Our speaker this week was Jesse Miller, he opened my mind to the importance of social media in education and the consequences if not used properly. Understanding the risks of privacy when using social media I am now more aware of how we can help engage our students when using technology and social media. I want to introduce social media as a tool rather than creating fear around it. I appreciate Jesse’s balanced view on media literacy, he expressed that we should be giving students tools to use their devices safely and respectfully without hypocrisy as adults. He highlighted the pandemic forced education to learn more about digital literacy for distanced learning and teachers have had to shift. There are more teachers and educators now beginning to rethink and use technology to help deliver content and support our technologically driven society.

The TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) article was interesting to learn about the knowledge needed for technology-enhanced learning environments. It is the combination of what teachers know (content knowledge: facts, concepts, theories), how they teach (pedagogical knowledge: instructional strategies, teaching methods and assessment) and the role of technology (technological knowledge: tools, select, use and integrate) to impact student learning.  Therefore, this Tech Ed course in our Education program is important to build our technological knowledge to become more inclusive and effective teachers.

Inclusion comes in many forms and after reading about the requirements to create an accessible online format I am now aware of the considerations I will make when creating content. This includes documents, websites and apps are accessible for everyone when using technology in the classroom.  Listed below are some ways we can make our technology accessible for all users:

  1. Visual: screen reader, braille display, zoom functions, high contrast
  2. Auditory: captions, transcripts
  3. Motor: speech to text software, keyboard-only interactions
  4. Speech: non-vocal
  5. Cognitive: thoughtful and organized layouts

The main objective of creating accessible content is to ensure all users have a similar experience. Creating content that is clear and can be accessed with a wide range of technologies is important for teachers and all creators to keep in mind. This helps ensure all students have access to content without barriers.

Below I have summarized more tips of universal design for online learning:

Use regular fonts when inserting captions, audio descriptions, or alternative text descriptions. Provide context for animated gifs. Use CamelCase hashtags for clearer hashtag wording. Emojis are better than emoticons. There is an alternative text option in Instagram in advanced settings if users are accessing content through screen readers. Google Docs has accessibility options under tools (voice typing and advanced accessibility settings).

 

Featured Image Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash