Week 13

Sorting through all the information the web has to offer can be overwhelming. Finding reliable sources on, and off, the Internet is what I would recommend to any colleague asking for advice in coping with this multitasking potential nightmare. First, locate a set of sources known to be experts in a given field such as professional journals, organizations, or individuals already recognized in their field. Bookmark the locations or have a RSS set-up to receive updates, next set-up a folder (or use a bookmarking program such as Diigo) to store any feeds of interest for later use. Regularly check other websites for information as potential new sources, or follow others as people recommend and edit the reliable sources as new ones go up the scale for usability. When questionable information is presented, go to the offline source for another opinion.

Several weeks ago (March 15, 2011) a colleague in the College of Education received a news story about a lawsuit being initiated against Google surrounding their email and application suite for educational institutions. Many Universities are having Google take over their email systems to save money and are letting Google introduce their set of production tools (i.e., Google Apps) for students to use.  The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is suing several large institutions claiming the Google products are not accessible for use on a screen reader. He was concerned about the College's, and University's, transition to the Google platform and if this lawsuit (actually a US Justice department investigation) would result in having to find an alternative. The web source, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the story were both credible and true. He asked us, The Center on Disability Studies (CDS) what our opinion was on the matter and since I'm the media person, what I suggested be the best course of action. I checked with my personal resources and the World Wide Wide Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and we all agreed that Google was making the proper adjustments for accessibility in a timely manner. The transition should go on without any interruption. The information gathered on the web was filtered, verified, and lastly, analyzed on how it would be used.

Week 12

This was the first time I had ever used Twitter or presented in an online conference.  I found both experiences to be enlightening in a professional kind of way.  Twitter had the mindset for me of being a place for cartoon characters posing as politicians to get even more media exposure without having to answer to anyone; was I ever wrong. I came to find Twitter to be a most useful social media tool for getting information about interesting topics, very quickly.  The online TCC Conference was enhanced by the tweets of fellow classmates and gave the experience a "being there" sense of reality.

Week 11

The Second Life (SL) assignment had challenges I wasn't expecting but definitely turned into a learning situation, especially for me.  My SL COE project was on accessibly and distance education and features stations focusing on the topic. I decided to try and simulate student set-ups for receiving and using SL.  My usual set-up has high speed internet access via the UH and my computer has mega-RAM, high speed processing, and multiple large screen monitors, making SL relatively easy to use. I tried using a WiFi 3G phone company internet access device with a 14" basic laptop computer.  Technically, SL is suppose to help the user adjust the settings to fit their configuration; for the most part this worked but the small monitor soon became cluttered with SL windows showing how the connection and other aspects of the program where working. Next, I found out my 3G internet connection had time periods of very low bandwidth action (usually between 6-9 pm) something I had experienced with cable connections at the same location but not to same degree. Location had a large bearing on how well the service worked (at my weekend place, I was able to stream full feature movies). This resulted in making the entire SL experience, cumbersome and not very enjoyable.

I am looking at accessible collaboration technologies and have found a profound lack of available and easy to use programs. I'm sure there are ones out there.

Week 10

Using Gaming for learning is the topic for this week's discussion.  Testing for assessment has to be considered a type of game; points are given for correct answers to a stated objective, once an objective is achieved, some sort of reward is given. Games make great tests especially in a 3-D virtual environment where options for understanding a topic can be made into models or unique user experiences. A resource I found about gaming and learning is at http://vgalt.com/.

Week Nine

Augmented reality is a fascinating topic when it comes to education.  This takes technology to a higher level of interaction and the opportunities for learning modules are endless.  I decided to add to my proposed course curriculum on accessibility and distance education.  The vOICe application for the android phone using the camera to identify objects and translate the information into speech is a great way of showing how assistive technology works, or as I'm guessing, doesn't always work. If only my phone was smart enough to take on the technology.

Week Eight

For creating a lesson to enhance intercultural collaboration using emerging web technologies, my first thought would be this weeks' instructional module in Second Life (SL), a multi-user virtual reality program.  Sites from around the world already exist in SL and people from many places and cultures are using SL to interact. Although this week's lesson doesn't specifically focus on intercultural activities, a lesson using SL to find people and ask questions about where they are from, could easily be created.

Week Seven

I take it for granted nothing is private on the Internet. If you want to keep a secret, then don't tell anyone. This week's reading "Analogue Literacies" by Jon Dron, has a quote from Mark  Zukerberg where he claims that privacy is dead (O'Brien, 2010). I agree, how can anything which is broadcasted via the web be private? The best practice I would recommend is to not write anything you're concerned will be repeated on the web, if you want some form of privacy then talk in person or on the phone (less so, but better). The more computers and technology are able to learn about us, the less concerned we should be about it.  Most of the information gathered about us is for selling goods and services on the web; humans will adapt.