Week 2 B Reading Summaries

Design Your Website From the Bottom Up

            Most novice website builders begin by designing the start page.  Instead of using this method, it would be more effective to build the site from the bottom up.  The start page should serve as a user-friendly guide to the rest of the site.  This is difficult to achieve if you haven’t decided where you are going to take the viewers. 

Step 1: Brainstorm

            Begin by brainstorming a list of all the items you would like to have in your website.  This can include items that you will produce for your site, as well as links to other sites.  Think about your audience and the kinds of information they will be looking for.  Also consider what you already have available, and what is already available on the Internet.

Step 2: Grouping

            Try to group all of your items into 2 to 4 categories, and see if you can find a name for each category.  Think about dividing up your information according to the viewer (students, parents, classes, grades, etc.)

Step 3: Critique the Categories

            Look at your categories with a critical eye and answer the following questions:

·      Who is my audience?  What are they looking for?

·      What is most important to them?  Will it be easy to find?

·      Will they have to jump between categories to find what they need?

·      Should some items be in more than one category?

·      What items will stay the same?  Will some items need frequent updating?

·      Do the categories make sense?  Do they describe what’s in them?

Step 4: Revise Your Categories

            Revise the categories and items as needed.  Focus on what it will be like for your audience to find what they want.

Step 5: Develop a Flowchart

            Finalize the categories and the items in them, and make an organizational flowchart.  This will become your roadmap for designing the site.  As you develop your flowchart, you should balance the breadth and depth of the design.

Step 6: Design a Navigational Plan

            Think about the navigational path that viewers will use to move around your site.  Most users will begin at the start page, click to a second level page, and then perhaps down to a third level page.  Many will use the browser’s back button to return to the start.  However, you should also include shortcuts to allow users to go from one part of the site to another without using the back button.  Again, balance is key.  You need to offer enough shortcuts to other areas, but not so many that they cause confusion or clutter.  It is often best to put a navigation bar at the top or bottom of every page, linking to the start page and each of the second level pages.  You should also include some information that identifies the site and the designer at the bottom of every page, and remember to put a second, text only navigation bar somewhere on the page. 

Step 7: Page Layout

            Include the following on every page:

·      Navigation links at the top and bottom of every page

·      Identifying information on the site name and organization

·      Page content

Also remember to clearly identify the title of the current page, and place the most important information “above the fold.”  Most importantly, never make a site that is too wide (over 600 pixels).  People don’t like to have to scroll from side to side.

Step 8: Don’t Forget to Keep it Simple

            Most viewers want to quickly find the information they are looking for.  Don’t clutter the site with unnecessary animations and scrolling banners.  Every graphic you add will increase the download time.  Most viewers will quickly lose interest if they have to wait for your page to appear.  Load time is especially important at the top end of your site.  The start page and second level pages should load very quickly.

Step 9: Finally, You Get to Make Your Homepage

Step 10: Congratulate Yourself, and Get Ready to Upload to Your Server

            Remember that building and updating a website is an ongoing project.  Don’t add any cute “under construction” clip art to your site.  They’re always under construction.

Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

1.     Representation – Use multiple means of representation

·      Provide options for perception

·      Provide options for language and symbols

·      Provide options for comprehension

2.     Expression – Use multiple means of expression

·      Provide options for physical action

·      Provide options for expressive skills and fluency

·      Provide options for executive functions

3.     Engagement – Use multiple means of engagement

·      Provide options for recruiting interest

·      Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence

·      Provide options for self-regulation

Universal Design of Web Pages in Class Projects

         The web has the potential to make information accessible to everyone.  However, this potential cannot be realized unless the content is designed in a way that all Internet users can access the full range of resources.  The Internet has become an essential tool for education at all levels.  Students learn from web resources, and also create their own content.  As students develop web pages they need to keep in mind the disabilities and challenges that some of their users may face.  Accessible website design is an essential skill for all web content developers.

            People use a variety of technologies to access the web.  Assistive technologies exist to help people with specific disabilities. 

            To create resources that can be used by the widest spectrum of potential users, students should think about the broad range of characteristics their site visitors may have and design their resources to be as accessible as possible.  This includes individuals with disabilities, senior citizens, English language learners, and those using outdated hardware and software. 

            The World Wide Web Consortium’s Web accessibility Initiative develops Web Content Accessibility Standards.  The standards include guidelines grouped under four qualities of accessible websites: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.  Many states, schools, and other organizations have adopted these guidelines.  Teachers should find out if their school, district, or state has adopted these standards, and discuss them with students. 

