If you are interested in learning more about the accessibility of LMS (and many Web 2.0 things), with the research to back it, head on over to: How-To Guide for Creating Accessible Online Learning Content found on the cannect.org website. Thank you Hadi for this great resource.

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Image acquired through Creative Commons license – by Lizzardo on Flickr

As more and more curriculum and school-related content is being provided to students, parents and the general public in digital form, it is essential that these documents be created in a form that everyone can access.

The articles will also appear in print form in the quarterly newsletter published by the Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine (ACTEM).

The first in the series is called Making Text Documents Accessible and deals with word processor and Portable Document Format (PDF) documents .

Also featured on the new web resource will be quick tips and resources to help teachers and educational administrators communicate better with their constituents.

~j

In any case Dr. Klass shares the story of an “experiment” with her son who is currently a medical student and his friends (also medical students). She asked them about study habits and it turned out most of them indicated that when they studied they were also doing something else (watching a movie, texting, or exercising). Apparently, all of these highly educated and competent medical students could manage to successfully study and do the other task.

Dr. Kass notes in the article about the research showing that there is no such thing as multitasking in human behavior. My own personal and professional experience would back that up. But Dr. Kass appears to be supporting the notion that today’s generation of “digital natives” are perhaps different their forefathers. This notion is in dispute among cognitive neuroscientists, but I would venture to guess there are some stylistic differences at work here.

Rather than quoting research, I thought I would tell you about my stepbrother. Chris is eight years younger than I, but still falls within the “baby boomer” generation. We became brothers when he was 11 and I was 19 and so I only got to observe his studying behavior for a few years. The fact that I was a psychology major helped.

Chris’ technique for studying – which, by the way he did very little of – was to have a book open on his lap while he was watching television. I, on the other hand, have to be in a room with almost complete silence for me to study anything. The only exception is listening to classical music and only such music that has no one singing – no opera!

Now I won’t pontificate and talk about the level of academic achievement that my brother and I attained – suffice it to say there was some variance here. But to this day, he is still much better at remembering things that he has learned by listening and can repeat lines from plays and movies seen years ago with ease. I, on the other hand am one of those people who when I got to a meeting or party and am introduced to new people, cannot remember their names to save my life. And, I can only remember lyrics to songs when I am playing an instrument along while singing.

Both my stepbrother and I are fairly adept at using technology and in other ways are very similar. So I have my doubts about the digital immigrant/digital native notion – sorry Marc Prensky. The only geeky behavior that I eschew is video gaming. For the life of me, I just don’t get it.  To be a gamer I think you have to have been born with a GameBoy in you hands.

Check out the NYT article and feel free to comment.

Image from Gideo Burton Creative Commons license.

Apart from the fact that it is built in WordPress and just happens to use the same template as this jebswebs’ blog, it should be a welcome addition to the program and to Maine educators.

Most noticeably the blog will feature a section discussing “accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).” We are pleased that this “theme” is important to the MLTI program and look forward to the potential for collaboration.

BTW, a little background. The MLTI program is Maine’s “laptop program;” designed to get laptop computers into the hands of students and teachers. The program started in fall of 2002 with Apple iBook G4s deployed to every student and teacher in Maine’s middle schools. Eventually the program was expanded to include administrators and support staff and most recently, it was expanded into Maine’s high schools. About 64,000 Apple MacBooks were sent out this summer making it one of the largest 1-to-1 educational technology programs, of its kind, in the country. Read the MLTI history

~j

Having spent a fair amount of my career dealing with distance education, I always found myself defending this style of pedagogy with my traditionally inclined colleagues. When logic and research failed, the comeback was always, “…well I just could not learn without there being a teacher in the room…”

Personal learning styles and technologically-literate students aside, there had been no definitive study to prove either way if distance education was as “effective” as traditional methods. The NYT’s article describes a new research study from SRI that may have done just this. I will now be endeavoring to pore through that study. In the meantime, I thought I should share some of the comments made about the study so far:

Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile. That is a modest but statistically meaningful difference.

Hey, not shabby…

…and where have you heard this before (Hint: Me!)

The real promise of online education, experts say, is providing learning experiences that are more tailored to individual students than is possible in classrooms. That enables more “learning by doing,” which many students find more engaging and useful.

Again, surprise, surprise, surprise! (deference to Gomer Pyle)

Mr. Regier sees things evolving fairly rapidly, accelerated by the increasing use of social networking technology. More and more, students will help and teach each other, he said.

~jeb

Here are some of the latest stories, just in case you are interested.

