user experience (UX)

Improving Digital Inclusion & Accessibility for Those With Learning Disabilities [Kreisa]

On 04/17/2021, in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, adult learning, assistive technologies, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), business, colleges, communications, community colleges, content development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education, education technology, faculty, formal learning, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, learning preferences, lecture capture, media/film, more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), online learning, online media, online tutoring, parents, participation, policy, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, quality, remote teaching and learning, society, special needs, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, videoconferencing, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web design and production, web-based collaboration, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Improving Digital Inclusion & Accessibility for Those With Learning Disabilities — from by Meredith Kreisa
Learning disabilities must be taken into account during the digital design process to ensure digital inclusion and accessibility for the community. This comprehensive guide outlines common learning disabilities, associated difficulties, accessibility barriers and best practices, and more.

“Learning shouldn’t be something only those without disabilities get to do,” explains Seren Davies, a full stack software engineer and accessibility advocate who is dyslexic. “It should be for everyone. By thinking about digital accessibility, we are making sure that everyone who wants to learn can.”
…
“Learning disability” is a broad term used to describe several specific diagnoses. Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, nonverbal learning disorder, and oral/written language disorder and specific reading comprehension deficit are among the most prevalent.

An image of a barrier being torn down -- revealing a human mind behind it. This signifies the need to tear down any existing barriers that might hinder someone's learning experience.

Digital upskilling in legal: More than just new technology — from legalexecutiveinstitute.com by Bob Dolinsky; with thanks to Gabe Teninbaum for this resource

Excerpt:

How many law firms have digital upskilling programs for their lawyers and staff members? Based on what I hear and read, very few, if any.

Amazon, for example, recently announced a commitment of more than $700 million to its “Upskilling 2025” program, an internal training initiative designed to promote customer satisfaction and worker advancement. Another example is PwC, which has a digital upskilling program to develop its in-house talent pool called “New world. New skills.” In 2019, PwC announced that it would invest $3 billion into job training for its 275,000 employees around the world, enhancing its workforce and client service delivery to better address emerging digital needs.

The goals of these and similar initiatives is to help ensure that employees have the skills in the digital arena to be successful, to position these organizations as preferred employers, and to provide customer and client service excellence.

Also from Gabe:

The Geek in Review Ep. 112 – Dan Packel on the Rise of Distributed Law Firms — from geeklawblog.com by Greg Lambert & Marlene Gebauer
Zoom Court Is Changing How Justice Is Served — ftom theatlantic.com by Eric Scigliano
For better, for worse, and possibly forever

“Virtual justice” (the preferred, if unsettling, term) is an emergency response to a dire situation. But it is also a vision some judicial innovators had long tried to realize. One leading booster, Michigan Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack, told me that going online can make courts not only safer but “more transparent, more accessible, and more convenient.” Witnesses, jurors, and litigants no longer need to miss hours of work and fight traffic. Attorneys with cases in multiple courts can jump from one to another by swiping on their phones.

DC: Yet another reason to implement/support Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

On 04/11/2021, in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content aggregration, content development, content repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education technology, elearning, faculty, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, parents, pedagogy, remote teaching and learning, society, special needs, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, telecommunications, training / L&D, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, youth, by Daniel Christian

DC: Yet another reason for Universal Design for Learning’s multiple means of presentation/media:

Encourage faculty to presume students are under-connected. Asynchronous, low-bandwidth approaches help give students more flexibility in accessing course content in the face of connectivity challenges.

— as excerpted from campustechnology.com’s article entitled, “4 Ways Institutions Can Meet Students’ Connectivity and Technology Needs“

How to Mitigate Accessibility & Digital Inclusion Obstacles for the d/Deaf Community [Claus]

On 04/07/2021, in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, health, Learning Experience Design, parents, special needs, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, user experience (UX), web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

How to Mitigate Accessibility & Digital Inclusion Obstacles for the d/Deaf Community — from inclusionhub.com by Christina Claus
To mitigate accessibility and digital inclusion obstacles for the d/Deaf and hard of hearing, developers must conduct critical research to understand these ongoing hurdles. This guide outlines the many challenges facing this community, shares useful insights, and provides meaningful inclusion solutions.

