Join us Wednesdays at 2:00 pm for Mastering Enhanced Teaching and Learning (MET&L) Workshop Series. This week, we'll cover UDL and ADA in Course Design.
Missed the meeting? Here's the presentation!
UDL/ADA / MET&L Workshop by Tess OltenMany have heard of the amazing web-based tool called Canva, which enables anyone who can point and click to design breathtaking graphics in any format, including print. Every social media template is there (over 60,000 templates, they boast!) and literally millions of (also free) photos, illustrations, video clips, music tracks, and fonts.
All free for educators! Just sign up using your institutional email address for quick verification and you're up and running!
Here's an example of what can be created. This is my first project with Canva for Education and I haven't even tried animation or video yet! I'll be screencasting this presentation into a video upon completion of the project build. As you can see, the project can be shared on the Web or in Canvas courses so that students can self navigate even if accompanied with a video with your mini-lecture adding depth and context to your learners. Why not offer both? I'll be sure to caption my video and provide a transcript with relevant links enabled.
View this presentation in full screen mode here. (Swipe left to advance, swipe right to go back!)
From Copyright to Creative Commons by Tess OltenInclusive design is "design that considers the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age, and other forms of human difference."4 It goes beyond accessibility, though accessibility is considered within inclusive design. Inclusive design celebrates difference and focuses on designs that allow for diversity to thrive. In higher education, this means asking ourselves, "Who has been served, supported, or allowed to thrive by our educational designs and who has not?" And, "How might we design for inclusion of more students?"
*UAH is an Educause member institution. You can sign up for free access to Educause content using your UAH-affiliated email address. Check out their mailing lists and learning communities!
By our own revered Dr. Robert Frederick and friends:
Have a Zoom, Zoom-Zoom-Zoom Christmas!
Have you heard about TED-Ed? It's full of content specifically for educators. In addition to having a whole library of high-quality (and keyword searchable!) video content for use in your classes, there are resources there to help you create your own and even get matched with a professional animator to illustrate your video! Check out this one that explains fevers!
In a new age of information, rapid innovation, and globalization, how can we prepare our children to compete? Once the envy of the world, American schools are now in trouble. Test scores show our kids lag far behind their peers from other industrialized countries, and as the divide between rich and poor grows wider, the goal of getting all kids ready for college and the workforce gets harder by the day. How can the latest research help us fix education in America? Can the science of learning—including new insights from neuroscientists, psychologists, and educators—reveal how kids’ brains work and tell us which techniques are most likely to engage and inspire growing minds? What role should technology play in the classroom? Teachers, students, parents, and scientists take center stage as NOVA explores a new vision for the “School of the Future.”
"We're not trying to reduce educator time, we're trying to improve the value of their time."
This crisis has also brought academics together. New communities of teachers have been built online, virtually overnight, for peer mentoring and resource sharing. Important conversations about how teaching has changed, and how it should change, are happening right now. It’s not an end; it’s a beginning.
This report (a very brisk 28 page PDF that feels a lot shorter) outlines five major principles of future assessment (quoted):
- Authentic—Assessments designed to prepare students for what they do next, using technology they will use in their careers
- Accessible—Assessments designed with an accessibility-first principle
- Appropriately automated—A balance found of automated and human marking to deliver maximum benefit to students
- Continuous—Assessment data used to explore opportunities for continuous assessment to improve the learning experience
The sections themselves contain some brief discussion of each of the five items and links to companies or projects working on that particular topic. The report sometimes reads as a fairly progressive look at assessment, but the last section (which deals with plagiarism and 'contract cheating') brings us back to earth.
- Secure—Authoring detection and biometric authentication adopted for identification and remote proctoring.
"Last July we introduced live chat support for our Respondus Monitor application. The service was in 'beta' as we ramped up staff and evaluated usage levels. We are removing the 'beta' moniker from the 24/7 student live chat service and formally announcing there will be no additional cost to use it. Institutions with a Respondus Monitor license ... will have access to it. A few additional details are included below.
How do students initiate a live chat with Respondus Support?
Most technical issues are encountered during the pre-exam 'Startup Sequence' of Respondus Monitor – which is where the webcam/microphone check occurs. There is already a powerful 'It’s not working' feature in Respondus Monitor that helps students find the right solution. But if students are unable to solve the issue by the last step, a 'Chat now' prompt appears. The live chat functionality can also be accessed through the 'Help Center' in Respondus Monitor.
Which Respondus products have support available via live chat?
