The ‘New’ Open Learning Lab – Coming Fall 2018

Posted on by uwbdl

Image source: Pixabay

The Office of Digital Learning and Innovation (DLI) is proud to announce its newly upgraded Open Learning Lab coming fall quarter 2018. The lab will remain in room UW2-140 but will be completely redesigned to include a new layout as well as equipment upgrades for student use. These upgrades will support a more collaborative and open learning environment for students to work in and engage amongst themselves and with the lab support. Some of the equipment upgrades coming to include are multi-person workstations, a brand new Microsoft Surface Hub digital whiteboard, adjustable swinging arm monitors, and new headphones.

The goal of the redesign is to provide students with an environment that promotes active student learning and collaboration. There will be workstations that offer students the ability to adjust desk positions from sitting to standing heights—which will bring more flexibility to the learning process. Also, the DLI will be introducing new software such as free WeVideo online video editing accounts for students as well as supporting previous software in new ways with Adobe Creative Cloud. The newly redesigned lab will house Mac computers to provide students with the best tools possible to serve all of their digital media needs. The DLI team look forwards to continuing our pursuit of excellence in service to the student population at the University of Washington Bothell and excited to showcase the new lab this coming fall quarter.

Global Accessibility Awareness Week (GAAW) at UW Bothell! May 14-18, 2018

Posted on by thomana

What is GAAD? Global Accessibility Awareness Day. As posted on their website, “The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion and people with different disabilities.”

The UDAL Core Team at UW Bothell is hosting the 2nd annual celebration to spread awareness about this diversity topic. We will have workshops and presentations to educate our campus on accessibility awareness on Tuesday, May 15, Wednesday, May 16 and Friday, May 18. Because we are celebrating all week, our event is GAAW instead of GAAD!

GAAW 2018 Program

Tuesday, May 15, LB2-216

8:30a – 9:00a How to create accessible eMail
Ana Thompson – Digital Learning & Innovation (DLI)

9:05a – 9:45a Creating Inclusive Canvas Content
Ana Thompson – Digital Learning & Innovation (DLI)

Wednesday, May 16, UW1-120

1:00p – 1:10p Welcome
Ana Thompson – Digital Learning & Innovation (DLI)
Ashley Magdall – Web Communications Team

1:10p – 2:10p Video Captioning Information Session
Doug Hayman – UW Seattle Accessible Technology Services
Susie Hawkey – UW Seattle Accessible Technology Services

  • Video Captioning  Presentation Slides

2:20p – 3:00p Web Accessibility Training Part I
Ashley Magdall  – Web Communications Team
Jeane Marty – IT/Enterprise Services Delivery Team
Hadi Rangin – UW Seattle Accessible Technology Services
Anna Marie Golden- UW Seattle Accessible Technology Services

  • Web Accessibility Presentation Slides (Parts I & II)

3:00 – 3:15 Break and move to room UW1-121

3:15p – 3:55p Web Accessibility Training Part II
Ashley Magdall – Web Communications Team
Jeane Marty – IT/Enterprise Services Delivery Team
Hadi Rangin – UW Seattle Accessible Technology Services
Anna Marie Golden- UW Seattle Accessible Technology Services

4:00p – 4:45p ATC Services & Screen Reader Demo
Dan Comden – UW Seattle Accessible Technology Services
Hadi Rangin – UW Seattle Accessible Technology Services

Thursday, May 17, Room UW1-121

UW Seattle events will be held at Odegaard 220 between 10:00am and 3:00pm will be streamed to UW Bothell UW1-121. See the session schedule for details about activities.

To request a disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at 206.543.6450 (voice), 206.543.6452 (TTY) or dso@u.washington.edu, preferably at least 10 days in advance of the event.

Time Topic Presenter
10:00 – 10:25 What You Need to Know About Accessible PDFs Gaby de Jongh
10:30 – 10:55 Web Accessibility 101 Anna Marie Golden
11:00 – 11:25 Advanced Accessibility Pete Graff & Jeane Marty
11:30 – 11:55 Usability Meets Accessibility in UX Jason Civjan
12:00 – 12:25 Lunch and Learn (Bring your lunch!):
Accessibility Tools Showcase		 Janelle Raven Apigo
12:30 – 12:55 Lunch and Learn (Bring your lunch!):
Washington Policy 188		 Sheryl Burgstahler
1:00 – 1:55 Assistive Technology Demos Shawn Berg & K Wheeler
2:00 – 3:00 Try Assistive Technologies WATAP

Friday, May 18, Room UW1-041

8:30a – 8:50a Welcome and Intro – What is GAAD? What is the point of GAAW at UWB?
Ana Thompson – Digital Learning & Innovation (DLI)
Ashley Magdall – Web Communications Team

9:00a – 10:00a Creating Accessible Documents
Ana Thompson – Digital Learning & Innovation (DLI)

10:10a – 10:30a Jordan’s Text to Speech Personal Journey
Jordan Smith – UW Bothell Student

  • Text-to-Speech Presentation Slides

10:40a – 11:30p Closing

Image Acknowledgements

global-people.jpg

Retrieved from PublicDomainPictures.net

Repeal of Net Neutrality Rules: Potential Impacts on Higher Education

Posted on by uwbdl

Image Source: Pixabay

Last December, the FCC voted on and approved a proposal that would repeal net neutrality. This decision marks the first successful repeal of net neutrality since it went into effect in 2015 under Obama-era regulation. In a recent article published by The Chronicle of Higher Education, the repeal of net neutrality allows Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to throttle “online traffic and allow companies to pay extra for faster delivery of their content” (Martinez and Hoisington). Several members within the higher education associations voiced their opinions and concerns about the decision. One member, Jody Feder, stated:

[T]he vote by the commission to scrap net neutrality would affect research, instruction, and communication on every campus, and would have detrimental effects on ‘students, research, and faculty at America’s private colleges and universities.’ (Martinez and Hoisington)

The article, moreover, discusses these concerns through two relative topics: first, the FCC’s decision to deregulate ISPs; and second, how it limits the availability of online academic resources. In either case, students and educators could petition for their rights to access and view educational resources without bias. This approach could, and hopefully will, stifle academic breakthroughs in fields such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which require significant bandwidth to operate smoothly. 

For more information, read the full article The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Improving the Adoption of Education Technology

Posted on by uwbdl

Image Source: Pixabay

There is a growing confusion over the definition and use of education technology among higher education faculty. How professors are incorporating technology in their classroom and lectures are also widely spread. While some use learning management systems like Canvas to allow their students to access and submit assignments. Others, prefer to record their entire lectures using software like Panopto.

In either case, how a professor integrates technology into their classroom boils down to their familiarity with the software itself. Some worry about taking the time to learn technology only for it to be out-of-date by the time they have mastered it. One Anthropologist, Lauren Heckris, studied why teachers were not adapting new tech into their classroom and her analysis indicated that many were simply “too afraid”(Matthews).

Heckris also suggested that “many academics clung to a ‘very strong’ idea of what constituted good teaching that they had often inherited from their former professors or even parents”(Matthews). This article provides higher education faculty with interesting tips to improve the adoption and implementation of education technology.

For more information, read the full article on Inside Higher Ed.

Colleges Step up Security Efforts to Avoid Hackers

Posted on by uwbdl

Image Source: Pixabay

Microsoft Word users found the scariest thing hidden in their software, an authentic-looking word documents booby-trapped with malicious code, in April. There’s a harmful code infiltrating the system once the user open the rich text format file. Students in college are the target where hackers steal their vulnerable private information.

A month later, online criminals used the tool, WannaCry, to morph the ransomware into malware juggernaut. They hack the private information at ransom from Microsoft users for Bitcoins.

To attack and avoid hackers, higher education IT departments must provide a steady stream of advice on how to avoid vulnerabilities and how to proceed if compromised, says Ganesan Ravishanker, CIO and associate dean at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

Colleges can provide training and videos that educate users about the anatomy of phishing emails. “We strongly advise our community not to open unsolicited documents and not to click links if the sender isn’t verified” said by CISO Thomas P. Murphy at Northwestern University.

Colleges can also installs anti-virus/anti-malware software on faculty, staff, and students computers to block and filter unsecure website. “ You don’t want to push a patch during a lecture or exam or during some critical point of research computation,” said by Murphy.

There are risks in shared computers or machines that aren’t booted up regularly. Security software won’t download automatically if the machines are at sleep or down.
For more information, visit the main article on EdTech

Duolingo Partners With Pearson to Make New Foreign Language Classes

Posted on by uwbdl


Image Source: Chips Articles

Pearson and Duolingo have teamed up to create an experience that is intended to help college and university students learn foreign languages.  Through the use of gamification, personalized learning tools, and texts that can be accessed on iOS and Android devices, this new tool is a perfect way for students to practice their foreign language skills.  Duolingo will provide aspects that keep the students coming back, such as earning points for correct answers, hearts that go away when they get a wrong answer and make them start over when all the hearts are gone, and keeping track of how many days in a row they’ve practiced.  Meanwhile, Pearson will provide the students with texts, both digital and print versions that are aligned to what language they are learning.  The lessons will include speaking, listening, translation, and multiple choice exercises, and will show students how they can improve if they make a mistake. Anna Szawara, a lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago, praises Duolingo, saying it’s a great supplement for any foreign language class, and that it keeps students engaged and supports their learning processes.

Participating colleges and universities will offer courses in Spanish, French, German, and Italian starting this fall.  “Our shared goal is to help improve students’ academic performance while preparing them for today’s global workforce and opportunities that require multilingual skills.” says Paul Corey, the managing director for higher education courseware at Pearson.

You can read the full article on Campus Technology

 

E-Portfolios Help Prepare Students for their Future

Posted on by uwbdl


Image Source: Flickr

In a survey conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that only 23 percent of employers felt recent graduates were prepared to work.  It is important for students to be able to learn skills on how to communicate their career-readiness to future employers.  E-portfolios are an effective way to do this, since they showcase the student’s skills and gives the employers an idea of the work the students are interested in.

E-portfolios also help boost a student’s digital literacy.  By having their own e-portfolio, it shows that they are able to “identify and create digital solutions, adapt to new tools, and discover more effective and efficient ways of doing things in their fields,” a report from EDUCAUSE states.  It is important for students to build an online presence and craft their professional online identities early, in order to impress employers.  The employers learn much more about you from an e-portfolio, as it showcases your work and the process you took to come up with your solutions.  Some universities, like Illinois State University, are even giving students digital badges as a form of achievements for those who hone their skills and experiences throughout the school year.  The university’s honors program awarded 7,400 digital badges to students, which will go on their transcripts and make it easier for employers to see where their skill sets lie.

For the full article, please visit EdTech

Accessibility Tools are Coming to More Programs to Aid Students

Posted on by uwbdl


Image Source: U.S. Department of Defense 

Students with disabilities are just as likely to pursue STEM fields as their peers.  Technology design standards are becoming increasingly more accessible for all students.  Major tech companies like Google are already looking into making their programs easier to use by disabled folks. Currently, Google has accessible features like extensions for Google Chrome, voice commands and keyboard shortcuts for their G Suite apps.

Similarly, educators at California State University are becoming aware of how they integrate PDFs into their curriculum.  They are trying to make use of Adobe software’s built-in accessibility checker that will let students know if a certain file does not contain support for people who are disabled.  Mainly, it will point out if texts or images are unable to be read or described out loud by assistive technology.  Likewise, Microsoft is trying to introduce new technology to make Microsoft Word more accessible to those who are visually or cognitively impaired.  They claim, “At Microsoft, we envision a future where people with permanent disabilities or situational limitations have the technology they need to work efficiently and independently from any device”.  They are already rolling out with regular updates to their software, adding things like accessible templates, image description controls, and even accessibility checkers in the Review tabs for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and Visio.

For more information, please visit the main article on EdTech

Digital Textbooks Save Students Millions

Posted on by uwbdl


Image Source: wikipedia

Other than paying the usual costly tuition and laboratory fees, buying textbooks can be another sting from education. In 2013, research has shown that the mean of each student in universities need to spend more than $200 per quarter on textbooks.  Luckily, in these few years, technology has developed to save us from this terror.

Students at Indiana University (IU) are saving more than $3 million dollars every year because of the eText, a digital textbook. “Digital textbooks and course materials should cost less and do more for learning… We see that happening in IU’s rapidly growing eText program as it is growing 50 percent year-over-year in 2,600 course selections” says IU Vice President for IT, Brad Wheeler, in the article.

eText allow students do have a “day one access” which means students can get the course material from the first day of class. This activity opens a channel for communication and collaboration between instructors and students. We can share notes and work together with classmates through our own digital device. “I do a lot of active learning in my courses, and if you don’t have the textbook you can’t really participate,” says IU professor Nancy Evans, an early adopter of the digital tool. It is true that some school courses require textbooks and students have to purchase and study them in order to learn. However, the innovation of eText is trying to change the mainstream by suggesting colleges provide digital components/materials. Plus, students only need to pay a max of $80 instead of paying $200 every quarter to access all the resources. It is sustainable, cheap, and way lighter.

For more information, visit the main article at EdTech

MIT Makes Strides Towards Organic 3D Printing

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Image Source: 3DPrint.com

Ever since the creation of the 3D printer, colleges have found a way to make use of them. They create anything from toys and art to building models of molecules. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is among the first to making strides towards making a more organic material for the 3D printing process. Earlier this year, MIT researchers were able to successfully 3D print using cellulose, an abundant organic polymer. Cellulose is biodegradable and inexpensive; there are many uses for cellulose as well because of its robustness and versatility given its chemical compound.

There were many other attempts at using cellulose for 3D printing, but failed. Plastic polymers are usually heated up to become malleable, but when cellulose is heated up, it will thermally decompose. MIT overcame this issue that was caused by special hydrogen bonds, by using cellulose acetate dissolved in acetone, one with less problematic bonds. The acetone is there because with a very high vapor pressure, it will evaporate very quickly; this will make for a clean printing process. By printing with cellulose, not only would it be more environmentally friendly and cost effective, but the polymers may be stronger than traditional plastics and quicker to manipulate because it requires no heating.

Cellulose is also malleable in the sense that you can add certain properties to it during the 3D printing process. For example, the researcher at MIT Sebastion Pattinson says his team added antimicrobial dye to a set of surgical tweezers so that when a fluorescent light is shined on it, the bacteria would be killed off. Since cellulose is such a versatile material, there are so many different functionalities that can developed, which is the reason that is used in many products.

To read the full article, visit EdTech