Universal Access

a)
The new way we have learned to see web pages is really interesting. I had never looked at the other side of a web page. For instance, I have found http://www.nbcs.org.uk/, one web page that incorporates accessible multimedia. I believe this web pages is really complete respect access. The design follows the W3C’s Web Content accessibility Guidelines and XHTML 1.0. There is a written link “color scheme and access options” where the viewers can choose between four color scheme and four different sizes of letter in each color scheme.
There is a link to get “text only” and a graphic version; there are some instructions to apply according to the browser using Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and Firefox, I have even used Thunder, a screen reader, to listen to it. This web page offers a lot of possibilities to all kind of viewers versus the web page http://www.adoptapet.com/ . This one does not offer any possibilities for viewers with disabilities. It is attractive, dynamic and funny thanks to the pictures, but blind people are going to find it difficult to access its information. After I have checked Waved 3.5, I found there were a lot of accessibility errors in the structure, outline view, features and alerts. In my opinion this page lacks the order in page design and in the way information should be presented to be more beneficial for viewers with disabilities.

b) Court Case

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) sued Target because they believed that target.com is not accessible to people with disabilities using screen-readers. According to NFB the inaccessibility of Target.com violates the ADA, the California Unruh Civil Rights Act and The California Disabled Persons Act. In August 2008 they announced a $6 million class action settlement. In the settlement Target will ensure that the target.com website meets the Target Assistive Technology Guidelines. Likewise, NFB will monitor target.com and train their employees responsible for coding the target.com website to remain Accessible to Guests who use assistive technologies.

References:
Retrieved from: http://www.nfbtargetlawsuit.com/final_settlement.htm
Retrieved from: http://jimthatcher.com/law-target.htm
Retrieved from: http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=357
Retrieved from: http://www.dralegal.org/cases/private_business/nfb_v_target.php

c) Write a short description of the changes you would need to make in order to be compliant with the 508 standards and the WCAG guidelines.

In order to be compliant with the standards I will have to follow CSS for layout. That will help me to design a consistent structure where I will add meaningful titles and descriptive written links.
I will provide keyboard access to all toolbars, menus and provide telephone support staff.
I will increase the size of text or even allow to select preferred font and to alter background colors to create contrast. I will provide audio-description or even captioning when I design the graphic design if there are images or videos. Moreover, I will create a text only page, probably HTMLX that will facilitate the use of screen readers. Finally, I will validate the web page.

Susana

Spanish Simulations

Characteristics of the Learners/Players: Students taking beginning and/or intermediate Spanish courses.

Learning Problem: Know the vocabulary and what expressions one person has to use to greet; practice how to greet people of different ages and social status in different situations: at work, supermarket, home, school, etc.

Outline what the virtual world would look like:
A couple of students have just arrived at the airport in a Spanish speaking country and they are meeting the host families whom they have never met. The families are made up of a mother, a father, a grandfather, and a twelve-year old daughter. They are going to interact in different situations: They go out to a restaurant to eat, and there the students meet three other family members, cousins and other friends. The cousins are about the same age as the students. On the following day, the students introduce themselves to their teachers at the university. In the afternoon they go to the supermarket and talk to the lady that sells fish. In the evening, they go to the movies with the cousins and their friends.
Players can choose their characters, their families, the persons whom they want to greet and the different situations. They can create a lot of possibilities in a whole day in a Spanish-speaking country.

What will learners need to do? The students need to greet and respond when meeting new people and will earn points as they perform the appropriate greeting. They are practicing in real situations at their will. They can choose different scenarios (restaurant, cinema, bus, market…).

The learning outcome is the following:
· Students learn in real life situations,
· Students/players will learn and practice vocabulary
· Students/players are involved in real examples they can choose at their will.

