This post is fulfilling a requirement for the Participate Module of Georgia Professional Learning . In this section we have focused on a learner’s Access to Digital Community. The goal of this post is to describe the levels of access to digital resources, barriers to them & how we can eliminate these barriers.
The sections on disability as a barrier to digital learning and how we can eliminate them borrows heavily from Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM). The YouTube video is also from WebAIM.
Some of the text is verbatim from source material.
****************
In the previous posts, we talked about digital citizenship and digital literacy. Now, we will explore civility within the digital community. Foundation of a civic society is community access to all citizen. With that in mind, First question we ask is:
What types of barriers might impede students’ opportunities to access the digital Community?
United states of America (USA) is considered a first world country where equality and fairness should allow all citizens equal opportunity to progress and achieve their dreams. Unfortunately, though a noble concept in theory, it fails short of reality.
Income Disparity & Rural Residential Area as Barriers Access to Digital Community
Racial minorities, older adults, rural residents and those with lower levels of education and income are less likely to have broadband service at home.
Younger adults, non-whites and lower income Americans are more reliant on smartphones for internet access.
When faced with poverty, paying bills and keeping roof over family takes precedence over being digitally connected. Internet and healthcare are often casualties of keeping hunger at bay. Though they may possess it the smartphone is not fully functional tool to carry out tasks such as taking tests online, submitting homework or creating an e-portfolio. The learner may not have necessary tools such as personal learning device or broadband available at home. The parent/guardian may not see the need for allowing a learner access to internet. As a result the learner will be deprived of the access to digital community.
Poverty or lack of home-school communication is not the only barrier. In rural areas internet may not be available at all, be splotchy due to lack of available broadband or having too many tress on the property. Our home is surrounded by many trees in a rural area. The highest broadband we can receive in our area is 3 Mbps. As you can see below, Ookla Speed Test gives our internet D+. Some of our neighbors have to resort to paying for putting a small cell tower on their property for several thousands dollars. Obviously, this option is not possible for everyone.
Disability as a barrier to access to Digital Community:
Until I researched for this assignment, I did not realize how much I take my ability of reaching out to digital community for granted. To show what I am talking about, I would like to share a YouTube Video and the transcript of the video.
Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM) works toward educating public of how disability hampers a learner from digital access as well as provides us with resources to remedy for that. According to WebAIM, major disability of the web users usually falls in one of these catewgories:
Motor disability: Inability to move mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor control
Cognitive disability: Learning disability, distractibility, Inability to remember or focus on large amounts of information
Some of our learners are also faced with photo epilepsy or age related prepossessing issues.
Once we are aware of the barriers, we must ask ourselves what might we do to eliminate such barriers?
Depending on the situation, we can work around barriers to the access to digital community. e.g., We can provide all students personal learning device which they can take home. The educators can accommodate the students to upload assignments and study tools which they may be able to use offline at home. Scheduling study hall(s) or extra study classes and allowing students access to robust internet before or after schools is another way schools can assist students access to digital community. Local Public library is a good resource for digital access; unfortunately, many poor and rural learners are not able to fully utilize it.
As the students in above video suggests, little changes can go long way to assist our differently able learners and make life easy for them.
Perceivable: Content should be available to all senses either through the browser or through the assistive technology e.g., screen readers, enlargers etc.
Operable: Users can interact with all controls and interactive elements using either the mouse, keypad or an assistive device.
Understandable: Content is clear and understandable.
Robust: A wide range of technologies including old and new user agents and assistive technology can access the internet.
Let look at these images below: which one is easier for you to read? Which would our student with visual or perceptual concerns?
I rest my case.
The best barrier remover for the learner is an empathetic educator. By making sure to fight for her learner’s rights to education, by acting as a coach to her students, a sensitive educator will ensure that her learners access to digital community.
This post is one in a series for a MOOC. You can find similar posts by searching under the category MOOC or searching for hashtag #eteachertool
Our local Empty Bowls event is a fundraiser for Soup or Socks, a food pantry and clothes closet for area residents. It is a win-win-win situation for our community-at-large.