At the current time, 24/7 live chat support is available to students using Respondus Monitor, which is the online proctoring service available for LockDown Browser.
Is live chat covered by the Terms of Use for Respondus Monitor?
Yes, the current Terms of Use (which is accepted each time a student uses Respondus Monitor) covers the live chat service.
If you have any questions, please submit a support ticket."
I'm not a fan of the clickbait title of this post ... and I also question some of the 'research' behind the suggestions. But overall this is a pretty good post and contains a lot of things to think about, even if you don't follow them. This is especially the case for the bits about working memory and cognitive load. But there's a general message here—that video is more about perception and feelings than it is about content and remembering—that is important. Video helps you learn because it shakes your perceptions and has you asking questions, not because it gives you stuff to memorize.Regarding: Video for Learning—15 Things the Research Says (Some May Shock You)
Looking back can be fun!
YES! Media is a nonprofit, independent publisher of solutions journalism.
Through rigorous reporting on the positive ways communities are responding to social problems and insightful commentary that sparks constructive discourse, YES! Media inspires people to build a more just, sustainable, and compassionate world.The publication is both ad-free and operates without a paywall, so all online content is open and free. They even produce educational content around some of the difficult topics it tackles editorially. I receive both the print version and email updates to online content. The Death Issue is a "Let's Talk About It" edition and includes stellar writing assignments around rather complex but highly relevant topics like:
Discussion forums are a significant part of online courses, but only 66% of respondents say that forums are engaging, highlighting an opportunity for improvement. (Learning House, 2019)Most of us have been there both as student and instructor. How do you ignite a cold discussion board so that it invites all attendees to not just participate, but genuinely and with authenticity?
“Embrace” is probably too strong. “Acquiescence” suggests too much passivity. Whatever word you choose, though, the data indicate that American faculty members -- whether grudgingly or enthusiastically -- are increasingly participating in and, to a lesser extent, accepting the validity of online education.
Perhaps when we consider the silent voices, we should distinguish between those that are drowned out, and those that simply never shout out at all. Self censured, not silenced.
 |
| Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash |
Marc Prensky knows how to make a big statement. Here's his latest: "People, In the future, will increasingly mean newly empowered symbiotic human hybrids who can, as individuals and teams, apply the strength of their unique blends of human and technology components to creating new and positive value and solutions to local and global problems.
“The big issue for the world is not to create more or new jobs, but to figure out effective ways for people to be compensated for whatever series of world-improving projects they want and choose to do.”
Can't say I disagree with him.
See also: The No-Collar Workforce, Deloitte.What the World Needs from Education is a little deeper dive than usual blog fare, but it's worth the time. It provides a framework for moving forward through the technological evolution and its pedagogical impact on teaching and learning, but also the world beyond degree attainment. This piece forces us to reevaluate our objectives for ourselves and for our learners.
Symbiosis with technology — i.e. tools becoming indispensable parts of us — is, of course, the story of human development. The question of what we keep in our human heads (i.e. our dreams, passions, compassion, warmth, kindness, good, ethical behavior) and what we delegate to our extensions (e.g. calculation, memory, speed, accuracy, analysis, connection) has been a human issue since the invention of the abacus and writing. Today this integration is speeding up incredibly.
Finding new evolving integration opportunities — and realizing them seamlessly — is perhaps the most crucial task for humans in the coming years and centuries. It is what will lead to the solutions of all our pressing problems, which neither technology alone, nor humans unintegrated with it, will be able to fully deal with. Helping each individual find his or her unique, appropriate and ideal “style” of hybrid symbiosis is perhaps the central challenge of future education. And yet, no one has adequately addressed the issue in those terms.
What are the core competencies that faculty innovators need in order to be successful in making sustained changes in and beyond their classrooms? While sitting under the starry Arizona desert sky near Bioshphere 2 during an NSF-sponsored workshop focused on the intersections of STEM education; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and innovations in learning, we decided to bring this question to our colleagues working in higher education learning innovation.Can't stand the suspense? See the full list at Educause Review.
(May require login; faculty and staff of Educause member universities like UAH may create a profile at no cost to log in.)
The idea of “calling Google” might be new to some people – but thanks to a new partnership launched in March 2019, Be My Eyes users can now establish a video link with a Google accessibility expert in seconds.
The unexpected emotional and physical upheaval caused by a hurricane at the beginning of an academic year was challenging for many institutions in the Carolinas. One faculty member shares the lessons he learned and describes how the experience has shaped his approach to teaching.