            To encourage students to create websites that are easy for everyone to use, consider providing them with general guidelines that they must incorporate into their projects, and encourage them to address additional accessibility issues.  Students should also remember to maintain a simple, consistent page layout throughout the site, keep backgrounds simple, and use standard html to ensure access by all browsers.  They should also make link text descriptive, and include a note about accessibility. 

            A major barrier to blind individuals is created when text alternatives are not provided for non-text elements.  Many blind individuals rely on text-to-speech software, or a refreshable braille display.  Both of these require text alternatives to describe graphic content.

            Video and audio are often used on websites.  However, audio content is not accessible to those who cannot hear it.  Also, video content may not be accessible to blind users if the message being communicated is not apparent through the presentation’s audio.  Students should include captions for video content, and transcripts for audio clips.  For video, they could also consider including a descriptive audio track. 

            Students should test their websites with a variety of web browsers. Including at least one text-based browser, or a standard browser with graphics turned off and sound muted, making sure they can still access all of the features of their websites.  They can also use accessibility-testing software that will point out elements of their websites that may be inaccessible to certain users. 

            If students use an authoring tool, they should be required to locate and apply accessibility features included with that tool. 

           

           

Week 2 A Reading Summaries

Digital Kids.  Analog Schools.

The quotes featured in this article focus on the need for the education system to adapt to the rapidly changing technology that students are learning to use.  Children are now more familiar with technology at a much younger age.  If educators don’t try to catch up and become leaders, we will be seen by our students as followers who are irrelevant. 

Because we cannot know what the world will be like when our students graduate and enter the workforce, it is most important that we need to teach them to learn, unlearn, create, and adapt to changing technology. 

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

            One of the fundamental causes of the decline of education in the US is that our students have changed.  They are not the same students our educational system was designed to teach.  The rapid dissemination of digital technology has led to a fundamental change in the way students think and process information.  Today’s students represent the first generation to have grown up surrounded by this new technology.  As a result, it is possible that our students’ brains are physically different from ours. 

            These new students are referred to as “digital natives.”  They are “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.  Those of us who were not born into the digital world are referred to as “digital immigrants.”  We have adopted many or most aspects of the new technology, but compared to the “digital natives,” we are not nearly as fluent, and we retain a digital immigrant accent. 

            The single biggest problem facing education today is that digital immigrant instructors are trying to teach a population that speaks an entirely different language.   Today’s instructors must learn to communicate in the language and style of their students.  This means going faster, less step-by-step, more in parallel, with more random access.  Content must also change.  There are now two kinds of content: “Legacy” content (reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding ideas of the past) and “Future” content (software, hardware, robotics, nanotechnology, genomics, etc., as well as the ethics, politics, sociology, languages, and other things that go with them).  The legacy content is still important, but some of it will become less so.  The future content is typically very interesting to students, but the digital immigrant instructors are not prepared to teach it.  As educators, we need to think about how we can teach both kinds of content in the language of the digital natives.  Instead of sticking to the traditional methods of teaching content, educators can adapt by creating new methods, such as video games, that appeal to today’s students. 

Tools for the Mind

Instructional technology literature from the 1990s showed a commitment to the belief that computers could transform student learning.  In the present era, the pendulum has shifted.  Educators and education officials are now questioning the potential value of computers as instructional tools. 

            Many educators believe in the “exceptionality” of computers, believing that they can do for students what other tools and reforms cannot.  This has resulted in a narrow focus on technology at the expense of the more important pillars of learning.  Many districts have concentrated on professional development that trains teachers in skills instead of teaching them how technology can be used to enhance student learning.  Also, many districts have failed to make the kinds of accommodations needed to allow for the full capitalization of classroom technology.  Another problem is that schools have conflated technology use with instructional quality, and student engagement with improved learning and higher order thinking.  In all the excitement about using new technology, educators have failed to ask the most fundamental question: are students actually learning?  Educators also tend to classify all software applications as cognitively and instructionally equal.  This misconception has resulted in in an overreliance on conceptually easy kinds of software that focus on simple cognitive tasks.  In addition to lower-order tools, classrooms use more robust tools (such as the internet, spreadsheets, and databases) in such nondifferentiated ways that they dilute their power.  Many other software tools offer even greater opportunities for higher-order thinking (geographic information systems, computer-aided design programs, and simulation software programs), but they are virtually invisible in classrooms. 

            The focus on lower-order technology tools may result from the fact that the higher-order tools are less user-friendly, and less visually appealing.  They also take time to learn, integrate, and use.  Also, school districts often lack technology trainers who are proficient in the use of these tools. 

