Assistive Technology to Promote Learner Autonomy

A Vision of Students Dr. Michael Wesch at Kansas State University YouTube videoYouTube video – now updated Jan

Overview 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

Access Personalisation and Accessibility Productivity Tools Free, Portable and Online Technologies Many Facets of AT Assistive 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 For the more adventurous - use accessible flash tools such as 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 -

Productivity to free, portable and online Portable apps available from c.uk/projects/accessTool s/download c.uk/projects/accessTool s/download Atbar projects/toolbar/demo projects/toolbar/demo

Calendars, Planning and Collaboration Online task and time management Google Calendar Google docs Issues Accessibility Login in - passwords

Browsing Tactics? 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

Mrs E.A. Draffan Electronics and Computer Science. University of Southampton Mobile With grateful thanks to all those students who took part in the LexDis project. Agile Technology users not just Assistive Technology users.