Tag Archives: awareness

Reflection 1.2 – OLTD 506

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During my teacher training I was exposed to many social media “horror stories” including one where vacation photos of a teacher holding alcohol and another of her sipping where the cause of a forced resignation (Daily Mail Reporter, 2011). In fact, I vividly remember an assignment where my classmates and I were to search each other’s public Facebook pages and report to each other what we could see.

Before taking this course I was aware of my digital footprint because I had tried to lock it down – ostrich behaviour (Hengstler, 2011). During my last placement term of teacher training, students had found the Facebook page of someone with my name, who wasn’t me, and I had been put in an awkward position. This issue was eventually resolved; but provides a clear example of “no presence” online not being an option for teachers.

Ostrich by James Preston

Ostrich by James Preston. CC BY 2.0.
Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/7XGJgW.

Hengstler (2012) talks about 3 types of digital footprints – passive, active and second-hand. I think the most important type of digital footprint for teachers is the second-hand digital footprint where others can curate your presence, with or without your knowledge. The best way to manage your digital footprint is actively, so the presence you have online is one of your own design – and one you can easily direct others to explore if there are questions about it.

I have taken more steps toward actively managing my digital presence in the last few years– including creating a professional account on Twitter and being more active on work and personal blogs. I am not sure I am an Eagle just yet, but I do feel I am at least an Ostrich that has taken their head out the sand.

References

Daily Mail Reporter. (2011, February 7). Teacher sacked for posting picture of herself holding glass of wine and mug of beer on Facebook. The Daily Mail Online. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354515/Teacher-sacked-posting-picture-holding-glass-wine-mug-beer-Facebook.html

Hengstler, J. (2011). Managing your digital footprint: Ostriches v. Eagles. In S. Hirtz & K. Kelly (Eds.), Education for a Digital World 2.0 (2nd ed.) (Vol. 1, Part One: Emerging technologies and practices). Open School/Crown Publications: Queen’s Printer for British Columbia, Canada. Retreived from http://www.viu.ca/education/faculty_publications/hengstler/EducationforDigitalWorld2.0_1_jh89.pdf

Hengstler, J. (April 2012). “Digital professionalism and digital footprints”. Document prepared for training session with Vancouver Island University’s Administrative Assistants, April 2012.Retrieved from https://d2l.viu.ca/content/enforced/56545-EDUC_OLTD506_W70_F2014/foundations_boundaries/Social%20Media%20Digital%20Footprints%202013_v3.pdf?_&d2lSessionVal=C1D6uwH0jYfN3u2OJmmAp9NBQ&ou=56545

 

Global Accessibility Awareness Day – May 15th

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"web accessibility word cloud" by Jil Wright.

“web accessibility word cloud” by Jil Wright. Size changed to fit screen. (CC BY 2.0)

May 15th was Global Accessibility Awareness Day. As someone who spends a lot of time in online courses personally and professionally, I decided to take advantage of a free webinar entitled “Web Accessibility Tools in Action: Awesome Tools to Build The Web For All” offered by Desire2Learn. Sean Yo (@seanyo or seanyo.ca for more information on him) presented the webinar, as was a very engaging speaker.

Although I expected the webinar to focus more specifically on accessibility in Desire2Learn, Sean spoke more generally about accessible design. There was a discussion about how to think about accessibility that I really enjoyed. Nothing is ever 100% accessible, and you should expect to make continual improvements to the accessibility of your material, the same way you would refresh your content year after year. I feel that thinking of accessibility that way puts up less of a barrier to tackling accessible design – you don’t have to be perfect, you just need to be willing to continually improve.

The presentation was geared towards tools and resources, many of which are new to me. I collected most of the resources and tools mentioned in the webinar into a Diigo list here: https://www.diigo.com/user/boychuks/accessibility?type=all&sort=updated if you are interested in reviewing it. There are tools that emulate screen readers, tools to check the readability of your text and tools to review your webpages for accessibility. There are also a couple of suggested books.

Sean also wrote a blog post about Global Accessibility Awareness Day here: http://www.desire2learn.com/blog/make-global-accessibility-awareness-day/. The biggest take-away from both his presentation and blog, I think, is empathy. It is easy to forget how challenging accessing the online world can be for people with disabilities.

My breakthrough moment came later last year when a student who uses a screen reader came into the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning (CIEL) office for support. They were experiencing a complicated issue, further complicated by having to scroll through their own system and the online course using a screen reader. This experience really opened my eyes (so to speak) to how the web “looks” for people with visual impairments.

Using some of the tools presented at the webinar, I have gone back and looked over some of the things I have created personally and as a member of the CIEL team. There is plenty of room for improvement, and I will be doing my best to adapt and change my work, now and in the future.