Handmade Bowl from Local Empty Bowl 2018 Event
Win for community: Especially kids & parents who volunteered together to make the event success. Being a small and good-natured community, some of the bowls for the event are made by community members at Mother’s day Fair each year. We also have community days at an art center where for a nominal fee, we can make the bowls. Our local artists and art teachers team up; students get to design and paint the bowls while learning about civic duties. what a wonderful way to teach “looking after your brother in need”.
May I share a conversation I overheard while choosing a homemade bowl to take home?
Win for the patrons: The annual local Empty Bowls event raises much needed $$ for a local food pantry and clothes closet. Along with helping the neighbors in need, the patrons enjoy a hearty bowl of soup with a cookie and milk donated by area restaurants AND take home a handmade ceramic bowl. We shared a table with a young family and enjoyed listening to kids who proudly shared the bowls they had chosen as well as how they will use it.
Win for the neighbor’s in need: Today, working hard does not guarantee that one will have will a secure future, all their bills paid or even enough to feed the family . When more and more people are experiencing food deficit, the food pantries and community looking after themselves is essential. Empty Bowl event not only helps associated food pantries but also the patrons. Every time when we will use these bowls, we will remember, there is someone with an empty bowl somewhere. It will make us look inward and ask “what are we doing to solve the hunger issue across the nation?”
Thank you for visiting and letting me share a story from our community. I am also looking forward to listening to your story. Would you prefer to leave your blog url in the comments so we can visit one another?
Thank you Two Writing Teachers for providing a place to meet & share reflective writing each Tuesday and the each day during whole month of March. You are invited to visit Slice of Life Challenge or hashtag #SOL18 to explore as well as to join the challenge.
This post is fulfilling a requirement for the Participate Module of Georgia Professional Learning . In this section we have focused on a learner’s Access to Digital Community. The goal of this post is to describe the levels of access to digital resources, barriers to them & how we can eliminate these barriers.
The sections on disability as a barrier to digital learning and how we can eliminate them borrows heavily from Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM). The YouTube video is also from WebAIM.
Some of the text is verbatim from source material.
****************
In the previous posts, we talked about digital citizenship and digital literacy. Now, we will explore civility within the digital community. Foundation of a civic society is community access to all citizen. With that in mind, First question we ask is:
What types of barriers might impede students’ opportunities to access the digital Community?
United states of America (USA) is considered a first world country where equality and fairness should allow all citizens equal opportunity to progress and achieve their dreams. Unfortunately, though a noble concept in theory, it fails short of reality.
Income Disparity & Rural Residential Area as Barriers Access to Digital Community
Racial minorities, older adults, rural residents and those with lower levels of education and income are less likely to have broadband service at home.
Younger adults, non-whites and lower income Americans are more reliant on smartphones for internet access.
When faced with poverty, paying bills and keeping roof over family takes precedence over being digitally connected. Internet and healthcare are often casualties of keeping hunger at bay. Though they may possess it the smartphone is not fully functional tool to carry out tasks such as taking tests online, submitting homework or creating an e-portfolio. The learner may not have necessary tools such as personal learning device or broadband available at home. The parent/guardian may not see the need for allowing a learner access to internet. As a result the learner will be deprived of the access to digital community.
Poverty or lack of home-school communication is not the only barrier. In rural areas internet may not be available at all, be splotchy due to lack of available broadband or having too many tress on the property. Our home is surrounded by many trees in a rural area. The highest broadband we can receive in our area is 3 Mbps. As you can see below, Ookla Speed Test gives our internet D+. Some of our neighbors have to resort to paying for putting a small cell tower on their property for several thousands dollars. Obviously, this option is not possible for everyone.
Disability as a barrier to access to Digital Community:
Until I researched for this assignment, I did not realize how much I take my ability of reaching out to digital community for granted. To show what I am talking about, I would like to share a YouTube Video and the transcript of the video.
Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM) works toward educating public of how disability hampers a learner from digital access as well as provides us with resources to remedy for that. According to WebAIM, major disability of the web users usually falls in one of these catewgories:
Motor disability: Inability to move mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor control
Cognitive disability: Learning disability, distractibility, Inability to remember or focus on large amounts of information
Some of our learners are also faced with photo epilepsy or age related prepossessing issues.