Excerpt:

Several commonly accepted characterizations include:

Deaf: When using the capital D, the individual conveys they communicate with sign language and have either been deaf since birth or shortly after.
deaf: The lowercase d is often utilized by those who do not identify as part of Deaf culture and typically become deaf later in life.
Hard of Hearing (HoH): Individuals who don’t experience total hearing loss or deafness often identify as hard of hearing.
Late-Deafened: This indicates the individual became deaf later in life.
Deaf-Blind: In addition to being deaf or hard of hearing, this individual also has a degree of vision loss.

These diversities can impact the individual’s ability to experience digital and online services. To create an inclusive experience for the entire community, developers must understand the obstacles each faces.

eLearning has improved in the last 7 years… [Burns]

On 04/01/2021, in change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, elearning, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, online learning, tools, training / L&D, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

eLearning has improved in the last 7 years… — from elearningindustry.com by Mary Burns
A student in 2014 and a student in 2021 would probably have the same fundamental online learning experience. Yet online learning has changed dramatically in the last 7 years. In my 50th article, I look back at online learning and enumerate 5 drivers that have led to its improvement.

Excerpt:

COVID/remote learning has expanded our understanding of online learning. Teachers are far more adept at using technology and designing with technology to help students learn online. They know which online learning modalities—synchronous or asynchronous—work best with which eLearning platform. Students too have had a year-long internship in online learning—its tools and pedagogies.

COVID has diversified our understanding of online learning. In 2014, when I began writing for eLearning Industry, eLearning meant one thing—a class held in a virtual learning environment or Learning Management System. In 2021, online learning is any learning we do online, whether via free or fee-based subscription services (like Khan Academy and DreamBox, respectively), web conferencing, or Web 2.0 platforms (Edmodo, YouTube channels)—another overlooked candidate for this list.

And COVID has constrained our understanding of online learning. In 2014, when I began writing for eLearning Industry, eLearning was largely asynchronous and done in an LMS. In 2021, for a plurality of teachers and students across the globe, eLearning means one thing: Zoom and it means learning that is live and synchronous.

Improved Student Engagement in Higher Education’s Next Normal [Glantz, Gamrat, Lenze, & Bardzell]

On 03/29/2021, in 21st century, active learning, adjunct faculty, blended learning, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, future of higher education, higher education, hybrid learning, ideas, instructional design, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods, learning spaces, liberal arts, multimedia, online learning, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, reinvent, remote teaching and learning, teaching & learning, tools, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Improved Student Engagement in Higher Education’s Next Normal — from er.educause.edu by Ed Glantz, Chris Gamrat, Lisa Lenze and Jeffrey Bardzell
Five pandemic-introduced innovative teaching adaptations can improve student engagement in the next normal for higher education.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The five teaching enhancements/adaptations discussed above—collaborative technologies for sense-making, student experts in learning and technology, back channels, digital breakout rooms, and supplemental recording—are well positioned to expand the definition of “student engagement” beyond traditional roll call and attendance tracking. Opportunities to include students at a distance have permitted inclusion of students who are reticent to speak publicly, students whose first language is not English, students with disabilities, and students less engaged through “traditional” channels. With these new conceptions of engagement in mind, we are prepared to be more inclusive of all students in the next normal of higher education.

Chrome now instantly captions audio and video on the web [Ian Carlos Campbell]

On 03/22/2021, in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, colleges, communications, community colleges, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, experimentation, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, liberal arts, media/film, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new media literacies, online learning, special needs, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Chrome now instantly captions audio and video on the web — from theverge.com by Ian Carlos Campbell
The accessibility feature was previously exclusive to some Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones

Excerpt:

Google is expanding its real-time caption feature, Live Captions, from Pixel phones to anyone using a Chrome browser, as first spotted by XDA Developers. Live Captions uses machine learning to spontaneously create captions for videos or audio where none existed before, and making the web that much more accessible for anyone who’s deaf or hard of hearing.
…
Chrome’s Live Captions worked on YouTube videos, Twitch streams, podcast players, and even music streaming services like SoundCloud in early tests run by a few of us here at The Verge. Google also says Live Captions will work with audio and video files stored on your hard drive if they’re opened in Chrome. However, Live Captions in Chrome only work in English, which is also the case on mobile.

Will holographic displays change what we mean by web-based collaborations, communications, presentations? Plus several other relevant Q’s [Christian]

On 03/18/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, collaboration, communications, computer science, content development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, distance education, drama/theater, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future of higher education, future of legal industry, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, interface design, Justice Tech, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods, learning spaces, media/film, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, society, storytelling, streams of content, teaching online, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, tools, training / L&D, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

ARHT Media Inc.
Access The Power Of HoloPresence | Hologram Technology | Holographic Displays | Hologram Events

Excerpt:

ARHT Media mounted a holographic display at the event in Vancouver and had Sunlife’s executive captured and transmitted live as a hologram to the event from our Toronto studio. He was able to see the audience and interact with them in realtime as if he was attending the event and present in the room.

From DSC:

Will holographic displays change what we mean by web-based collaboration?
Will this be a part of the future learning ecosystems inside of higher education? Inside of the corporate training world? Inside the world of events and webinars?
How will this type of emerging technology impact our communications? Levels of engagement?
Will this type of thing impact telehealth? Telelegal?
How will this impact storytelling? Media? Drama/acting? Games?
Will the price come down to where online and blended learning will use this type of thing?
Will streams of content be offered by holographic displays?

Moving Online Learning from Challenge to Opportunity — from campustechnology.com by Dr. Mark Lombardi
The future of higher education means breaking down classroom walls, embracing digital tools and engaging students with creativity and innovation.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Similarly, Maryville criminology professor Geri Brandt, working in concert with our learning designers and on-site production studio, used 360-degree camera technology to stage a virtual, explorable, interactive crime scene. Extending this online experience further, the criminology department created a “choose your own adventure” virtual experience, where each student response or choice in an investigation leads to a different outcome.

Creativity and innovation on this scale are only possible when faculty work with a talented team of learning design professionals who can translate a vision of interactive and immersive learning into a new student experience. Designing and delivering this active learning ecosystem integrated in online and on-ground learning takes a team of committed professionals and the courage to make it happen.

What if students could choose to learn in environments that are fully immersive, deeply enriching and profoundly meaningful to their courses of study? We encourage our students to explore the world beyond the campus, but what happens when the world is your campus?

Reflections on “Telemedicine likely to change how we receive health care post-pandemic” [Hicks]

On 03/18/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Access to Justice (A2J), Alternatives, change, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, expectations, experimentation, future, future of legal industry, game-changing environment, health, Justice Tech, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, online learning, remote teaching and learning, smart/connected TV, society, surviving, teaching online, technologies for your home, telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, training / L&D, trends, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, by Daniel Christian

Telemedicine likely to change how we receive health care post-pandemic — from mlive.com by Justin Hicks

A patient sits in the living room of her apartment in New York City during a telemedicine video conference with a doctor. (Mark Lennihan/AP)AP

Excerpt:

As we look to the post-pandemic future, medical experts believe telemedicine will be here to stay as another option to increase access to care, reduce costs, and free up doctors to spend more time with patients who need in-person care.

“When I think about the pandemic, one thing that didn’t change about our lifestyles is people are busy,” Lopez said. “I think we’ll still see growth in overall visits because of the fact that people want access to care and when you lower the cost, it should go up.”

From DSC:
A friend of mine said that he is doing most of his practice now via the telehealth route (and has been for many months now). Then, recently, when I was at the lab, the knowledgeable woman who assisted me said that she thought virtual health was definitely going to stick. Many doctors and nurses will be using virtual means vs. physical visits she said.

Expectations get involved here — for education, for the legal field, and for other arenas.

Specialties In Instructional Design and What They Do — from teamedforlearning.com
Specialties in instructional design can help both job seekers and hiring managers find the right fit for digital learning courses and programs.

Excerpt:

An instructional designer is anyone who designs and develops digital learning experiences. That may sound straightforward, but within that vague job title nest dozens of specialties. Even more confusingly, instructional designers may also be called learning designers or learning architects. Their work often overlaps with that of instructional technologists and content creators. Specialties in instructional design help both teammates and hiring managers to navigate this evolving position.

Untangling the complexities of the instructional design role can help both job seekers and hiring managers find the right fit. Identifying a specialty can help professionals carve out their own niche in the instructional design ecosystem. Greater clarity around what instructional designers actually do can help team leaders find the right instructional designer for their project.

Look at the choice and control possibilities mentioned in the following except from Immersive Reader in Canvas: Improve Reading Comprehension for All Students

When building courses and creating course content in Canvas, Immersive Reader lets users:

Change font size, text spacing, and background color
Split up words into syllables
Highlight verbs, nouns, adjectives, and sub-clauses
Choose between two fonts optimised to help with reading
Read text aloud
Change the speed of reading
Highlight sets of one, three, or five lines for greater focus
Select a word to see a related picture and hear the word read aloud as many times as necessary

Also see:

All about the Immersive Reader — from education.microsoft.com

Learning from the Living [Class] Room: Adobe — via Behance — is already doing several pieces of this vision.

