland County’s first “early college” high school, Oakland Early College. OEC is a public school open to all Oakland County students, regardless of district of residency. Early colleges blend secondary and post-secondary education, adding a year to high school in a college preparatory curriculum. Students graduate with a high school diploma plus an associate degree in five years instead of the usual six. More. Also, Oakland CC announced a new program to make transferring to Wayne State University easier after two years. More.

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