Heather Wik ETEC 565

One of the things that has recently impacted my online teaching practice, is being able to provide accommodations to students who have diverse needs.   It’s made me think much closer about the issues surrounding accessibility in online learning environments.  Now that I’m designing a course in Moodle, I’m discovering it is critical in terms of educational design….right from the base level.  It’s a daunting task in some ways, as it’s my responsibility to make sure my course is accessible to a diverse group of learners who may have countless different needs to accommodate.

When I went through many of the links in the eTool-Kit for accessibility, I was completely lost.  So much of what is there I just don’t understand.  But not understanding did send me on a quest to find information, and I did learn many things.  I still don’t know all I need to, but I’m making headway.

A few of the things I made note of were:

• Remove any tools not needed in the course
• Fewer items on the screen speed things up for those using screen readers
• Don’t leave empty or needless folders viewable
• Enhance accessibility of content links – link titles, use appropriate clear icons, be consistent
• Moodle 2.0 has an accessibility block….very cool!
• Browser setting can be adjusted – font, size, colour, minimum size, etc.
• The layout, structure, and content of pages are very significant
• Include both visual and non-visual cues
• Ensure all controls can be accessed through enter or space keys, and be sure tabbing follows a logical sequence
• For images, label with alternative text
• Balance text and images used

One of the things I’ve found in Moodle is that it isn’t easy to make certain accommodations.  This semester I had a student who needed more time on quizzes because of her disability.  This was a challenge in Moodle.  Fortunately, I had support and a way to accommodate my student was found.

Next on my list of things to learn in terms of accessibility, is what is involved when using video.  I’ve googled “flash” to try to get an idea of what it is, but I don’t understand what’s involved as it pertains to developing my moodle course.  Always something to learn….which I guess is a good thing!

First of all, I just want to say…. I DID IT! Wow.  I’m totally pleased with myself at the moment!  This has been such a HUGE learning curve for me.  I’ve been working on learning basic HTML for the past month, and thanks to a lot of support from John and Robert, I’ve made great inroads on this albeit slow route to learning.  Today I accomplished a few significant tasks.  I used HTML to add text, links, a chart, and an embedded video on my ETEC 510 wiki page.  And it all worked!  (Although please don’t ask me how long it took or how many attempts were undertaken before success was had.)  Then I moved on and designed a very simple personal web page about my children.  It was a challenge, but it feels so great to have lost my HTML phobia….or at least put it on a longer leash.  I still have SO much to learn, and need to look at my notes before doing pretty much anything, but I’m on the road towards success.  Whew!

Looking into social software has been an interesting undertaking.  I chose to look at Facebook (because I am a user), Twitter (because I just don’t get it), Flicker (because I love photos) and Delicious (because I had never heard of it).

I was quite impressed with Flicker.  Each photo is licensed and that license is attached to its photo. Users can control who have access to view and use their content.  It’s an easy way to share large quantities of photos with family and friends.  It’s a great way to keep digital photos safe…just in case your computer crashes and you haven’t done a recent backup (not that we would ever expect that to happen).  I like that users are required to moderate their content, and that safety is a priority.  Their terms of use and guidelines are easy to read, free of a lot of jargon, and to the point.  I love their statement, “Don’t be creepy.  You know the guy.  Don’t be that guy”.  I can see some great possibilities for using Flicker with students….elementary through post-secondary.  When I taught grade 7 and took my class on field trips, I would have loved to post tons of pictures for students and families to see.  There’s lots to consider in terms of art, research, writing prompts.  The longer I set, the more things I think about.  A definite possibility for students!

Delicious was totally new to me.  What a great concept.  I’ve lost my bookmarks more than once (let’s not even go there!).  To have all my bookmarks available on any computer….gotta love that.  I’m now thinking about how I can use this with my college students next fall.  I’d love to develop an activity for my students to gather and share web-based resources.  Very cool!

Twitter.  To be honest, I just have never got it.  My mom and sister both twitter, and when I look at their twitter pages, it’s a pile of short phrases that pretty much mean nothing to me.  But if I’m trying to keep connected with family and friends throughout the day, this app may have some potential.  Quick updates, comments, notes…I can see that.  I’m not too sure I see a way to use this meaningfully with my college students, but perhaps if I had a professional tweet account I could post reminders, cool links, and updates.  I don’t think I’d want to view all of my students personal tweets (nor them mine!) but if we all had college based tweets, perhaps more exchanges would happen.  It might be interesting for my distance students who don’t run into me in the hallways!