California names first digital textbooks that meet standards for high school math, science

Online textbooks offered free to students

U.S. company to offer digital textbooks on iPhone

Students’ textbooks might soon be a thing of the past: Virtual books could be turning the page on modern education

Digital textbooks may soon take over for paper predecessors

And so it goes…

~j

Long before the commercial world even had e-mail, college and university websites were out there breaking new ground. It was in these settings that the whole distance learning world began and colleges were the first place where e-mail became ubiquitous.

Things have clearly changed in the past 15 years and institutions of higher ed (IHE) now use their websites to deliver a lot of services to a lot of different people. And the idea of a single webmaster, responsible for all of the content, is long gone.

In the early years, most of the information I had on our site was directed towards potential students and perhaps other “university-types” who were looking for info about our faculty. Now, IHE sites offer ongoing service to alumni, current students, future students, parents, researchers, the media and even the general public. In many instances, the college’s website is a potential student’s or employee’s first interaction with the institution. All the more reason to make it a good one.

At the time I was the webmaster at the University of New England in Maine, I was just beginning to learn about web accessibility. Little did I know it would become my future full time job.

In those days we really only had to worry about “ALT tags” because rich media objects hadn’t been invented yet. Most of the information was simple text and even the number of images were fairly limited. But here too, things have changed dramatically and many IHE sites host a plethora of rich media components,  much of which is not accessible.

So, I was pleased to read about a new initiative by the National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE) and WebAIM to develop a process to help IHE’s increase the accessibility of their websites.

The GOALS project (Gaining Online Accessible Learning through Self-Study) centers on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of materials and processes in web accessibility that institutions of education and accrediting bodies can use in their efforts to ensure that online content is accessible to all users.

While the GOALS project is not directed exclusively at IHE (all educational institutions can benefit), my thinking is that these are critical partners in this work. IHE usually have a much larger, more diverse constituency, and often can serve as role models for other educational institutions. And, BTW, “the GOALS project is made possible by a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education.”

The project is also smart in that it is focusing its attention on both the educational institutions AND the accrediting agencies as these folks clearly have some “pull” with college administrators. And the focus with the institutions themselves is also directed at those administrators.

So now the work is getting the word out, and that’s what this blog is all about. The GOALS project is looking for individuals and institutions to field-test the materials and processes they are developing. Interested parties should contact Heather Mariger, Project Coordinator.

~jeb

Yesterday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the latest entry in the Kindle family – the DX. The new larger e-book is being marketed to colleges and universities as the first e-text for higher ed. The announcement was made at one of my Alma maters, Pace University in NYC. Apparently Amazon has several colleges lined up to pilot the new device in their classrooms and lecture halls. The new Kindle comes in at nearly $500 so the colleges have indicated some interest in subsidizing the cost of the device. Read the NY Times article about the announcement.

The second big e-text news came yesterday as well as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a plan to “make California the first state in the nation to offer schools free, open-source digital textbooks for high school students.”

According to the news release on the governor’s blog:

“At the Governor’s request, Secretary Thomas will work with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and State Board of Education President Ted Mitchell to develop a state approved list of standards-aligned, open-source digital textbooks for high school math and science. This list will be compiled after content developers across the country are asked to and have submitted digital material for review. “

It is clear the the e-book is the future of education. The exact shape, size and format remains to be seen. But whatever the outcome, the actions of the last two day will no doubt push accessibility issues forward as both the higher education and public schools entities will require that all of these devices and materials will be accessible.

Very exciting.

~j

According to the Maine Department of Education website:

The expansion is part of an agreement the state Department of Education negotiated with Apple Inc. for a reduced rate on the laptops, allowing the state to lease 100,000 machines within existing funds dedicated to educational technology. Under the agreement, the state will provide new laptops to all high schoolers and replace older machines at the middle school level.  School districts are not required to participate in the program, though superintendents have indicated overwhelming support for the laptop expansion.

The MLTI program began in 2002 with deployments of  Macintosh i-books to all 7th and 8th graders and their teachers. The program has been renewed once in the interim with laptops also being provided to high school teachers and some central office staff.

The newest iteration of the MLTI program was announced to include the capacity for families to be able to use their student’s laptop to access job and labor information from the state’s Department of Labor (DOL). I presume this means it will provide a link to the DOL Career Center website and not mean the state will provide home internet access to these families.

“We are going to revamp our laptop program and turn it into a powerful tool for the entire family,” Governor Baldacci said. “Every night when students in seventh through 12th-grade bring those computers home, they’ll connect the whole family to new opportunities and new resources.”

Read the entire news release

~jeb