Susana

Interactivity and Multimedia

Hi, Allison and Michelle,

I always thought the games were beneficial to the learning environment. I have used them as a student and later I always have used them as a teacher. I have played role games with my students or I have had them play some kind of game to reinforce a concept. However, I have never used a video game to teach them. Well, I would not know how to use video games then. Besides I had preconceived idea of video games associated to the isolated teenager who is playing a violent, sexist and non-useful game. This week I have learned that we, as teachers, can use all the interactivity that videos games provide to help students learn.
I have read some articles and information online, but there are two papers that captured my attention: “Playing and Making Games for Learning Instructionist and Constructionist Perspectives for Game Studies”, written by Y. B. Kafai[1] and “Video Games and the Future of Learning” written by D. Shaffer, K.Squire, R.Halverson, J.Gee[2]. These writers explain the video games’ potential as a teaching material and confirm my idea that games are beneficial to the learning environment.
I am thinking about the possibilities the video-game design activities (level and character editors) offer for educational purposes. Video games offer the opportunity of learning by doing. So they become handy to constructivists. The current interactivity that video games provide, where players can create and design their own characters, storylines, games themes and interactions, help them learn by doing. It makes perfect sense to me because we as teachers need to master topics when we have to prepare our teaching materials. Players have to master a topic, whether it is history, math or science (Civilization III, Time Engineers, Making History).
There is also a lot of effort put to create and design the characters, and to make the storylines, game themes and interaction. However, this is a motivational and challenging effort that is going to help the students learn and become lifelong learners. Playing makes the students improvise, innovate, seek out for answers and be creative. For instance, in allowing learners to play working as a surgeon, he or she can learn biology; in designing buildings or cities, he or she will learn about engineering or architect. Players can learn a lot of from the video games, history, ecology, math, science, politics… and they learn in context.
We are talking about ”social interactivity” where the players are playing simultaneously online at a given time, and participating in virtual worlds, where players seek out news sites, read and write FAQS and participate in discussion forums.

Pros:

- Its gaming nature provides the necessary motivation to learn happily.

- Students and public generally speaking are familiarized with them.

- Material is very attractive to the senses (sound, color, velocity…) and very challenging and engaging.

- Videos games provide the same values, attitude and behaviors that are present in our society.

- Character and material richness (History, Art, Geography, Math, Health, Urbanism/Lincoln, Van Gogh, Frank Lloyd Wright…) allows to experience in the virtual past, present or future in different realities and context.

- Players in their roles can learn and reinforce concepts and ideas.

- Allow repetition and coming back. Players have to master a level to pass to the next and these go from easy to difficult.

- Players need to become flexible, improvise, and be innovating to seek out for answers and be creative or even imaginative. They develop higher thinking skills.

- Clear goals and immediate reward.

- Games allow social interaction: players can play online, and participate in discussion forums or chat rooms; they can seek out news sites, read and write FAQS.

CONS:

- The idea that video games are violent, bloody, sexist, racist and consuming. One has to check what kind of rating the video games have.
- Teachers have to learn to work with the video games to use as teaching materials.
- Teachers have to learn to relate video games with and educational goal.
- It is expensive for the school (tech support, copyright, hardware…)

Susana

[1] Yasmin B. Kafai, “Playing and Making Games for Learning Instructionist and Constructionist Perspectives for Game Studies”, Games and Culture, Vol. 1, n. , Jan. 2006, 36-4. Retrieved from http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kafai/print/pdfs/playing.pdf

[2] David Shaffer, Kurt Squire, Richard Halverson, and Jim Gee, Video Games and the Future of Learning WCER Working Paper No. 2005-4 June 2005. Retrieved from http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/publications/workingPapers/Working_Paper_No_2005_4.pdf

MY ENVISION USING THE WEB 2.0; EXPERIENCES AND IDEAS FOR USE

Dear Alison and Michelle,

In my opinion, using the online software as a teaching tool should be an objective for the teachers. There are four important facts that teachers could realize: first, Web 2.0 is dynamic, participative and collaborative; second, the young students and learners have been born within the Internet era, so they are familiarized with technology. Third, the Internet access is easy and affordable. Fourth, technology is part of our daily life. As a result, learners are used to the Internet, used to the visualizing way of learning and they will know how to adapt to technology and usually, they will understand in a better way.

I have learned to use Web 2.0 as the instrument that will help me to transform passive learners into active ones. Actives learners are going to be able to create contents and share them in chat room, blogs or wikis. Doing so, learners are interacting with the content, with the teacher, with their partners and even with the creators of the information.

Teaching materials created with this online software can be attractive, colorful, and desirable learning materials for the learners. For instance, I will begin a class by introducing a topic with an eye-catching vidcast or a fascinating podcast is going to call the learners attention. Then as a class, I will ask for a brainstorming period that we can create through bubbl.us. Next, I will present the information about the topic. To do so, and depending on the topic, I will use my teaching materials that I created by searching in the Internet through the different searching machines, probably Kartoo. I could use some visual representations using Slideshare, or PowerPoint; some maps from Google Earth or some statistical visualization from Gapminder. Later, I will have the learners work in groups to create their own answers and to do some research. Finally, I will have the learners present their own materials through video, or through blogs, where they can present all the files and multimedia or even I will create a wiki page where the class will begin a discussion.
As a class I could teach my students about Diigo.com . A web page where students can create web-page favorites about class topics that will help them in their research and even interact among them.

Susana

Multimedia instruction (and a lot of work....)