Once we are aware of the barriers, we must ask ourselves what might we do to eliminate such barriers?
Depending on the situation, we can work around barriers to the access to digital community. e.g., We can provide all students personal learning device which they can take home. The educators can accommodate the students to upload assignments and study tools which they may be able to use offline at home. Scheduling study hall(s) or extra study classes and allowing students access to robust internet before or after schools is another way schools can assist students access to digital community. Local Public library is a good resource for digital access; unfortunately, many poor and rural learners are not able to fully utilize it.
As the students in above video suggests, little changes can go long way to assist our differently able learners and make life easy for them.
Perceivable: Content should be available to all senses either through the browser or through the assistive technology e.g., screen readers, enlargers etc.
Operable: Users can interact with all controls and interactive elements using either the mouse, keypad or an assistive device.
Understandable: Content is clear and understandable.
Robust: A wide range of technologies including old and new user agents and assistive technology can access the internet.
Let look at the two images below: which one is easier for you to read? Which would our student with visual or perceptual concerns?
Finally, the best barrier remover for the learner is empathetic educator. By making sure to fight for her learner’s rights to education, a sensitive educator will make ensure her learners access to digital community.
The goal of this assignment is to explore different Digital Learning Communities (DLC) and join one of the reputable DLC which aligns with my interests.
http://www.openteachertraining.org/ defines digital learning communities as technologically supported environments designed to foster rich instructional and learning experiences.
As an educator who will be charged with teaching tech savvy 21st century learners, I must continue to learn about best practices in classrooms. Fortunately with advances in technology, we are not limited to continue education classes or conferences to gain knowledge and collaborate with colleagues to better serve our students. From our kitchen chair we can collaborate, communicate and exchange ideas with peers by joining a digital learning community. Joining a reputable DLC allows us to work with people with similar interest in safe environment regardless of geographical distance, age or background.
From plethora of available digital communities, choosing one to join is not an easy task. I decided to explore several DLCs. My guideline for defining a DLC as reputable is:
Safe to use and is available to all students when needed
Ability to seamless transition of learning from DLC to classroom environment
Opportunity for respectful communication, collaboration & creation
Longevity & zero to a limited number of negative reviews
Expansion of cultural perspectives & inclusion
Scope for wider Personal Learning Network
Choices! Choices!
Information overload is a side effect of easy access to abundant material. In order to stay sane & manage my time wisely, it was important to bookmark some of the pages I like & use them as jumping off point. I based my bookmarking on student-central learning by choosing them from one or more of following categories:
I have compiled these bookmarks in a Symbaloo below. Go ahead & click on one of the tiles. Please note that the Symbaloo does not allow for the tagging and annotation of bookmarks. At this point, I would like to remind you that the information provided in the links are property of the respective administrator / owner; the views presented on these websites does not represent my views.
Tough Decision to Choose a Reputable DLC
I am going back to classroom after several years. After scrutinizing several options, I decided to join the edublogs community. It has tiered accessibility; educators can explore the community at no cost, get a free blog or update it to a pro blog. With over 4 million members since 2005, it has a reputation for being empowering to the educators. It is supposed to be safe to use, guided by educator ethics and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Teachers (ISTE Standards•T). As a member of joining this community, I am able to expand my Professional Learning Network and connect with colleagues from different disciplines. e.g., by joining the Educator Personal Blog Challenge, I have added an essential tool, the digital presence, in my teacher toolbox, increased knowledge of Creative Commons and attributions & cool tools to use for instruction. Though I am not in a classroom at the moment, via edublogs community, I am mentoring students from around the world for 100 Word Challenge & Student Blogging Challenge. I am in process of collaborating with several educators for guest blogging on each other’s sites. Most impressive advantage of Edublogs is that by providing safe platform, ongoing support, access to class blogs and student blogs, it empowers teachers to make process of joining a DLC more appealing and easier for students.
This post is fulfilling a requirement for the 
This post is one in a series for a MOOC. You can find similar posts by searching under the category MOOC or searching for hashtag #eteachertool
