Inclusion in the Connected Classroom

Jutta Treviranus

Adaptive Technology Resource Centre

University of Toronto

This PPT is missing videos that were included in Jutta’s keynote. DG

• Established in 1994

• Three functions:1. Service,

2. Education,

3. Research and Development

• 40 to 65 researchers, programmers, access specialists

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ATRC

• Lessons of levers, food chains and concrete

• The most influence with laughingly limited resources

• Exemplars that act as challenges

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Significant Moment in History

• Destabilization and profound change brought about by widescale adoption of technology– Social order

– Systems of government

– Economic structures

– Ways of thinking

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Affects…

• Language

• Physical workings of our brain

• Who we respect and trust

• What we wear

• How we socialize

• Our view of time and space

Globally

• No country is unaffected

Participants in Historically Critical Choices

• Rules

• Conventions

• What matters moving forward

• Much greater impact than our parents or grandparents

Presents….

• Incredible risks

• Amazing opportunities

For people with disabilities

The Transformation of…

• Education

• Culture

• Health

• Citizenship and Democracy

• Work

Most profound effect on Teaching and Learning

• Not yet fully realized

• The classroom

• The teacher

• The student

• What, how, why, where, and when we learn

Shift in Learning

• What do we need to know >>

• What do we need to know how to find

• What do we need to remember >>

• What do we need to remember exists

• Internal vs. external knowledge store

• What are the skills of value

Shift in Learning

• Accumulation of knowledge >>• Just-in-time learning

• Subject experts >>• Knowledge nomads

• Information as a possession >>• Information as a resource

Shift in Knowledge Power Structure

• Who is the expert?

• Who do you consult?

• Hoarders >>

• Filterers, reviewers, sorters

• Critics or skeptics

Opportunity for Age of Inclusion?

High School….

• Engaged and challenged high school students to explore inclusion

• Produce inclusively designed works on the theme of inclusion

Missing video

Videography on Inclusion

Missing video

Artists with disabilities, First Nations Artists

Missing video

What does Equal Access Mean?

Missing video

Perspective

Missing video

What did they learn?

Benefits of diversity and inclusion..

• Economic- market diversification

• Biological– “Devolution”-- absence of survival of the fittest

and its selective pressures allows for larger variety of life forms, preserving and unleashing wonderful things…(Terry Deacon)

• Social - enriches and assists in survival of a society- anti-dote to extremism

Threats to diversity and inclusion

• Globalization and world-wide homogenization (loss of language, horticultural species, traditional crafts)

• Commodification and privatization• Rising fundamentalism, sectarianism, anti-

progressive forces, protectionist responses and focus on security

• Genetic selection

Impact of exclusion…

• Personal -disenfranchisement, lack of self-esteem• Motivated by ignorance and insecurity--perpetuates

ignorance and insecurity• Downward spiral- lack of education, lack of

employment, poverty• Impact on society and economy - squanders human

potential, loss of productivity, escalating need for security -violence

• Hurts society as a whole• “When we exclude- we ultimately exclude ourselves”

Dangers of designing for the norm

• Stagnation

• Shrinking of ideas

• Self perpetuating rut

• Lack of innovation

Missing video

Benefits of inclusive design..

• Innovation occurs at the margin

• Greater flexibility and responsiveness

• Spurs creativity and agility

• Helps to distill “what really matters”

• Benefits everyone

Workshop for educators and educational policy makers

• Challenge concepts of quality in education

• Make room for divergent thinking

Learning using..

• The mistake

• The intended flaw

• The inaccurate

Learning using:

• The gap

• The incomplete

• The imperfect

Learning using..

• Antagonism

• Argument

• Dissent

Learning Using...

• Counter-factual

• Tension

• Contrast

“Wabi-sabi principle” in e-learning

Japanese Aesthetic principle: Wabi-sabi is the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.

Thoughts…

• “The perils of like-mindedness”

• “Leave room for divergent thinking”

• “Photo-realism can hinder understanding”

• Provoking meaningful input in evaluations through the intended flaws

Students and Teachers

http://snow.utoronto.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=388&Itemid=351

Innovation occurs at the margins

Inclusive Instruction

• Translating into another sense

• View from a number of perspectives

• Derive the essence of the message

• Question what is being communicated

• Analyze what is being learned

• Spurs creativity and perfects the lesson

What have we e-learned?

(in 15 years of e-learning?)

What have we re-learned?

(In another context)

Outcomes of E-learning

• Does not save money

• Does not save instructor time

• Does not shift the Bell curve higher

* Campus Computing Project, Educause, UCLA, Flashlight Implementations, Project 25, What's the Difference?: A

Review of Contemporary Research on the Effectiveness of Distance Learning in Higher Education , NEA Affiliate Capacity Building--Higher Education

Outcomes of E-learning

• Compresses the Bell curve

• Assists students who had difficulty with traditional delivery

• Makes academic life easier for students

Other side of Bell Curve• Fewer high achievers

Why?• Students unprepared for self-directed

learning• We have cultivated “Educational

Bulimics”- binge and purge on facts Thomas Marino

• Require stress or tension to perform

Determinates of Success• Action and Interaction

– passive vs active learning– Retention: “half the fun is in the chase”– Engagement: “it’s good to feel needed”– Ownership

• Personal relevance• Personalization• Convenience and trustworthiness of the tool

The Right Motivators

• External vs Internal

• Competition vs collaboration and the competition of collaboration

• Private and public rewards

Beyond No Significant Difference

Opportunity to• Emulate one-on-one teaching• Address educational breakdown• If done well, allows scaling of the small class experience

to large classes– Problem based learning or discovery learning– Interaction and feedback (student-student, student-instructor)

Can Address Education Breakdown

• Mismatch of pace– Flexible pace

– Adjust time for reflection

• Mismatch of knowledge assumptions– Opportunity to address gaps

• Mismatch of learning style with teaching style– Flexible sequencing, choice of modalities

– Redundant presentation of information

Marginalized Student

• The student who is shy– Flexible balance between social and private learning

• The student who is learning English– Dual language displayed

• The student who is disorganized– Single structured view of content

• The student with a disability– Flexible presentation and control

Re-Learned?

• Every learner learns differently

• Personalize learning to match needs of each learner

What’s different?

• Computer as mediator

• Digital content

• Connected Classroom

• Differentiation in many dimensions

Applying what we have learned…

Disability in eLearning Context

• Disability= Mismatch between learner needs and education offered

• Not a personal trait but artifact of relationship between the learner and the learning environment or education delivery

• Accessibility= The ability of the learning environment to adjust to the needs of all learners

Accessibility =

• Flexibility of education environment, curriculum and delivery

• Availability of adequate alternative-but-equivalent content and activities

Personalization

• To optimize the learning experience for each learner

“You need to be a miracle worker to optimize learning for everyone

in my class”

• Integrated classroom

• Increasing diversity

• Decreasing time to prepare

The Miraculous Digital Age

• A digital resource shared is not consumed

• The multiplier effect of sharing and pooling resources

• A digital resource can be “automatically” transformed

Missing video

The Community of Networked Educators

Sharing and Pooling Resources

• Reduce redundancy

• Polish and refine rather than replicate

• Mechanisms of attribution (glory)

“With a little help from my friends”

• The larger the pool -- the greater the options• The more likely there will be a match for each

learner’s uniquely individual needs• The more likely we can provide a rich and

challenging learning experience with limited resources

With a little help from networked systems and supports

1. “Learning Object Repositories” – Help find the right resource– Help transform the resource to meet the

student’s needs

2. Participatory Web

What do we need?• Alternative formats• Equivalent content• Alternative learning activities• Learner scaffolds• Feedback and reviews• Motivating content and activities• Incentives for engagement• Credibility and quality• Navigation tools

What do we need?

• Computers for teachers

• Computers for students

• Accessible computers

• Assistive technologies

Assistive Technology and Rich Internet Applications

• Crisis

• Confounding strategies for interoperability

• Distributed applications

• Lack of semantic information

Sustainability of AT market

• Interoperability with many applications

• Constantly changing

• Proprietary specifications

• Small customer base

Computers for Students

• One Laptop Per Child Program– Also called “100 Dollar computer”

• Accessible standard technologies

• Access system friendly computers and applications

Print and copyright

• Access to textbooks and printed curriculum

• Digital formats

• Copyright

Three Approaches to Meeting Accessibility Commitments on

the Web

1. Single Compliant Resource approach

2. Media rich plus “accessible” alternative approach

3. Transformation based approach

Problems Identified with Single Compliant Resource Approach

• Rejection of valuable resources that are not compliant

• “Accessible for everyone but optimal for no-one”

• Time and expertise required of all resource creators

• Reluctance to use new or innovative technologies

• Design decisions often do not make the experience better for all users (breaks the “curbcut rule”)

Problems Identified with “Two Versions” Approach

• “Accessible” version not maintained and becomes outdated

• Unequal access to resource

• People with disabilities not a homogenous group

The Transformation Approach• A transformable, flexible resource

system• Dynamically matching resources and

resource delivery to needs of each individual

The Difference

• “Just in case” approaches vs. “Just in time” approach

• Resource compliance vs. system compliance

• Accessible to “everyone” vs. optimized for every individual

TILE

E-learning environment that enables learner-centric transformation of learning content and delivery

http://inclusivelearning.ca

Specifications and Standards

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

• http://www.w3.org/WAI/guid-tech.html

• “AccessForAll” Standards

• http://imsglobal.org/accessibility/index.html

What’s next

• ARIA

• TransformAble

• FLUID

Community of Educators

• SNOW http://snow.utoronto.ca

• Pooling knowledge and resources

• Online workshops

• Hands on intensive workshops in the summer

Online workshops

Shift for Educators

• Flexibility of presentation rather than quality of single presentation

• Flexibility of path

• Flexibility of pace

• Modularity rather than completeness

• Cumulative, collaborative authoring

• Harness learning peers

Conclusion…

In this new reality where consumption does not consume and space has no limits, there is no downside to inclusion…and it is possible to make room for us all

Resources

• Adaptive Technology Resource Centre

• http://atrc.utoronto.ca

• Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities

• http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/mcss/english/pillars/accessibilityOntario/

Jutta’s parking lot

• Computer lock down

• Internet lock down

• Copyright

• Curriculum distribution mechanisms