Reading in the dark - Harvard lecture notes: "Making Knowledge Accessible In the Digital Age"
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Harvard lecture notes: "Making Knowledge Accessible In the Digital Age"
Kes: These are notes from the David Rose lecture at Harvard which took place earlier this week (4/18),provided by Daniel Berkowitz from Boston U and posted to the Access Tech in Higher Ed mailing list
http://athenpro.blogspot.com/2006/04/report-making-knowledge-accessible-in.html
"Making Knowledge Accessible In the Digital Age"
Tuesday was the David Rose
http://www.cast.org/about/staff/drose.html ,
Thomas Hehir
http://hugse9.harvard.edu/gsedata/resource_pkg.profile?vperson_id=271 ,
Ron Stewart
http://www.dolphinaudiopublishing.com/news/2005/r_stewart.htm
panel presentation and discussion University Teaching and the Challenge of Universal
Design: Making Knowledge Accessible in the Digital Age.
Video and audio recording was in place and as soon as I have information on
where (and if) the presentation is available on-line I will be posting it here.
Eveyone in attendance recieved a copy of The Universally Designed Classroom:
Accessible Curriculum and Digital Technologies
http://gseweb.harvard.edu/hepg/universallydesigned.html
-the latest work edited by Rose, Meyer, and Hitchcock of CAST
http://www.cast.org/publications/index.html .
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6093/926/1600/IMG_3001.0.jpg
Eileen Berger, ATHEN Treasurer
http://athenpro.org/node/44
and Assistant Director for Disability Services
http://gseweb.harvard.edu/osa/disability/
at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, introduced the topic and speakers.
I should stop here for a moment and explain that this seminar could easily have
been a full day (or more). In fact, all three speakers were asked about their
availability to return and present again. All three agreed and planning is
apparently underway.
Over the first hour, David Rose squeezed out a synopsis of his Harvard Graduate
course on Universal Design
http://my.gse.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?course=gse-t560 .
He covered the three basic tenents of Universal Design:
1. Use multiple means for representation - "Disability is not inherent in the individual as much as it is about the individuals interaction with the
environment."
2. Use multiple means for action and expression.
3. Use multiple means for engagement - seek what motivates and engages students.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6093/926/1600/IMG_3008.jpg
As an example he used an unexpected source - a GPS navigation program from Hertz Rental Car
called Neverlost <
http://hertzneverlost.com/> .
Professor Rose does a lot of
traveling for speaking engagements and uses this system everytime he rents a
car. He discussed the system in somewhat whistful terms wondering what it would
be like if education followed similar principles. For example:
* Neverlost asks the user (learner) "Where are we now?" and sets an
individualized starting point.
* The system recognizes there is more than one way to get from point A to point
B.
* Recalculating routes (learning paths) is effortless and non-judgmental.
* However, Neverlost is not a curriculum as the user does not "learn" so much as
follow a route. It is very linear and rote and drivers come to rely upon the GPS
rather than learn about the general area.
Professor Rose also does something interesting in his course, each week he
rotationally assigns a handful of students to be the notetaker for the entire
class. This individual has the responsibility of compiling the course notes and
providing them for classmates. Not only does this free-up most tof the class to
focus on discussion - but demonstrates how and what different individuals take
notes, share notes, and consider important.
<
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6093/926/1600/IMG_3012.jpg>
Ron Stewart spoke to how technology is used in the Postsecondary arena and
briefly covered the Big-5 with accessibility as an overlay:
1. Information Retrieval, Use, and Dissemination
2. Distance Education
3. Information Technologies
4. The Internet and WWW
5. Covering the cost of accessibility (who pays?)
Ron introduced the audience to one my favorite of his terms - "Ah ... Duh ...
