Assistive Technology to
Promote Learner Autonomy
A Vision of Students
Dr. Michael Wesch at Kansas State University
YouTube video – now updated Jan 2011
http://visionsofstudents.org/
Overview
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Think about how we improve:
–
–
–
•
technology evaluations, assessments and training.
accessibility and ease of use of online teaching and learning
materials.
as well as develop e-learning skills.
Throughout there will be links to the results of the LEXDIS project.
Technology
for…
• Gathering information
• Analysing Information
• Being creative
• Problem solving
• Working with others.
Accessibility issues
•
•
•
•
Aspects of the e-learning applications do not
interact well with assistive technologies or allow for
personalisation;
Navigability of resource rich websites e.g. libraries;
Problems opening and manipulating files;
Difficulties scanning and manipulating science
based resources for screen reading and text to
speech.
Nick
Many Facets of AT
Access
Personalisation
and Accessibility
Productivity Tools
Free, Portable and Online
Technologies
Digital Decisions
•
•
Some students mentioned simplicity, skills, suitability
and cost as a deciding factors.
All students talked about their decisions being
influenced by time considerations regarding use of
assistive technologies, training and social networking
applications.
“…when I got all my software in Autumn last year, they said:
‘You need to have your training on this’... I felt like I was doing
two courses and that was, frankly, too much. I had to stay
with my old bad habits because I just didn’t feel I had the time
to learn something new to help me. It was a vicious circle,
really.”
Keep the tools simple
• “I’m just going to knock this nail in.”
(using a very complex bit of kit
• “So why over complicate things? This
would do the job perfectly well.”
(holding up a hammer)
Making it work with AT
•
•
Provide an outline equivalent
Provide options – Make it easy on yourself!
•
•
Create in HTML originally. Do not use “Save as Web”
Use a Conversion Utility such as the The Illinois
Accessible Web Publishing Wizard
http://www.accessiblewizards.uiuc.edu/
•
For the more adventurous - use accessible flash
tools such as Xerte
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/
It does not take a lot to make
a difference
• I only used style sheets and added page
numbers to the handout – it did not take that
long!
• Hi I just popped in to say ‘thanks!’
• Thinking
- Thanks I feel now that all my
hard work has not been taken for granted.
Lectures - Synote
Personalisation
• Will this do for all of you?
Showing one size
t-shirt
• No that won’t fit me
• We are all unique with individual needs and
requirements
Personalisation
• Desktop Options
• Input options
• Output options
• Colour changes
• Language
What works for me?
• Science Issues
• Multimedia
• Using the Internet
• Communication
Altering the Look and Feel to
work faster and smarter!
• My Web My Way http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/
Productivity to free, portable
and online
• Portable apps available
from
http://access.ecs.soton.a
c.uk/projects/accessTool
s/download
• Atbar
http://access.devx.co.uk/
projects/toolbar/demo
Calendars, Planning and
Collaboration
• Online task and time management
• Google Calendar
• Google docs
• Issues
• Accessibility
• Login in - passwords
www.web2access.org.uk
Browsing Tactics?
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•
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Find some information
Add it to a blog?
(WordPress)
Tell a friend?
Expectations
• Students have high expectations of technology
with respect to access, choice and reliability.
• Students expect consistency in use of the VLE
across modules.
• Most see it as an essential aspect of course
admin and communication.
• Students have high expectations of their tutors’
use of technology.
Virtual Learning Environment
Another Course, Another
Environment!
Knowledge Estuary
Demonstration
Agile
Technology
users not just
Assistive
Technology
users.
With grateful thanks to
all those students who
took part in the LexDis
project.
www.lexdis.org
Mrs E.A. Draffan
Electronics and Computer Science.
University of Southampton
Mobile 07976 289103
E-mail: ead@ecs.soton.ac.uk
http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk