parents/guardians

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, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, 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.

It’s Time to Rethink Higher Education: What if our goal was creating social impact, not preserving the status quo? — from chronicle.com by Brian Rosenberg (president emeritus of Macalester College and president in residence of the Harvard Graduate School of Education)

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Higher education should in its ideal form lead to more economic security for more people, a more equitable and innovative society, and a well-functioning democracy. Add whatever goals you would like, but these seem like a reasonable starting point and, given the present state of the country, more than a little aspirational.
…
But if we fail to explore — if we fail to go beyond superficial change and interrogate our most fundamental assumptions about how and what we teach, how and why we organize ourselves in the current way — we will have no one but ourselves to blame if the system as we know it shrivels to the point where it collapses from within or is painfully disrupted from without.

Also see:

The Pandemic May Have Permanently Altered Campuses. Here’s How. — from chronicle.com by Francie Diep
Trends accelerated by Covid-19 may make more sense than ever in the future, experts say.

Excerpt:

The Covid-19 crisis has transformed all aspects of higher education, and the physical campus is no exception. The Chronicle recently released a special report, Rethinking Campus Spaces, that offers strategies for doing more with less space, to save money and prepare for an uncertain future. Here is an adapted excerpt from the report.

The Chronicle asked more than 40 architects, campus planners, and leaders in student life and housing about how several categories of campus spaces might look different in the future. As colleges navigate difficult financial straits, many interviewees predicted more public-private partnerships, and renovations instead of new construction — which can be less costly and more environmentally friendly. Overall, their answers paint a picture of future campuses that are more adaptable, perhaps smaller, and focused on what’s most valuable about seeing one’s peers in person.

Items re: AI — via Sam DeBrule’s “Machine Learnings” e-Newsletter

On 03/22/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), change, emerging technologies, ethics, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, parents/guardians, platforms, political science, privacy, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, United States, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The items below are from Sam DeBrule’s Machine Learnings e-Newsletter.

#Awesome

“Sonoma County is adding artificial intelligence to its wildfire-fighting arsenal. The county has entered into an agreement with the South Korean firm Alchera to outfit its network of fire-spotting cameras with software that detects wildfire activity and then alerts authorities. The technology sifts through past and current images of terrain and searches for certain changes, such as flames burning in darkness, or a smoky haze obscuring a tree-lined hillside, according to Chris Godley, the county’s director of emergency management…The software will use feedback from humans to refine its algorithm and will eventually be able to detect fires on its own — or at least that’s what county officials hope.” – Alex Wigglesworth Learn More from Los Angeles Times >

#Not Awesome

Hacked Surveillance Camera Firm Shows Staggering Scale of Facial Recognition — from
A hacked customer list shows that facial recognition company Verkada is deployed in tens of thousands of schools, bars, stores, jails, and other businesses around the country.

Excerpt:

Hackers have broken into Verkada, a popular surveillance and facial recognition camera company, and managed to access live feeds of thousands of cameras across the world, as well as siphon a Verkada customer list. The breach shows the astonishing reach of facial recognition-enabled cameras in ordinary workplaces, bars, parking lots, schools, stores, and more.

The staggering list includes K-12 schools, seemingly private residences marked as “condos,” shopping malls, credit unions, multiple universities across America and Canada, pharmaceutical companies, marketing agencies, pubs and bars, breweries, a Salvation Army center, churches, the Professional Golfers Association, museums, a newspaper’s office, airports, and more.

45 Hand-picked Disability Scholarships for 2021 [Benali]

On 03/19/2021, in accessibility / UDL, funding / grants, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, by Daniel Christian

45 Hand-picked Disability Scholarships for 2021 — from hyetis.com by Hicham Benali
Regularly updated (listed by deadline) disability scholarships that you can apply for, to reduce your fees.

Seven online whiteboards for 2021 + other relevant tools/vendors for online-based collaboration

On 03/18/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, art, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty/staff, flipping -- inverted learning, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, Microsoft, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, parents/guardians, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, remote teaching and learning, student teaching/teacher education, tablets, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, tools, training / L&D, universities, vendors, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

The excerpt below is from The 7 best online whiteboards in 2021 — from zapier.com by Maria Myre

Miro for turning ideas into tasks
Stormboard for creating multiple whiteboards in a single brainstorming session
MURAL for remote, multi-member team meetings
Limnu for teaching students remotely
InVision Freehand for annotating design files with a team
Conceptboard for turning a brainstorming session into a formal presentation
Explain Everything for creating whiteboard videos

From DSC:
Other potentially-relevant tools/vendors here include:

Cisco Webex
- Cisco Webex Desk Series

- Cisco Webex Board Series
- Cisco Webex Room Series
Google JamBoard
Microsoft Surface Hub 2
Haworth’s Bluescape
…and others

[Updated] Free Resources to Help with Remote Learning in 2021 [Schaffhauser]

On 03/06/2021, in education, education technology, K-12 related, parents/guardians, platforms, remote teaching and learning, student-related, teachers, tools, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, by Daniel Christian

Free Resources to Help with Remote Learning in 2021 — from thejournal.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

As the pandemic continues wreaking havoc in education through the current school year, districts, schools, teachers and parents are being more selective about the technology they choose for instructing and engaging students. While hundreds of education companies, nonprofits and other organizations made their software and services free during the immediate switch to remote learning, many have become more thoughtful about how they help educators master online and blended instruction. We’ve winnowed through our original collection and sprinkled additions throughout, to bring you this updated set of free resources to help with remote learning in 2021.

Reflections on “Today’s Teens Questioning the Status Quo When It Comes to College” [prnewswire.com]

On 03/05/2021, in 21st century, Alternatives, business side of he, career development, change, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, entrepreneurship, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, innovation, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, new business models, organizational change, parents/guardians, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, traditional / tradition, United States, universities, vendors, youth, by Daniel Christian

Today’s Teens Questioning the Status Quo When It Comes to College — from prnewswire.com by with thanks to Ryan Craig for this resource
National survey finds high schoolers want lower-cost, quicker paths to careers: 50 percent are open to something other than a four-year degree

Excerpt:

For those who have been following the discussion, it will not come as a shock that this demographic is extremely concerned about the cost of higher education. In fact, the number one thing teens would change about college is the price tag. Their second top concern is making sure the path they take directly connects them to a future career. Specifically, the top three things Gen Z teens are most concerned about:

50 percent—graduating with a high amount of debt
44 percent—not getting a job after they graduate
40 percent—not being prepared for a job after school ends

From DSC:
I sometimes use the tag “surviving” and it often has to do with individuals and families. But over the last few years, I have found myself using it for institutions of traditional higher education (as I did for this posting).

It’s time for reinvention if we want those institutions to survive. Those who can’t wait until the status quo returns are likely in for a disappointment, if not outright shock. Over the last several years, many people have already lost their jobs throughout higher ed, positions have gone unfilled, and early retirement offers were made (and often snatched up). The headcounts have been decreasing for years and the workloads have increased for the survivors of such cuts. The use of adjunct faculty members has been on the increase for many years now.

Those institutions that have cultures that support experimentation, innovation, and support strategic, nimble, entrepreneurial thinking have a better chance of surviving.

How to Remotely Support Students Who Learn Differently [Ofgang ]

On 03/03/2021, in accessibility / UDL, distance education, education, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, pedagogy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, United States, vendors, youth, by Daniel Christian

How to Remotely Support Students Who Learn Differently — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
A new distance learning toolkit offers best practices and advice to support students who learn differently

Excerpt:

The National Center for Learning Disabilities recently partnered with Understood to release a distance learning toolkit for educators to support students who learn differently during the pandemic.

The need for such a toolkit is clear. One in five students learn differently, and there is evidence that students who struggle academically or utilize individualized support in school are more likely to fall behind during distance learning.

The toolkit builds on the lessons of a 2019 report Forward Together: Helping Educators Unlock the Power of Students Who Learn Differently.

Public Viewpoint: COVID-19 Work and Education Research — from cci.stradaeducation.org

Excerpt:

In the recovering economy, employers will play a central role as Americans look to reskill, upskill, and compete in the workforce. But what do people want and expect from employers’ hiring, advancement, and training practices? In this research we explore the public’s perceptions on skills-based hiring, preferences for employer-provided education and training benefits, and beliefs about who should fund education and training.

This week’s data are based on the Strada Student Viewpoint and Strada-Gallup Education Consumer surveys. The research is intended to provide insights to the education and training providers, policymakers, employers, and individual Americans who are navigating the COVID-19 crisis.

ADDitude: Resources for families touched by attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD)

On 02/23/2021, in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, education, Emotion, face-to-face, homeschooling/homeschoolers, learning, learning preferences, learning theories, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, productivity / tips and tricks, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, youth, by Daniel Christian

ADDitude: Resources for families touched by attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD).

Example article:

“I’m a Teacher with Nonverbal Learning Disorder. And I’m Exactly Who I Needed As a Child.” — from additudemag.com by Brittany Kramer
“I strive to create a classroom environment where my students know they will be successful, no matter what. It’s the environment I would have felt safe in as a child; one that is encouraging, warm, and free of judgment or anger.”

Excerpt:

“They tried to bury me, but they didn’t know that I was a seed.”

As a special education teacher for students with learning disabilities and developmental disorders, and as a neurodivergent individual myself, this quote defines my life.

I was formally diagnosed with Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) at 23 years old. As a child and teen, I struggled in ways that most people cannot possibly comprehend.

When people think of learning disabilities, they picture a child with dyslexia or dysgraphia who cannot read or write very well. They do not envision an intelligent and articulate child for whom tying shoes or making a paper fit into a folder is arduous at best.

It takes a village: The pandemic learning pod movement, one year in [Opalka, Jochim, & Lollo]

On 02/17/2021, in education, health, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, parents/guardians, participation, personalized/customized learning, society, student-related, United States, by Daniel Christian

It takes a village: The pandemic learning pod movement, one year in — from crpe.org by Alice Opalka, Ashley Jochim, and Joe Lollo

Excerpt:

Since the spring of 2020, learning pods have evolved from a new idea to a significant feature of the pandemic learning landscape. As the pod movement grows in real-time through the current school year and morphs into new models and approaches, the work of learning is moving beyond the four walls of the school building and into communities across the country.

Our database of learning pods—also referred to as learning hubs—now hosts nearly 330 entries of pods organized by institutions with publicly available information from across the country. While this landscape is not a representative sample and is limited by information available on program websites, it offers a snapshot of how learning pods are reshaping education one year into the pandemic.

Our latest analysis shows that community-based organizations and adults beyond the teacher are playing an increased role supporting students and their families through the pandemic.

U of Minnesota System makes tuition free for low-income students [Bauer-Wolf]

On 02/17/2021, in cost of getting a degree, experimentation, funding / grants, higher education, ideas, new business models, parents/guardians, student-related, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

U of Minnesota System makes tuition free for low-income students — from highereddive.com by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

Dive Brief:

The University of Minnesota System greenlit a program eliminating tuition costs for students whose families earn $50,000 or less in a year.
The system’s regent board approved the move unanimously on Friday, according to local media reports. It’s a part of its five-year strategic plan, which also set the goal of reducing the average debt of undergraduates with loans to $25,000 at graduation.
President Joe Biden touted free college proposals on the campaign trail. Such arrangements have also seen renewed interest in the wake of the economic tumult of the pandemic.

More states require telehealth coverage going into 2021 [medcitynews.com]

On 02/11/2021, in Daniel S. Christian, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, health, ideas, innovation, internet, parents/guardians, society, telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, trends, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

More states require telehealth coverage going into 2021 — from by
Several states passed recent laws that would require commercial insurance plans to cover more telehealth services on a permanent basis. More states now require health plans to pay the same amount for telehealth as in-person visits.

From DSC:
Telelegal on deck…? What about in your area of work…what’s coming down the pike in this regard?

Learning Ecosystems

45 Hand-picked Disability Scholarships for 2021 [Benali]

More states require telehealth coverage going into 2021 [medcitynews.com]

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