Category: Higher Education

Not All Students Are Treated Equally in Today’s Digital Era

Recently I ran across an article in the August 7, Huffington Post by Sean Devine, CEO of CourseSmart, the world’s largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials.

Writing about the truly digital age that today’s students live in  Devine  has this to say

“Many colleges and universities are trying to capitalize on students’ technological prowess, introducing a variety of device integrations and technology adoptions on their campus. Technology allows for a level of interaction and customization not previously possible and can substantially lower costs for students. Unfortunately, not all students are treated equally in the digital era. Students with print-related disabilities are often ignored and stuck using archaic learning resources strictly because many in the higher education ecosystem have blatantly neglected this student population.”

As CEO of CourseSmart, Devine is not exactly a disinterested party about e-books but he  is correct in asserting that it is the responsibility of every player in the higher education environment —  from  administrators, faculty, to technology providers  — to make sure that all students, including those with visual impairments, can benefit from today’s technology and receive the best education available.

To read the full article, visit the permalink: A Call for Accessible Technology in Higher Education

The Bully Project

Bullying has been something I’ve been thinking about recently and it all began with two posts at The Antiquarian Librarian. The first was a news story from the ABC affiliate, KCAU, about the efforts of the Sioux City (IA) School district to address the issue of bullying (Sioux City Schools Are Cracking Down on Bullying). One of the items mentioned in this story is the documentary “Bully Project,” partly shot in the Sioux City Community Schools. (At the Bully Project site there are extensive links to resources for kids and parents dealing with bullying and to the “grassroots movement” the film is intended to spur.)

School superintendent Paul Gausman believes the efforts of the district to combat bullying are making a difference and hopes to continue that difference by finding a way to show the documentary within the district schools. (The film may not be shown at some schools in the nation because it received an “R” rating for some of the language students use in the film.) The film opens in select theaters on March 30.

A week later another post about the documentary appeared: Celebrities support lower rating for “Bully” film.

Cyberbullying

If these two posts weren’t enough to prompt me to learn more about bullying, the current issue of a publication that comes to my office periodically, Insight into Diversity, has as its lead story; “The Devastating Effects of Cyberbullying.”  And, a February 27 story in the Lincoln Journal Star announced the launch of the Born This Way Foundation, cofounded by Lady Gaga and her mother. University of Nebraska – Lincoln professor Susan Swearer, a bullying expert is involved with the foundation.

Director Lee Hirsch started filming The Bully Project in 2009 about a year before bullying fully came of age as a high-profile crisis with the launch of what became the It Gets Better project. (That’s not to say that’s when bullying started, obviously — it’s when the current wave of popular media coverage swelled after several awful stories of suicides by bullied kids, many of them gay teens.)

Tyler Clementi

At the collegiate level, the suicide of Rutgers student, Tyler Clementi has ignited a national debate about the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying and homophobia. Clementi’s suicide led the New Jersey legislature to enact the toughest anti-bullying law in the country. And in that state and elsewhere, institutions are modifying their student codes of conduct to prohibit such behavior. Tyler Clement – Beyond Awkward Silence

Bullying is violence against another, pure and simple. Individuals with disabilities are often an easy target for bullying – or worse. Research has shown that for Americans with developmental disabilities, high rates of violence and abuse are evident in their lives. Violent crimes against them, age 12 or older, are double what they are for people without disabilities. That is a disturbing statistic. An even more disturbing statistic is that the rate of abuse is 3.4 times greater among children with disabilities than for children without disabilities. Those statistics are based on the reported crimes.

There aren’t any suggestions of easy solutions in The Bully Project; it’s more about driving home the need for everybody to keep trying by just standing as a reminder of what’s at stake. Most of the current focus and available information is about bullying of children, frequently within the school system. But, bullying isn’t limited to children and it can happen to nearly anyone – anywhere – it can happen to you, a family member, a coworker – anyone we know who is perceived as different or vulnerable – including individuals with disabilities. It behooves all of us to be aware of what bullying is, how it can shatter lives and families and to do what we can do in our own small sphere of the world.

Related articles

The Campus ICT Accessibility Conversation

Technology and the Internet have revolutionized the way we teach at the postsecondary level as well as the way students learn. As Ben McNeely points out in Educating the Net Generation, (2005), today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. Today’s students, K through college, represent the first generations to grow up with their entire lives surrounded by, and using, computers, video games, digital music players, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. In this ubiquitous environment, given the sheer volume of their interaction with technology, today’s students think and process information much differently than their counterparts from earlier generations.

ICT Accessibility in Higher Education Network

Not long ago, I joined a LinkedIn group, ICT Accessibility in Higher Education Network which was created to bring together faculty, staff, instructional technologists, college and university IT decision-makers, students with disabilities, educational publishers/vendors, and all others in the higher education community who are actively involved or have an interest in ensuring that information and communication technology (ICT) being used or being considered for adoption is accessible to everyone, especially people with disabilities. (In this group, ICT includes the full range of technology used for in-class or remote delivery of instruction, online course registration systems/learning management systems, campus websites/portals, library technology, career center software, and social media used to engage existing or attract new students.)

ICT Goal

The goal of this group is to broaden the campus ICT accessibility conversation to include everyone who has a role in the selection, purchase, implementation, support/training on, and use of technology in the college and university setting, in and out of the classroom. Group moderator, Jennison Asuncion, initiated discussion by asking members to, “identify key information and communication technology accessibility challenge(s) facing people with disabilities on your campus.

Common Themes and Issues

The comments and related discussion have been thoughtful and several familiar themes and issues have emerged, including:

  • Convincing leadership at higher levels in our organization that technology accessibility is a priority. Creating accessible technology and web sites allows persons with disabilities equal participation and benefits everyone with better overall design.
  • Effectively integrating the technologies used by students with other technologies available on campus to support teaching and learning.
  • Inaccessible materials, especially third-party materials (e.g. content management and e-mail systems, textbooks, videos etc.)

I believe that this group will be a valuable resource for all participants for we can learn from one another and little by little, perhaps get the message out that accessibility isn’t just for students with disabilities. As assistive technologies are becoming part of the mainstream (e.g. the text to speech and speech to text on the iPad) universities are going to need to respond with accessible content so that the general student body can access materials on multi-modal devices.