Over the past few months (in 2023), Jennifer Leahy of ACE Aotearoa has been running a series of workshops with a focus on successfully teaching adults. The immersive workshops are designed to share knowledge, skills and strategies to inspire and engage with the adult learning community. Taking a collaborative and interactive approach to the subject, the workshops delve deep into the art and science of teaching adults and the format encourages networking and knowledge sharing.
Kia King was one of several attendees at the Blenheim course. Kia is a library assistant at Marlborough Library in Blenheim and one of several librarians involved in the Book a Librarian (BAL) service. This innovative programme offers Marlborough residents one-on-one training to get on top of using mobile devices. Learners have a 45–60-minute learning session that might include connecting to a new device or simply using a piece of new technology. The service has been available to residents since 2016 with a Covid-induced pause as well as a pause when the Marlborough Library in Blenheim shifted to new premises in May 2023. August this year was one of the busiest months for BAL with 21 sessions completed in Blenheim and three in Picton.
The library has experienced an increased number of requests for assistance using Apps Borrowbox and Libby, as well as general digital e-book assistance.
Kia said she attended the course hoping to learn greater patience when working with some of her learners and said that one of the most valuable pieces of advice shared by Jennifer was for course participants to take note and learn from the tools that Jennifer shared.
“Jennifer told us to learn from what she did, take note of what worked for us and use the techniques we liked and didn’t like in our own teaching,” said Kia.
“The session was very much centred on adoption of a learner-based approach to foster an enhanced learning environment. The other gem shared was the need to give learners the reason to learn themselves. If we can make our learners understand about learning and truly understanding, then they become more confident in exploring and solving problems themselves.”
One of the techniques Kia will be taking back to the BAL service is to encourage their learners to pretend that they are actually teaching the tutor.
“If learners take the approach that they are actually giving a hands-on demonstration back to the tutor, the learning does tend to stick, rather than simply being shown what to do. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and felt quite energised by the day”.