An alternative to retro-fitting learning environments

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Universal design - not retrofit

Making learning spaces and resources work for users is an ongoing challenge. Everyone has different needs and learning styles, and there is definitely no one-size-fits-all.

But one thing we can do, is raise the bar, so that from the outset, our ways of working and the presentation of our resources is the best that it can be.

Universal Design for Learning and Design for All

Two approaches to learning are gaining momentum in education. In the US, Universal Design for Learning is beginning to become a touchstone for education departments looking to underpin ways of working that are more inclusive. In Europe, a similar approach known as Design for All, is cutting a similar path, and which also places an emphasis on the need to collaborate with a cross-section of users in the design of environments, resources and services.

The retro fit

Underpinning both approaches is the belief that, if we consider the needs of all users at the outset, rather than an “illusory” group of homogenous mainstream users, we can avoid a massive effort in retrofitting environments and resources for individuals. This approach doesn’t negate the need to personalise environments for very particular needs, but we may have to make many less adaptations if we have planned for diversity in the beginning.

In education, one obvious example, in a property context, would be the inclusion of wheelchair access to all parts of a new school when it is first built, even if there are no members of the first cohort of learners who use a wheelchair for mobility. The rationale underpinning this design decision would be the understanding that parents, whānau, a staff member or visitor to the school, a new student or a current student following a sporting accident may at some point use a wheelchair.

E-learning and eAccessibility

Avoiding the retro fit is also applicable in the area of e-learning. Our use of ICTs in our classrooms and learning-communities is increasing, and there are great examples of schools using technology to improve outcomes for learners. Also, many teachers are confident in their ability to differentiate learning activities. But the concept of eAccessibility may still be unfamiliar.

Yet, if we are going to avoid having to retrofit resources, we need to collectively get our heads around new ways of thinking about access to learning. Again, it is the planning at the outset that makes a difference.

A tangible example of where we can make a difference and model eAccessibility in teaching and learning is in our use of video. When working alongside students or colleagues who are making a video, initiate a discussion around audience and purpose. If the intention is to share the video publicly, draw into the discussion the need to make a resource that will be meaningful to an audience with a range of access preferences. Some people can see but not hear; some people use only their hearing. Some people read more slowly than others. The video needs to work for everyone.

Use of captions and transcripts to assist users who have a hearing impairment to have access to the same material as sighted learners seems like common sense. But captions and transcripts also provide access to the video content in an alternative visual medium and provide opportunities for increasing understanding for all users. For learners who may have cognitive or second-language needs, a transcript provides an opportunity to access the content at their preferred pace, or pause on unfamiliar words. As a sighted user, I will often scan a transcript for a quote, or re-read something I want to clarify.

Both in and outside education, the awareness and the ability to create more inclusive video is increasing. In New Zealand, the Curriculum Stories on NZ Curriculum Online site provide a sophisticated example of how to provide a range of access options for users. Each video is captioned, and has the transcript placed below the video—the preferred option, so that users don’t have to jump backwards and forwards between pages.

YouTube and Blip TV also now enable video producers to add captions to uploaded movies. Both services are a little clunky, but it is worth honing some captioning skills now, and passing them onto your colleagues and students.

Useful links for further reading

Universal Design for Learning – the website for the National Centre for UDL in the US
UDL examples and resources – link to implementation support page at the National Centre for Universal Design for Learning (CAST).
Design for All – the website for the European Design for All e-Accessibility Network.

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Competing on the world stage—and disaffected youth

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exam-based system and disaffected youth

Competing on the world stage … will require intensive reforms …. Inflexible, exam-based school systems stifle creativity and channel top students into a handful of fields … parents are forced to spend extra money on private tutoring ….Vocational training is also lacking. The result is a skills gap: a chasm between the qualifications of graduates and what employers actually require.

No, not New Zealand, but Egypt.

I have picked the ‘eyes’ out of a Time magazine article on education in Egypt: Seeking Growth After the Arab Spring (subscription required to read full report). But what captured my interest was that here is a country with a struggling education system, yet quite a few of the statements ring true for New Zealand, a country which may be considered on the opposite side of the continuum from Egypt, educationally.

What are the similarities?

Our 'long tail’ of underachievers certainly matches Third World OECD statistics. We, too, have a heavy focus on assessment and standards. Sure, we don’t have an inflexible exam-based approach, but, arguably, assessment still drives learning rather than the other way around. And, as a high stakes investment, assessment-driven learning has less to do with equipping students for the 21st century, and more to do with league tables and the self-preservation of school status.

Many New Zealand parents feel that schools are not meeting their child’s needs and pay for outside tuition to help their children succeed. Successive governments have axed many vocational courses that provided alternatives for students. The result of all of this, as it is in Egypt and the rest of the world, is the growing problem of large numbers of disaffected youth.

The New Zealand Institute, in their article ‘More Ladders, Fewer Snakes’, address this concern suggesting that an ‘accelerated roll-out of e-learning to low decile schools and improving the school-to-work transition will materially reduce youth unemployment and resulting social issues.’

For New Zealand to continue to compete positively on a shifting world stage, schools need to look closely at their curriculum and ask the following questions:

  • Is it a whole school curriculum harnessing the best of technology and designed to meet the future learning needs of students within their catchment?
  • How are key competencies being embedded into subject areas?
  • Are schools teaching subjects or teaching students for lifelong learning?
  • What opportunities for creativity, problem solving and higher order thinking are students being given?
  • How do current assessment expectations contribute positively to students’ futures?