Research" which is the act of actually doing research to confirm what we
already know. He briefly reviewed the major access related laws (504, 508, ADA,
IDEA, Tech-Act, Telecommunications Act) as well as some of the more important
OCR cases of late. Asking the question "what is accessibility?" led to a four
point answer:
* Code Based - letter of the law accessibility
* Access Board <
http://www.access-board.gov/>
policies and procedures - bench
marks of accessibility
* Functional accessibility (common sense and individualized)
* Universal Design - trying to cover the majority of the bellcurve with the
knowledge that we cannot possibly attend to every outlier.
Ron spoke of the need for institutions to perform honest and accurate
assessments of accessibility - and warned that unless we plan to act upon the
findings we should not bother. Few things irk the OCR
<
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/index.html>
more than a school
knowing where it needs to address issues and failing to do so [however, it is
not recommended you remain ignorant]. Such an assessment includes:
* both formal and informal inquiry
* data driven and need driven reviews
* facilities assessment
* technology assessment
* individual assessment
* references to requirements (federal, state, local, international)
One should also be prepared to plan for implementing changes. In the scope of
his remarks Ron focused on access and technology and stated what many of us
already know or could easily find out via ah...duh...research and that is
"infusing technology into the accommodation paradigm (for disabilities) saves
money." And isn't saving money really what it is all about?
Bullet points abounded with Ron. I hope a podcast will be available soon as Ron
provides better explanations that I can - but here are three lists to consider:
Promoting Independence
* Use unmodified technology whenever possible
* Implement modifications that can be rapidly learned and independently used
* Implement modifications that are easily transferred to the work environment
ouside the academy
* Implement modifications that are easily generalizable - not domain or content
specific
Cost Effectiveness
* Analyze needs and implement strategically
* Leverage existing systems
* Target acquisition needs to meet the higest demands
* Develop long term strategies based upon assessments
* Think Ahead! but remain flexible.
How to Lower Costs
* Use off-the-shelf solutions when and where possible
* Replace "labor intensive" with "universally applicable"
* Analyze learning situations and make modifications based on pedagogy
* Use multipurpose tools where possible
<
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6093/926/1600/IMG_3015.jpg>
The final
speaker was Thomas Hehir, Harvard Professor and OSEP
<
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/index.html>
Director during
the Clinton Administration. He spoke to the role of education for students with
disabilities and the impact on and of public policy and introduced us to the
concept of ableism <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ableism> :
* Schools often reflect the attitudes and behaviors of the broader society in
which disability is devalued and persons with disabilities do not enjoy
equality of rights and opportunities.
* Children and young adults with disabilities need to be allowed to be disabled
- need to become comfortable with themselves and their disability - their
abilities and limitations and how to accomplish the same as their non-disabled
peers albeit in a different manner.
* Universal Design allows students to access the curriculum as equals -
approaching the same materials in different manners and modes.
Defining "disability", according to Professor Hehir, should not come from the
standards point-of-view of the non-disabled. Individuals should embrace and
understand their personal disability and work with it - not against it. Go with
the current and do not try to swim against it (so to speak). Ron Stewart
recommends that IT becomes the purveyors of AT. The institution needs to
recognize that perhaps it is the curriculum that is disabled and not the
students accessing it.
<
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6093/926/1600/IMG_3026.jpg>
Afterwards there was a nice reception with wine an cheese and such. David Rose
is my kinda teacher as he gathered up many leftovers for his students that
evening.
--
Posted by D. Berkowitz to Access Technologists Higher Education Network
http://athenpro.blogspot.com/2006/04/report-making-knowledge-accessible-in.html
Tags: accessibility-education, universal design
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I attended this talk. It was more LD-focused than most of my work is, but still a very good talk.
I've noticed that LD gets the lion's share of air time in many such talks about education and technology, such as the Paciello one I attended at MIT earlier this semester, and it defintiely brings up mixed feelings when the speaker spends time making distinctions of how sensory or motor disabilities is very differrent from LD which is very different from ADD, and he is only here to talk about LD. On one hand, LD is definitely the hot topic and it being made a primary focus seems to detract from discussion of other or even multiple disabilities, but on the other, disability got a lot more press once people began to address LD. |
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