81 offered. Women are more represented in morning and afternoon classes, while evening classes have a greater proportion of male students. At the literacy level, few of the students have jobs. Their lack of language skills is a barrier to employment. The Approach Literacy students enrolled in courses at ECSD LINC are divided into three sub-streams. At the most basic level are students identified as Foundation and CLB 1. Students at this level often have SmartPhones and are often able to use WhatsApp for online communication. At the second level are CLB 2 learners who are comfortable with WhatsApp and are ready to be introduced to the Avenue eLearning platform. As an intermediate step to build their digital skills, they are also introduced to Microsoft Teams. The third level encompass CLB 3 and 4 students. Linguistically and cognitively, they able to use Avenue’s essential features but need help to handle its complexities. The default communication technology at all three levels is WhatsApp because of its simplicity and familiarity to most students. The full time program for CLB 2 learners and up consists of 25 hours a week of classroom and online instruction, plus homework spread over all five days. One of the days is reserved for online learning, which students do from home. Classes are offered at three different sites. One of the sites is female-only, allowing the program to accommodate women who are more comfortable being with just other women. Classes are kept small because learners need so much individual support. Although teachers are occasionally able to draw on a practicum student or on ESCD LINC’s Digital Learning Facilitator for support, most aspects of instruction fall to the teacher. Interested in Learning More? Instructor Profiles Context In Diana’s & Lauren’s Own Words Application of Technology Standards Instructor Profiles: Diana Agudelo and Lauren Hebert have worked together in the Edmonton Catholic Separate School Division’s LINC Program since 2011. Diana is currently the program’s academic coordinator, and Lauren works primarily as a literacy instructor. Diana, who began her ESL career as a language instructor, is originally from Columbia, South America. She arrived in Alberta in 2009 shortly after finishing a Master’s degree in ESL at Minnesota State University. She was hired immediately to teach in the LINC program, which she continued to do for the next 13 years. In 2021, she was hired by the Edmonton Catholic Separate School Division (ECSSD) to take on a new role as the Adult ESL Program’s Academic Coordinator, where she continues to work today. Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) was a core class in Diana’s Master’s studies. While she was taking the program, she also worked as a Spanish teaching assistant, which required her to teach online using Adobe Connect and Skype – her first immersion into technology-assisted teaching. When COVID-19 arrived in 2020, this experience proved invaluable. As Diana puts it, “Pretty much every language instruction program had to move to online instruction or go out of business. We all had a lot to learn, but having some experience as an online instructor was so important in helping me plan the way forward.” CC-BY-NC-SA 2025 New Language Solutions Avenue Instructor Standards for Technology-Enhanced Language Learning, version 1.2
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