John Fleischman

Excerpt from an interview with: John Fleischman
INTERVIEWER: Cuba Miller
DATE: March 5 and 6, 1998

Project Overview

FLEISCHMAN:
The primary project is divided into three major components.There is an electronic communications component, and that component is designed to connect adult educators together electronically so that they can share information, communicate, collaborate, exchange ideas.A second major component of the project is an information and reference services component. Within that component there are five sections, five collections of information. The primary collection is an electronic collection, and that collection today represents the world's largest collection of information resources relating to adult education.

MILLER:
That's impressive.

FLEISCHMAN:
We're impressed. We're very pleased with what we've been able to accomplish over the last eight years, [especially what]is delivered currently through the World Wide Web, and we'll talk more about that. A second major collection is the VESL[vocational English as a second language] Workplace Clearinghouse, [a] collection of materials currently distributed through[a subcontract with] San Diego Community College.It represents curriculum materials, training materials that have been developed by adult educators for the purpose of teaching language and literacy within a particular vocational context. Those materials are continuing to be collected and distributed on a cost reimbursement basis by the community college. A third major component of the information reference collection services is an Archives collection.That is a historical collection, materials that have been collected from consultants and folks that have been involved in adult education. We have materials going back to literally the turn of the century, so we're real excited about that. And that's to preserve our history of adult education, a long and proud tradition of serving the needs of Californians. [The Archives are] used both by researchers, by consultants with the State Department of Education, by college students. … So we really get a fair amount of use of that collection. The fourth collection is an Educational Technology Center collection.We have upwards of about eleven hundred products relating to technology and adult learning: everything from software that runs on PCs, Macintoshes, Apple IIs, to CD©ROM products, to laser disc products, to various print materials; everything from software guides[to] materials that are used to assist the field with an understanding of the types of materials that are out there, in terms of using technology in the classroom.