Digital Access
The digital access page refers to the opportunity for all to have access to the digital world. It is essential to understand what technology students have available to them at school and at home. Also, it is crucial to consider the accomodations that students with special needs may require in order to have equity in the digital society. As a teacher, it is critical that one understands what access the students have so as to best help meet the needs.
Digital access is defined as "full electronic participation in society" (Ribble, M & Bailey, G.D., 2007, p.23).
In order to gain a better perspective regarding the digital access in my elementary school building, I conducted a survey of other teachers to gain their insight and perspective on the access that the students have to technology at school and at home.
Survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KJT5WDG
Summary
I surveyed seven elementary teachers from my building from the various grade levels first through fifth. Two of the seven teachers have SmartBoards in their classrooms. The remaining five teachers have overhead projectors and LCD projectors. All teachers have access to a computer lab, mobile laptop cart and mobile netbook cart. All seven teachers were able to accurately choose the definition to “digital divide.” All teachers predicted that between 65% to 95% of their students have a working computer at home. While the responses were between 65% of the class to 95%, it is interesting to note that all teachers believed that more than 50% of the class has computer access at home. Only one teacher said 95% of the class which makes it important to consider when giving assignments and projects that require the use of a computer. All of the teachers agree that the school provides adequate technology access for students during the school day. It is worthy to note that no one selected the strongly agree option. As for the United States making broadband access a priority for all people in the country, all of the teachers agreed or strongly agreed that this should be a priority. Furthermore, teachers varied their opinion on whether there is equal access to technology throughout the country. Two teachers responded “neutral,” four teachers said “disagree” and one teacher chose “strongly disagree.” The final question asked teachers opinions comparing our school to other elementary schools as far as sufficient access to technology. The results were varied on this question with three teachers choosing “agree,” two choosing “neutral,” one choosing “disagree,” and one choosing “strongly disagree.” Looking back, I think it would be interesting to add an additional question similar to the final question and compare our school to other schools in the district. Unfortunately, the newer the school the more and better technology that seems to be available. For instance, in our newest elementary school every classroom is equipped with a SmartBoard whereas in our building we just received five SmartBoards this year for various classrooms. Overall, I feel the results show that most teachers feel students have sufficient technology access at school. The results also show that home access continues to be an issue as far as equality.
Assistive Software-ReadPlease
In addition to surveying teachers from my school, I also researched an example of assistive software that digital citizens can utilize in order to better help them access technology. The following paragraphs explain the software and its capabilities.
The ReadPlease assistive software allows a computer user to have material that is displayed on the computer screen to be read aloud to him or her. The technology is able to read text from word documents, websites, spreadsheets or any other programs. In order for the program to read aloud to the user, one must copy the material from the source and paste it into the ReadPlease window. The user has the ability to adjust the rate of speed for the reading, the font size of the displayed writing and the voice that is reading the material. In addition, ReadPlease is available to read in numerous languages. It can be enabled on a website as well. While the program reads the material, it highlights the word in yellow as it is saying it.
As assistive software, ReadPlease could be extremely useful for various computer users. The software provides reading services for non-readers, visually impaired users and many other types of users. It is also software that could be used by people of varying ages; however, it will most likely require more training and time for younger users to learn how to copy and paste the material in the ReadPlease window. The biggest downfall appears to be the voice choices as they sound very robotic and are somewhat difficult to understand when reading some material. Hopefully, a ReadPlease user would be able to pick one of the four voices that he or she is most comfortable listening to. It is also extremely helpful for ReadPlease users to be able to see the word that the program is reading since it is highlighted. The program is also helpful in that the user can make the font much larger so that it is easier to read. The assistive software, ReadPlease, can provide many computer users with the independence and equality that he or she desires. It allows more opportunities for people with special needs to have accommodations that make computing easy.
Resources
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/03/16/digital-access-collaboration-a-must-for-students/
The above link provides an ariticle written about the digital access that many students have at home and at school.
http://chartsbin.com/view/qnr
The above link connects to a chart displaying the worldwide digital access index.
Digital access is defined as "full electronic participation in society" (Ribble, M & Bailey, G.D., 2007, p.23).
In order to gain a better perspective regarding the digital access in my elementary school building, I conducted a survey of other teachers to gain their insight and perspective on the access that the students have to technology at school and at home.
Survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KJT5WDG
Summary
I surveyed seven elementary teachers from my building from the various grade levels first through fifth. Two of the seven teachers have SmartBoards in their classrooms. The remaining five teachers have overhead projectors and LCD projectors. All teachers have access to a computer lab, mobile laptop cart and mobile netbook cart. All seven teachers were able to accurately choose the definition to “digital divide.” All teachers predicted that between 65% to 95% of their students have a working computer at home. While the responses were between 65% of the class to 95%, it is interesting to note that all teachers believed that more than 50% of the class has computer access at home. Only one teacher said 95% of the class which makes it important to consider when giving assignments and projects that require the use of a computer. All of the teachers agree that the school provides adequate technology access for students during the school day. It is worthy to note that no one selected the strongly agree option. As for the United States making broadband access a priority for all people in the country, all of the teachers agreed or strongly agreed that this should be a priority. Furthermore, teachers varied their opinion on whether there is equal access to technology throughout the country. Two teachers responded “neutral,” four teachers said “disagree” and one teacher chose “strongly disagree.” The final question asked teachers opinions comparing our school to other elementary schools as far as sufficient access to technology. The results were varied on this question with three teachers choosing “agree,” two choosing “neutral,” one choosing “disagree,” and one choosing “strongly disagree.” Looking back, I think it would be interesting to add an additional question similar to the final question and compare our school to other schools in the district. Unfortunately, the newer the school the more and better technology that seems to be available. For instance, in our newest elementary school every classroom is equipped with a SmartBoard whereas in our building we just received five SmartBoards this year for various classrooms. Overall, I feel the results show that most teachers feel students have sufficient technology access at school. The results also show that home access continues to be an issue as far as equality.
Assistive Software-ReadPlease
In addition to surveying teachers from my school, I also researched an example of assistive software that digital citizens can utilize in order to better help them access technology. The following paragraphs explain the software and its capabilities.
The ReadPlease assistive software allows a computer user to have material that is displayed on the computer screen to be read aloud to him or her. The technology is able to read text from word documents, websites, spreadsheets or any other programs. In order for the program to read aloud to the user, one must copy the material from the source and paste it into the ReadPlease window. The user has the ability to adjust the rate of speed for the reading, the font size of the displayed writing and the voice that is reading the material. In addition, ReadPlease is available to read in numerous languages. It can be enabled on a website as well. While the program reads the material, it highlights the word in yellow as it is saying it.
As assistive software, ReadPlease could be extremely useful for various computer users. The software provides reading services for non-readers, visually impaired users and many other types of users. It is also software that could be used by people of varying ages; however, it will most likely require more training and time for younger users to learn how to copy and paste the material in the ReadPlease window. The biggest downfall appears to be the voice choices as they sound very robotic and are somewhat difficult to understand when reading some material. Hopefully, a ReadPlease user would be able to pick one of the four voices that he or she is most comfortable listening to. It is also extremely helpful for ReadPlease users to be able to see the word that the program is reading since it is highlighted. The program is also helpful in that the user can make the font much larger so that it is easier to read. The assistive software, ReadPlease, can provide many computer users with the independence and equality that he or she desires. It allows more opportunities for people with special needs to have accommodations that make computing easy.
Resources
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/03/16/digital-access-collaboration-a-must-for-students/
The above link provides an ariticle written about the digital access that many students have at home and at school.
http://chartsbin.com/view/qnr
The above link connects to a chart displaying the worldwide digital access index.
EDT 6030 Digital Citizenship by Courtney Gardner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