            The solution to the problem will require a return to original assumptions – the need for critical thinking, learner-centered instruction, and the use of computers as mind tools.  It will also require professional development that addresses these needs.  Before computers are dismissed as an expensive fad, schools must take measures to ensure that they are using computers to their fullest instructional potential. 

Week 1 Reading Summaries

Family Guide to Child Safety on the Internet – Summary

Parenting Online

           

            Because their children are often more familiar with the internet than they are, parents often worry about teaching their children how to stay safe online.  However, the dangers found in cyberspace can be managed using the same familiar warnings that parents have always used. 

            Search engines are valuable tools that make it easy to find useful information.  However, it is also easy to find sites that are trying to catch children’s attention.  Pornographers frequently abuse search engines, tricking people into visiting them.  Children may visit their sites unintentionally, thinking they are visiting a more appropriate site.  Most search engines have filtering options that filter out inappropriate content.  Some are even designed to be kid-friendly.  In addition to these search engines, there are several family-friendly site lists, and entertaining sites that teach children online safety.  Librarians and library media specialists can also act as guides to valuable and safe online resources for children. 

            Parents should teach children several common sense rules for online safety.  These rules involve avoiding contact with people they don’t know in real life, providing personal information, aimless surfing, provoking fights, and illegally downloading materials.  Parents should also set up the computer in a common area of the house, make an effort to get to know their children’s online friends, and check into privacy and security settings when purchasing interactive devices for their children. 

            There are also many tools available for parents to control and monitor where their children surf online.  Blocking software blocks access to sites that are on a “bad list,” and some can be customized.  Filtering software uses certain keywords to block sites or sections of sites.  Some allow parents to see which terms are filtered, and select certain types of sites to block.  Outgoing filtering software prevents children from sharing certain personal information online.  Monitoring and tracking software allows parents to keep track of where their children go online, how much time they spend online, and how much time they spend on the computer. 

            Mobile communication devices with internet access make it more difficult for parents to monitor their children’s online activities.  Parents can help to keep their children safe by being proactive and informed.  They should know how these devices allow you to communicate with others, and how communications can be blocked, monitored, or filtered.  They should also know what content or images can be accessed or shared, and what controls exist to rate, block, filter, or monitor the content, and whether the device can be used to make online purchases. 

Preparing students for success in the 21^st Century

            Technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in our everyday lives, and in the workplace.  Soon, almost every American job will require some use of technology.  Schools are challenged with preparing students to use technology as a tool, while learning to make choices between information goldmines or landfills, ethical or unethical use of intellectual property, and privacy of personal information or broadcasting to worldwide populations. 

Developing Ethical Direction – Summary

            Everyone has an internal compass that tells you when something is right, and when something is wrong.  Adults need to teach children how to find and use this compass.  The complexity of technology, and how society chooses to address technology use make it difficult for students to find the right direction.  Students will often disagree on what is right or wrong.  A major reason for this discrepancy is that students have not been taught how to behave when using technology.  Learning digital citizenship is rooted in discussion and dialogue, and not in acceptable use policies (AUPs). 

            Teachers should review the following compass directions to better understand student opinions and guide them toward appropriate technology use:

·      Wrong.

o   Because a small number of students cause trouble for all other students, it is important to allow students to explore their feelings about technology use and abuse. 

·      What’s the big deal?

o   Students traveling in this direction fail to consider how others may feel about their behavior, and they can’t understand what all the fuss is about.  Teachers should help them see beyond their own personal use of technology. 

·      As long as I don’t get caught.

o   Students choosing this direction know what they are doing isn’t right, but they believe that if no one knows, that makes it acceptable.

·      It’s an individual choice.

o   These students believe that technology use is a right, not a privilege.  They don’t want others to tell them how to use their technology.

·      Depends on the situation.

o   There are times when a student needs to know that some activities are appropriate in one situation, but not in another. 

·      I don’t know.

o   Students may not know what is appropriate and inappropriate.  But, ignorance of the rules cannot be used as a defense of technology misuse or abuse.

·      I am not sure it’s wrong.

o   This is the path of a student who understands some aspects of technology but only knows enough to be dangerous.

·      Right.

o   Going in the right direction isn’t as easy as it may seem.  The best way to help others understand the right direction is through discussion, self-reflection, and role modeling. 

The strength of the digital citizenship compass is that it shows that there are gradations of understanding when it comes to technology use and abuse.  It assists teachers in stimulating dialogue and self-reflection, helping students to understand appropriate technology use. 

Technology misuse and abuse has reached an all-time high.  To prevent the problem from becoming even worse, digital citizenship needs to become a priority in school curriculum and staff development programs.