On 02/15/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, Africa, animation, Asia, Australia, Bring your own device (BYOD), Canada, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content aggregration, content development, content repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, creativity, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, Europe, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, India, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods, learning preferences, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, maker movement, marketplaces, media/film, microlearning, more choice more control, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, passions, photography, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, reinvent, remote teaching and learning, second screen apps, simulations, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, STEAM-related, streams of content, tablets, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, UK, United States, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Talk about streams of content! Whew!

I received an email from Adobe that was entitled, “This week on Adobe Live: Graphic Design.” (I subscribe to their Adobe Creative Cloud.) Inside the email, I saw and clicked on the following:

Below are some of the screenshots I took of this incredible service! Wow!

From DSC:
So Abobe — via Behance — is already doing several pieces of the “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” vision. I knew of Behance…but I didn’t realize the magnitude of what they’ve been working on and what they’re currently delivering. Very sharp indeed!

Churches are doing this as well — one device has the presenter/preacher on it (such as a larger “TV”), while a second device is used to communicate with each other in real-time.

For elearning devs, IDs, trainers, & more — it appears a new toolset is on the horizon. [Christian]

On 02/10/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, attention, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), participation, tools, training / L&D, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

When the Animated Bunny in the TV Show Listens for Kids’ Answers — and Answers Back — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpt:

Yet when this rabbit asks the audience, say, how to make a substance in a bottle less goopy, she’s actually listening for their answers. Or rather, an artificially intelligent tool is listening. And based on what it hears from a viewer, it tailors how the rabbit replies.

“Elinor can understand the child’s response and then make a contingent response to that,” says Mark Warschauer, professor of education at the University of California at Irvine and director of its Digital Learning Lab.

AI is coming to early childhood education. Researchers like Warschauer are studying whether and how conversational agent technology—the kind that powers smart speakers such as Alexa and Siri—can enhance the learning benefits young kids receive from hearing stories read aloud and from watching videos.

From DSC:
Looking at the above excerpt…what does this mean for elearning developers, learning engineers, learning experience designers, instructional designers, trainers, and more? It seems that, for such folks, learning how to use several new tools is showing up on the horizon.

#AR and #AI hit the active learning classroom! THIS is incredible technology/functionality! See through your instructor as they write on the board!

On 02/05/2021, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, Augmented Reality (AR), colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, faculty, graphics, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods, learning spaces, legal technologies, liberal arts, library / librarians, media/film, Mixed Reality (MR), multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, science, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
THIS is incredible technology! Check out the Chroma-keying technology and the handwriting extraction feature of the Sony Analytics appliance.

From Sony’s website (emphasis DSC):

No matter where the speaker is standing, the Handwriting Extraction feature ensures that any words and diagrams written on a board or screen remain in full view to the audience — via AR (augmented reality).

Even if the speaker is standing directly in front of the board, their ideas, thinking process, and even their animated presentation, are all accessible to the audience. It’s also easy for remote viewers and those playing back the presentation at a later date to become immersed in the content too, as the presenter is overlaid and the content is never compromised.

Also, the chroma keying tech can be useful/engaging as well.

I saw this at IUPUI’s recent webinar/tour of their new facilities. Here’s further information on that webinar from last Friday, 1/29/21:

Designing Large Active Learning Classrooms webinar/tour on 1/29/21 from the Mosaic Program at Indiana University; also features rooms/staff at IUPUI.

Recording
A recent Educause article on Innovation Hall
A recent article on the opening of Innovation Hall
And, a post-webinar resource…Michel Jansen wrote a report summarizing the webinar.

Learning Ecosystems

Digital upskilling in legal: More than just new technology [Dolinsky]

eLearning has improved in the last 7 years… [Burns]

Improved Student Engagement in Higher Education’s Next Normal [Glantz, Gamrat, Lenze, & Bardzell]

Will holographic displays change what we mean by web-based collaborations, communications, presentations? Plus several other relevant Q’s [Christian]

Reflections on “Telemedicine likely to change how we receive health care post-pandemic” [Hicks]

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