Archive for the 'Tool Kit Reflections' Category

Jul 10 2009

tool kit: Accessibility

Published by under Tool Kit Reflections

I have a very close friend with a visual impairment. She has had to self advocate through out her education for accessibility to educational resources. She uses adaptive software on her computer for web browsing. However, the software is expensive and is not always compatible with other software. As a result, she is still at a disadvantage when is comes to accessing some web resources. This tool kit activity has helped inform me that there are indeed guidelines when designing web resources that designers should be aware of. If these guidelines are always followed as policy, it could decrease the accessibility issues people with disabilities already face.

The following tips are from the web accessibility initiative

10 Quick Tips for accessibility

  1. Images & animations: Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.
  2. Image maps. Use the client-side map and text for hotspots.
  3. Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.
  4. Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid “click here.”
  5. Page organization. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
  6. Graphs & charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
  7. Scripts, applets, & plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
  8. Frames. Use the noframes element and meaningful titles.
  9. Tables. Make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize.
  10. Check your work. Validate. Use tools, checklist, and guidelines at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG

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Jun 09 2009

DVD authoring , too much for my (good) old Mac?

When purchasing my Mac PowerBook G4 over 4 years ago as a 4th year undergraduate student, I opted not to purchase a DVD burner. At the time, the extra $?, was too much and I could not foresee needing to burn DVDs (I would never illegally copy a DVD!, and had no inclination to make my own productions). This decision has  haunted many times since. As such, while undertaking the DVD toolkit activity, I could not fully complete it. However, I do have the iDVD application on my Mac and spent some time playing around with it. Like most iApple applications, I found iDVD to be very user friendly with drag and drop ease, and aesthetically pleasing themes. I decided to make a DVD using photos from my wedding (as I have yet, 5 years later, to print these). I created a menu slideshow using some of the best photos, and then created a chapter using a slideshow of the wedding photos that I had previously made in iPhoto. Very much out of character for my trustworthy Mac, the program crashed in the middle of editing and a lot of my work was not saved.  If I do choose to author DVDs in the future, and after undertaking this activity, I realize how easy it is, I would have to upgrade my computer.

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Jun 01 2009

Web design and HTML authoring reflection

I worked through introduction to web design and html authoring in the e-learning  tool kit and completed the suggested activities. After completing the activities, which included introductory readings, exploring  suggested software, assessment checklists, story boarding, and considering design elements, I have to say that I really had not considered how much goes into designing a good webpage.

Nothing exemplifies this point more, than exploring webpages that suck. I was particularily intrigued by one webpage for a company called Brill Publications, the page relys heavily on “metaphic navigation”, where an animated elevator takes you to different pages. Although there is a novelty element to the navigation strategy, it takes FOREVER to find and get to any specific page. If I was genuinely visiting this site, I would probably leave it rather quickly due to frusteration.

Truth be told, I did not create a new webpage for the webpage design activity, instead I used my MET e-folio as a point of analysis. This is the e-folio I have been developing over the course of my MET. It is made using wordpress. As such, I used a preset CSS “theme” and I developped posts using WYSIWYG HTML editor. I will admit, I have no idea how to change the CSS only have a slight idea of how to change content by editing html. I have used a small amount of html in Vista blackbourd discussions, but only by cutting and pasting from a webpage with common chatroom html codes. I know that there will be a point where  the limitations of WYSIWYG editors become evident to me, but that has not happened yet, so for the time being, I will stick with pre-set CSS and WYSIWYG editors.

My wordpress blog uses a two column theme with mostly white background. It is evident within 4 seconds what the page is about (Alix Gray Burdett’s EduBlogFolio: An exploration of the space where education, science and technology merge). I chose not to set up page navigation, instead I organize content by categories that are displayed on the right hand side. All posts are connected to the main page and a visitor can navigate to older posts when they reach the end of the 10 posts I have displayed on the first page.If a visitor clicks on a category of interest, all posts filed under that category are compiled. I always try to include links in my posts, and clearly tell the visitor where they will be navigating to. Finally, when I used the WAVE tool to test for the accessibility of my webpage, two errors were found, but I had a difficult time finding out what they were?

Before starting this activity, I knew that I was a fan of clean, clear webpages with simple navigation. However, I did no appreciate how much intention goes into designing a clean webpage. Definitely the lesson of the day is “less is more” when it comes to webpage design.

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May 23 2009

Starting to Moodle

Today I set up my first moodle course. I was given step by step instructions on how to set it up from the ETEC 565 e-learning tool kit . I learned about moodle last fall and was very excited about the prospects of potentially incorporating a moodle platform into my f2f science courses but didn’t really know where to begin. One of the main reasons I signed up for ETEC 565 was for the supported introduction to moodle. While setting up my course today, I found using the step by step instructions and activities on the tool kit very easy to follow and I appreciate the scaffolded support.  I am looking forward to more scaffolded support while gaining more confidence and competance with moodle.

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