CS4ODFL/Knowing your ODFL communications ecosystem/Pedagogical

=The Roles of Technology, Media and Assistive Technologies in ODFL Communications.=

The increasing number of new technology tools and expanding bandwidth are changing all facets of online activity, including e-learning. As technologies become more sophisticated and as they begin to converge (for example, cell phones becoming multimedia-capable and Internet-connected), educators are having more options for creating innovative practices in education. The shift occurring in the Web from a static content environment where end users are the recipients of information—defined as Web 1.0—to one where they are active content creators—defined as Web 2.0—can be described as a transition to a more distributed, participatory,  and   collaborative  environment.

The use of emerging technology in ODFL Communications
For some instructors, integrating technology into their teaching can be an overwhelming task. Although technology is constantly changing, it has the ability to:


 * Manipulate streams of meaningless data.
 * Repeat itself endlessly.
 * Help make learning more efficient by controlling large amounts of data quickly.
 * Help make learning more effective by providing a great wealth of resources and allowing students choices.
 * Operate in environments where humans cannot.
 * Connect people who could not connect cheaply or easily otherwise.
 * Provide means to improve students’ acquisition of basic skills and content knowledge
 * Motivate students
 * Work quickly and objectively.
 * Strengthen teachers’ preferred instructional approaches—for example, those who lecture can use computer-enhanced visual support, those who prefer inquiry-based approaches can use raw data on the Web and databases or spreadsheets for analysis.
 * Help to change the vision of a classroom as a room with four walls that depends solely on the teacher for information.

Using technology for instructional goals
Digital storytelling

Storytelling is one of the oldest teaching methods. By using digital video cameras and software, like VoiceThread, StoryKit, Toontastic, Xtranormal, Little Bird Tales, My Story Book Creator School Edition, Puppet Pals HD and storybird, almost anyone can extend a story’s reach to a much wider audience. Instructors can ask students to create digital stories to demonstrate knowledge of a topic.

Online meetings

Synchronous meetings of online classes can be facilitated by the use of web conferencing/virtual classroom tools lik Zoom, Google Hangouts and Skype. These technologies add presentation and group interaction tools. Their synchronous nature appeals to many people and complements other asynchronous activities. For a geographically widespread class or working group, occasional online meetings can help to keep people on track and provide a valuable opportunity for synchronous discussions.

Communities of practice

Much of social computing revolves around the formation of communities of practice, which are groups with a common  interest. With technologies that  ease the sharing of experiences, information, and resources, whether  across the  hall  or  around  the  world,  many communities of practice are developing spontaneously, or are intentionally created by an individual or organization to meet a specific purpose. Communities of practice use social computing tools and often form as a result of the availability of the tool.

Personal broadcasting

Personal broadcasting tools include: blogs (web logs), moblogs (mobile blogs), vlogs (video blogs), podcasts, vodcasts (video podcasts), and RSS feeds with uploaded images from cell phones. Instructors can use these technologies to bring diverse elements into a course to assist in meeting a variety of learning styles. These technologies can also be used for updating students on current activities and projects. Podcasting and videoblogs can assist learners whose learning style is primarily autitory. Some uses include lectures for students to review, providing more clarity for difficult concepts, and supplementing lecture information. Personal broadcasting technologies allow students to participate in the creative construction of knowledge and project-related work. People can share their broadcasts on their own websites or through sites that specialize in specific types of broadcasting, such as wordpress.com for blogs or youtube.com for vlogs.

Wikis

Wikis allows visitors to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit the content. This ease of interaction makes wikis an effective tool for collaborative authoring. Wikis can be useful as a tool for students to build their own knowledge base on specific topics and for sharing, comparing, and consolidating that knowledge.