And Facebook.  I am a user of Facebook, but after discovering that I could not delete my account (you can only deactivate it….and can always come back and activate it) I was not impressed.  Yes, there are a lot of privacy settings, but there are so many 3^rd party apps and advertising, information sharing runs a the speed of light…or faster!   I do love my facebook, but I’m very vigilant in checking privacy settings and I take what I tell my students to heart…..I never post anything I wouldn’t want to be completely public.  It’s a great communication tool, and I love reading tidbits about my friends.  We have a “guideline” at my college that we cannot accept friend requests from current students.  I could see having two accounts…one personal and one for professional use.  My college does have various facebook accounts for students, but they are not extensively used.

Tonight I spent some time in the e-learning toolkit in the weblogs section.  After looking through several blogs posted here, I started to google.  I wanted to find some blogs dedicated to online and hybrid learning.  The number of regular bloggers out there is quite astronomical!  I chose to limit my search to Canadian bloggers (perhaps because I’m feeling rather patriotic right now as I cheer on our mighty Canucks hockey team).  I have to admit, I wasn’t very successful.  I didn’t add anything to my NetNewsWire feed, but I did begin a list of topics that I want to look further into….so there was a happy ending!  And if you have any suggestions, do tell!

Moodle is not new to me, so the initial steps in the eTool-Kit were not too challenging.  I added a graphic, and moved things around a little bit.  After getting the introduction and ice breaker set up, I watched several Youtube clips on Moodle, and looked through a few sections of the Moodle support resources.  I have several things I want to learn how to do, including using the lesson and wiki features and investigating what some of the options are in “advanced uploading of files” for assignments.  I was doing some reading on the latter, and am intrigued and excited about what this might mean for some of the courses I’m currently teaching using Moodle.  There is a lot here that I have never explored, so building a course for ETEC 565 is going to be a great learning opportunity for me.

I decided I needed a boost of confidence, so I chose to look at synchronous communication tools today.  I haven’t been chatting long, but have used several synchronous tools, including options in Moodle, MSN, Skype, Vista, Facebook, and iChat.  For a group project, this week I was introduced to Elluminate that worked well, but I found it difficult trying to follow the audio chat, read the written chat, and watch the whiteboard for participant contributions.  Multi-tasking required!  Last night the same group of us met using Web Ex (my first time using this) for a project in ETEC 510.  It seemed to be a better option for our group, but required that one person control the screen and do the typing.  I liked that we could all talk at the same time, whereas in Elluminate we had to click on the “chat” button to turn it on and off each time we wanted to speak.  I’m up and running in Pronto now, so another new program to investigate.  I’m learning that many programs provide similar services, and once you know what it’s capable of, it’s not too difficult to figure out how to use them.  Some have better affordances than other, and I’m withholding judgment as to my favourites until I’ve played a little bit more!

Overwhelmed and ready to cry at this point. Will be back to relook at this once I’m able to get myself out of the fetal position and out from underneath the kitchen table. Let’s just say I’m totally lost. HTML was designed to terrify me.  And there’s definitely no mental block happening here….

Here’s my first attempt…..
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Kaitlin at the Sam Steele Days Parade (June 1010)

I found it quite challenging to get this video here.  Thanks to my amazing mother who helped me work through some issues, it’s now here.  I’ve started a resource file to keep notes and hints about the things I’m learning.  I think I’ll use it a lot!

So this is where I have to stand up and admit I own no mobile devices.  Actually, that’s not quite true.  I have an eight year old cell phone that I have a “pay as you go” plan for, and I use once every two or three months.  I have it just for emergencies.  It doesn’t take pictures, can’t access the internet, and I don’t have chat or message options.  I’ve never texted on a hand held device.  Actually, I’ve never texted–period.  I don’t have digital day book.  I’ve never used a tablet.  Isn’t a blackberry a kind of fruit???  I’ve seen an iPhone…from a distance.  I don’t have an iPod.  Do they even still make pagers?  I did use my 81 year old mother-in-law’s iPad once.  That counts, right?  Oh, but I have used a calculator many times.

Hmmm.  It appears I’m somewhat lacking in experience in this department.  I’m off to the college where I work to borrow a tablet or iPad.  Stay tuned for mLearning Part 2!

Today I played with iDVD.  I imported a video of my daughter dancing at a parade (yes, she was priceless!) and in mere moments my DVD was done.  It was SO easy.

What took longer was when I decided to try to edit my clip.  I searched and searched and could not do it.  So I ventured over to iMovie.  I watched the intro tutorial and created my movie, with a theme, transitions, and titles.  Yes, this took me quite a while.

Back to iDVD, I reviewed how to create a slideshow using still pictures.  I had done this a couple times before, but it took me a while to relearn the basics.

Both of this application are quite user friendly and offer good help tools.  Next on my list to learn in this area….more about exporting and importing these works of arts into different places!