I wonder, too, about the extent to which school communities have an understanding of globalisation, 21st Century learning, and the need for rethinking the way schools deliver education today?

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Meeting the criteria

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Registered teacher criteria wiki

Schools across New Zealand are now expected to be implementing the Registered Teacher Criteria for all teachers renewing or reapplying for a practising certificate in 2011. These criteria have been designed to be used as a framework for teachers’ ongoing reflections and professional learning, not just as criteria to be assessed against (Registered Teacher Criteria Handbook, 2010).

The criteria do provide plenty of guidance based on what is known about quality teaching and learning. However, in a modern 21st century teaching and learning context, it is quite surprising that there is no mention of e-learning or teaching using digital content in any of the twelve criteria. Given the roll out of ultra-fast broadband to schools, I believe we are approaching the ‘tipping point’ where the expectation will be that all teachers are implementing e-learning in their classrooms. Therefore, I would have thought that the criteria would have been a place where this could have been embedded to send a signal to the teachers still pressing back that they are going to have to take a deep breath and come on board.

Working as Digi Advisors, my colleague Rocky and I felt that this was an area where we could try to ‘plug the gap’ and give some guidance on how the criteria could align with e-learning. Out of this work has arisen the Registered Teacher Criteria wiki.

The wiki has a page for each of the criteria with a range of ideas and examples on how this criteria could be met through the use of e-learning.

The feedback on the wiki has been very positive to this point and the speed at which it has been ‘passed around’ through social networks has shown us that there is a place for this kind of resource. We have also been in touch with the New Zealand Teachers Council and we see some exciting possibilities in aligning our work with theirs in the future. At this point, we are really keen to get the perspectives of those working in schools on what is useful and what could be improved. So if you can, why not go and look at the criteria and be part of the conversation.

In general, though, I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts in relation to the following questions:

  • Do you think that e-learning should be an integral part of the criteria or was it appropriate that it wasn’t included?
  • If the implementation of e-learning should be considered, what are the things that should definitely be a ‘baseline’ in terms of e-learning implementation that all teachers should be demonstrating to be considered ‘satisfactory’?

What would you see as the way forward to best promote the use of e-learning in schools in relation to the critieria?

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Falling off the Applecart

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iOS vs Android

I recently had to loan my Apple iPhone 4 to a colleague while we looked at getting his broken iPhone 3Gs repaired. I thought this would be a great opportunity to try out one of the cheaper Android handsets that are currently flooding the market. Why?

  • First,, to see if a relatively cheap smart phone can provide the level of functionality I have become accustomed to with my iPhone 4.
  • Secondly, to think about how these cheap smartphones might impact on teaching and learning in schools

Which Android handset to try?

With more android handsets than you can shake a stick at, it is hard to know which one to choose. To narrow things down I looked for:

  • Something under $500NZD – I wanted it to be more in the price range of your average teenager than a new iPhone
  • Had to have GPS
  • Must be able to use Wi-Fi as well as 3G connections
  • Needed to have a Wi-Fi hotspot function to allow sharing out of the 3G connection
  • The processor needed to be a reasonable speed
  • Built-in camera had to be 5MP at least, with some level of video capability.

After reading a number of reviews, it was obvious that to get all of the above in a new Phone, it currently needs to be in the $400NZD price bracket. It didn’t take too much more looking around to settle on an HTC Wildfire S, which I managed to pick up from a parallel importer for $425. Full specs for this phone are available here.

How does the Wildfire stack up?

HTC Wildfire S

Having used the Wildfire for approximately a month I have to say that I could easily survive with it as my permanent smartphone. It is by no means an iPhone 4 equivalent. I miss that crystal clear retina display, but for checking email, basic web surfing, the odd twitter update, an occasional snapshot, and some help from Google Maps to get to places, this handset more than adequately performs.

What I really like about it is:

  • It has a much smaller profile than the iPhone 4, fits nicely in the palm of the hand, and so, combined with the cheaper price tag is less impact on the pocket in more ways than one.
  • With Swype installed, the smaller keyboard performs better than the larger iPhone 4 keyboard.
  • The Wi-Fi hotspot also seems to perform much better than the iPhone equivalent.

Will cheap smartphones impact on education?

The arrival of these cheap Android handsets means that smartphones are going to have a much faster impact on schools than if this technology stayed at the $1000 price level of the iPhones and higher-end Android devices. While a student is not going to spend the day working on an HTC Wildfire, this and other devices like it provide a highly usable communication, research and data gathering tool. As ownership of this level of device increases, schools need to be asking the following questions:

  • Do current policies on the use of cell phones in classes need to be revisited in order to make use of the potential of these devices?
  • Does the school have the wireless infrastructure and policies in place to allow connection of these devices? If students are also bringing a laptop, then, for a school of 1000 students your infrastructure needs to be able to cope with at least 2000 connected devices.
  • You may have filtering in place to prevent inappropriate use of your school Internet connection, but do you have policies and education programmes in place to cope with the fact that a student can share out an unfiltered 3G connection? Currently, 3G traffic prices are too high to allow this to be a widescale problem, but there will be students willing to pay the monthly data charges to have uncontrolled access to Facebook, etc., on the school grounds.

What do you think?

I am sure there are many other questions that schools and teachers need to be asking about the potential uses of these devices, along with any downsides. We would love to hear your comments if your school is currently grappling with this issue, or if you have forged ahead and are doing creative things with student-owned smartphones.

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