A Response to "5 Steps to an Accessible Classroom Website"

Hello Classmates,
    Before reading the article 5 Steps to an Accessible Classroom Website I hadn’t even thought about the necessity to create a website that is accessible to students with visual, hearing, or cognitive disabilities, let alone English Language Learners.  Now it seems so obvious that this is something that teachers need to consider when building their classroom website.  If teachers are going to require that students use their web site as a reference for any kind of information, then they need to ensure that all of their students can access that information. 

     Teachers do not need to be super tech-savvy in order to make their websites accessible.  In fact, the first suggestion is to organize the site for easy navigation.  I feel like this is something that website builders strive to do anyways. Most websites use headers to separate sections of information and are consistent with web page themes and fonts throughout the site.  One suggestion I really found useful is to provide text explanations, or captions, for all images, audio, animation, Java applets, or any other form of media. This is especially helpful for students using screen readers so that they can benefit from the graphics as well. 

     The article also mentioned a really neat tool call a web validator.  I did some personal research and found out that there are many different types of web validators.  Essentially, the web validator detects any problems in your web page, which can include broken links or tags that do not open.  WAVE is a web validator that evaluates the accessibility of a site.  This tool is free to use and is supposed to provide an easy to read report so that people who are not very good at HTML coding can still make the necessary changes to make their web site accessible.  There really is no reason why teachers cannot make their websites accessible to all their students. 

A Reflective Response to Computing in the Clouds

Hello Classmates,

In his article Computing in the Clouds Doug Johnson preaches the benefits of cloud computing in an educational setting and addresses some of the common public concerns.  Most of Johnson’s argument is contingent upon the school’s ability to provide netbooks for each student.  I think that most districts should be able to do this, especially if the netbooks are also compatible with e-textbooks.   Currently, I think most students are able to find access to a computer and word processor in order to complete assignments, so I think that cloud technology may be more beneficial to the teachers.  However, in college I used Google Docs all the time in order to share notes with my classmates and collaborate on lab reports and study guides.  I can definitely appreciate the benefits of the cloud from a student perspective. 

            Cloud computing is also completely affordable.  Most of the applications are free, including the storage.  The only major costs are the Netbook devices and the high bandwidth to support the Internet activity.  There is a lot of concern about the security of the cloud, and Johnson states that people should read over the privacy policies. 

            The cloud is continuing to grow and I believe that is will become a part of our educational system in some way in the near future.  Hopefully most schools will be able to predict this move and begin to educate current and future teachers on cloud integration in their classes.  

Response to "Is Blogging Worth the Risk?"

Hello Classmates,
I do not believe that blogging is worth the risk for educators. My main reasoning behind this conclusion is the student and parent reactions to a public journal about their classroom experience.  I do not think that it is appropriate that a teacher publicly discuss subjects like classroom management, teaching strategies, or personal and professional philosophies online.  I was surprised that the counter argument did not bring up this point because I think it is something important that bloggers need to consider.  Bloggers cannot assume that their audience consists of only a certain group of people; when you post something on the Internet you must assume that anyone can read it, even if you have privacy settings.

James Maxlow brings up a good point, that blogging will teach students to be mindful of what they post and communicate online.  However, we should also be teaching students when we shouldn’t post anything at all online.  I believe that blogging can be beneficial to working professionals because it is an easy way to share ideas and offer advice, but there are too many risks attached.  When blogging, educators should take every precaution to ensure some sense of privacy and even then they need to censor what they write and be mindful of all potential audiences. 

First Post

Hello! Welcome to my blog! This is where I will be posting all of my thoughts/reflections for EDUC 422. Here is a picture of me: