Vision Literacy Board of Directors member Steven Toy will be presenting a
seminar at the upcoming inaugural U.S. Conference on Adult Literacy (USCAL) in
Houston, Texas.

Toy will be discussing how cloud technology can be used to improve literacy
in his 1.5 hour seminar.  The conference is scheduled for November 3-5,
2011.

 “Incredibly powerful database and cloud applications are available to
literacy programs for little or no money,” Toy says.  “In this
presentation, you will learn how programs in the San Francisco Bay Area are
harnessing these technologies to make their programs more successful.”

Measuring and tracking the success of learners, supporting the engagement of
tutors and encouraging the largess of donors is a huge and necessary task for
any literacy program, a task that could really use the assistance of the best
databases and technology infrastructure the world has to offer. Unfortunately
these technological tools have been way outside the financial reach for literacy
programs. Until now.

 With the emergence of cloud computing and applications by companies like
Google and Salesforce, literacy programs can have the most advanced cutting edge
tools at their disposal for little or no money. In this presentation attendees
will learn how to harness the power of technology to increase connections
between learner and tutor, reduce administrative costs, easily track and measure
program progress, and provide better visibility into the benefits received
from the community’s investment in literacy. Technical
skill is not needed; only a belief that change is possible along with a
commitment to the vision that new technology will improve the accountability and
responsiveness of the organization to funders, volunteers and most importantly,
the adult learner.

Conference-goers will be able to find out how to easily measure everything
they do, using a skeleton staff supported by volunteers, and create monthly
reports to track matches, hours, assessments and progress. These
computer-generated reports offer a quick visual aid to see which learners are on
track to accomplish their goals.

For more information on USCAL, visit www.proliteracy.org. 
For more information on Vision Literacy, visit our homepage atwww.visionliteracy.org.