Tag: accessibility

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E-learning Toolkit

E-learning Toolkit Activity: Accessibility

E- learning Toolkit – Accessibility

Instructions:

Take a look at your LMS (Vista or Moodle) site, including images, multimedia, links, tables and frame. Check the “Quick Tips” on WAI and check your work at Markup Validation Service.  See updated Web Accessibility Quick Tips based on WCAG 2 at a glance. What did you find? How accessible is your site? What sorts of things might you need to do to ensure it is accessible to all of your students?

Reflection:

This toolkit activity has been very eye opening.  I took a look at my moodle site and used the Web Accessibility Quick Tips to reflect on the overall accessibility of my site.

Here is a summary of the points that I took into consideration:

1.    Images & animations:

I used the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.

2.    Multimedia:

This is an area where I could improve.  The checklist recommends providing captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.  The next time I embed a video, I would also include a written text of the audio and a short description of the video.  That being said, I was able to include audio files using Audacity to support students with the reading components of the course.  For more information about multimedia used in my course site, please visit my Multimedia Inventory.

3.    Hypertext links:

Throughout my course, I endeavored to use text that makes sense when read out of context.  I avoided “click here” and generally used text that described the activity.  For example, on my splash page, instead of saying “astronaut”, I say “Start Here”.

4.    Page organization:

I have used headings, lists, and consistent structure.  My course is organized around three (3) modules, A, B and C.

5.    Check your work:

I validated my site at the Markup Validation Service and it found 4 errors.  All 4 of them were a XML Parsing Error where I had an opening and ending tag mismatch.  The report tells you where the error has occurred; however, I am not sure how to find the specific lines and columns.  More learning is required in this area!

Overall, because my site is to be used with teacher support and the SMART Board, I believe that my site is accessible.  At my school, we are very focused on Universal Design for Learning; therefore accessibility and differentiation are forefront in my mind when planning lessons to meet learning outcomes.

Categories
Module 5

Multimedia Reflection

Think about an example of how multimedia has been used effectively to enhance your learning. Feel free to reflect on your MET experiences, or any other.

Over my first year and three courses in the MET program, the multimedia which I feel has been used effectively to enhance my learning has been screen casting.  A screen cast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration.

It wasn’t until my third course, ETEC 565A, that I was introduced to this technology.  Now that I have been exposed to it, I believe that I would have benefitted from other professors using this multimedia to convey some of the course materials.  Here is an example of a screen cast that my instructor in 565A put together towards the beginning of our LMS projects.  Thanks John!  🙂  This was an effective method of showing ETEC 565A participants how to set up their course shell and, as was mentioned in the screen cast by John, saved him about a day and a half of work time!

There are many screen casts available on the web, such as this one on YouTube, which explains how to export and resize a photo using Picasa.  This particular screen cast helped me to be able to resize a photo quickly, without having to spend time fiddling around with the program.  In the end, this gave me time to focus on other aspects of the E-learning toolkit.

Having been exposed to screen casting, I have created a screen cast with ScreenToaster for my moodle course.  My main goal in creating this screen cast is to identify the different components we are being assessed on and to highlight some interesting features of my course.

Screen casting is a multimedia tool that I will continue to use in my teaching practice, with students and colleagues.  I often do short educational technology presentations at staff meetings, and presenting a screen cast, which can be archived for reviewing, will be very beneficial and appreciated.

Enjoy!

Screencasts and videos online
Categories
E-learning Toolkit

Audacity

E-learning Toolkit:  Audio

For this E-learning toolkit activity, I used Audacity to record 10 .mp3 files that I have uploaded to my moodle course.  The purpose of these voice recordings is to have audio support for the reading component of the course; the descriptions of the Milky Way, the Sun and the planets.  In each module, there is a resource titled “Centres de littéracie / Literacy Centers”.  When you click on the name of each planet, you will notice an image of an ear holding a megaphone with the words “Cliquez sur l’oreille!” in red beside the image.  Looks like this:

Clip Art Graphic of a Human Ear Cartoon Character

Cliquez sur l’oreille!

When the student clicks on the ear, a new window opens up and they will hear my voice recording reading out the text.  After the recording has been listened to, the students must close the window to return to the course.  From there, they can click on the word “Description” to see the text that was just read out for that topic.

I have used Audacity before in ETEC 510 for my Group Design Project.  My group created a technology enhanced language project designed to assist educators in enhancing the Spanish oral proficiency skills of their students. Students used Audacity to record conversations in Spanish which were then posted to their oral portfolio.

When I first started using Audacity, I remember struggling and struggling with exporting to an .mp3 file.  Once I realized that I had to download the LAME plug-in for my operating system, I really had the ball rolling!  This was the biggest challenge in using Audacity.  For the toolkit activity, I followed the instructions and made my recordings without any difficulty.  From there, I uploaded the files to the appropriate folder in moodle and was easily able to link the files to the “ear” image.  Once I had my system in place, it was just a matter of clicking here and there!

In the past I have also used GarageBand with iTunes to create .mp3 audio files.  However, these programs are specific to Mac computers and Audacity is open source and cross-platform making it possibly more accessible to more users.  When deciding on a process for students to follow in our ETEC 510 group project, we chose to design it around the use of Audacity for this reason.

Using Audacity has made my course more accessible to my students.  In Grade One, students range from emergent readers to students who are already decoding words and reading them with comprehension.  By adding in an audio file, students who are emerging as readers have the opportunity to listen to the text instead of struggling through it.  Furthermore, students who are already reading can listen to the audio and can practice reading with fluency.  This is very important, especially when learning a second language.

By adding audio files to a course, the principles of Universal Design for Learning are considered.  The paradigm of UDL, which was first developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), is a means of respecting a variety of diverse individual learning styles without requiring adaptation. This theoretical framework promotes the success for all learners by inherently having the flexibility to support each individual’s needs. UDL applies to all learners, not exclusively to individuals with disabilities, but aims to provide everyone with equal access to learning.

Audacity is a very powerful tool that I will be using to enhance my teaching.

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