Educational gaming

Despite the vast interest in video and computer games, the educational game market still has a long way to go. Many people have heard of Warcraft, a strategy game, and Halo, a battlefield simulation game, but how many people have heard of Millie’s Math House, a learning game? There’s a variety of educational learning experiences that virtual reality could present to students

Intelligent searching

Google and other search engines are already the most used learning tools around. Many people use them daily to do  research  and find information. Search engines will evolve to provide more concept- and context-sensitive searching. Currently these have emerged in specific content areas such as Google Maps, Google Scholar, a self-adapting community system using Gnooks, video and audio using Blinx and StumbleUpon, which uses ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality.

Webcams and video from cell phones

Digital cameras, video cameras, webcams, and video from  cell phones  have become  almost  ubiquitous  as ways to capture personal history. But they have gone far beyond that and have become a means of communication. People have captured events like weather, subway bombings, and funny incidents that have become part of television entertainment and news. Thanks to sites like Flickr and YouTube, online videos have become a pervasive online feature.Examples of educational uses include: a source  of data for student projects, a way to practise skills, document events, record interviews, and add video to videoblogs (vlogs). Instructors might use them to emphasize or explain important or difficult-to-understand concepts. The use of video provides learners with an alternative medium for grasping concepts when text or images alone don’t convey the necessary information.

Social computing

Social computing is the use of technologies such as wikis, blogs, and podcasting by individuals and groups to create content, instead of simply being content recipients. In an e-learning context, social computing is about students becoming the creators as well as the consumers of content. In a formal setting, students can be encouraged to use social computing technologies to share their expe- riences and collaborate on assignments and projects. Social networking software, such as Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Plaxo, and LinkedIn also assists people to connect with one another.

Mobile learning

Also called m-learning, this represents an evolution of e-learning to the almost ubiquitous mobile environment for laptop computers,  cell phones,  PDAs, iPods, and RFID (radio frequency identification) tags. Technologies like GPS and Bluetooth will also enable the adoption of m-learning.

Use of Assistive Technology in ODFL
Your proactive approach in incorporating assistive technology will make your content accessible to all your learners by default including those who:


 * have a learning disability
 * are in a location where they cannot play or her audio
 * are not native English speakers and need written-word formats to support understanding
 * have a physical disability
 * are blind or have low vision
 * have poor contrast vision
 * are deaf or hard of hearing
 * are colour blind and cannot differentiate between certain colours
 * are using a device with monochrome display
 * have a form of cognitive disability

Assistive technology device means any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability. The term does not include a medical device that is surgically implanted or the replacement of such device.

The benefits of access to technology for students with disabilities include:


 * Being able to bridge ideas
 * Sequential practice to master concepts step by step
 * Control over their environment
 * Timely feedback
 * Access to multimodal (visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic) and multi-intelligence materials

Teachers need to understand why and how to use assistive technologies to help students effectively. For example, teachers may not think about how students with different abilities will access information from the Web. For students who are visually impaired or physically challenged, access is an important issue. Simple solutions to access problems range from making the text in the Web browser bigger so that sight-impaired students can see it to providing a special large mouse that needs only a light touch to work. Here is a list of few assistive technology ideas and their functions.

Assistive Technologies and their Functions

Different tools have different accessibility standards that often evolve  as technology changes. The best  thing you can  do  is search for  accessibility guidelines for  the  tool you  wish  to use. Also keep in mind the  tools  that  your  learners might use,  such  as screen readers. A screen reader is an assistive device that attempts to  convey what   is  on  screen to  people with various sight and reading issues. Different screen reading devices have  different abilities to  convey what  is on  the screen,  so  try   to  keep   tools   like  that   in  mind  when designing course materials.

Here are a few places to start further learning about accessibility:


 * WebAIM has website design accessibility training, evaluation, and certifications that are also applicable to online courses as well.
 * W3C also has an entire site dedicated to web accessibility – including lessons, guides, and validation tools. https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20SHvU2PKsM
 * WCAG Guidelines https://youtu.be/RjpvOqZigao
 * WebAIM also has a very good Screen Reader Simulation (along with  other simulation tools) that  helps you experience what  it is like to use a screen reader.