Extending the Future of Assistive Technology

Presented byDr. Fred T. Hofstetter

University of Delaware

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

We are living at an exciting time when technological dreams are coming true.

Dreams

Moore’s Law

It’s been happening ever since, and scientists predict that this trend will continue at least until the year 2010.

In 1965, Intel’s Chairman, Gordon Moore, predicted that the capacity of a computer chip will double every 18 months.

Moore’s Law

Al Gore’s Law

Computer prices are declining at a rate of 50% per year.

Computers will be everywhere.

Computers will truly become personal.

Wearable ComputersDockers Mobile Pant

Levi’s is designing clothes to let you wear computers.

Sign Language Wearables

At MIT, scientists are designing a wearable computer that can recognize sign language.

Universal Access

The dream is to provide a universally accessible multimedia interface for all students, particularly those with special needs:

First as learners through an IMS that is truly accessible.Later as workers in the new information economy.

Digitization, Convergence, and Distribution

We can digitize anything you can read, see or hear; put it

online in a standardized format; and provide

worldwide access any time or place.

Scan any text

Snap any picture

Record any sound

Capture any video

Publish to the Web

Deliver Anywhere

Wireless Britannica

                                                              

Search the complete Encyclopædia Britannica from your wireless Palm VII, using the new Britannica Traveler application.

                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                   

Palm VII Wireless Internet

Internet Messenger

                                                              

Receive pages, e-mail, and news via the new Internet Messenger watch from Timex.Right now the service is free for the first year.

                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                 

Internet Messenger

Teledesic Satellite Network

The Teledesic Network will consist of 288 satellites divided into 12 planes, each with 24 satellites. As the satellite planes orbit north-to-south and south-to-north, the Earth rotates underneath.

Where Matters Not

“On the Internet, there’s no there.”

Anna PaquinMCI commercial

Implications for Education

Putting Theory into Practice with Serf®

What Is Serf?

Invented in 1997, Serf is a self-paced multimedia learning environment that enables students to navigate a course, access instructional resources, communicate, and submit assignments over the Web.Instructors create courses without having to know HTML.

LoggingOn

Viewing the Course

Student Control Panel

Instructor Options

Editing a Serf Syllabus

Textual Content (adds text to the current cluster) Class title (starts a new class cluster)Generic title (starts a new generic cluster)Preamble title (starts a new preamble cluster)Multimedia graphic (adds content with a graphic icon and link) Multimedia movie (adds content with a movie icon and link) Multimedia sound (adds content with a sound icon and link) Multimedia Web site (adds content with a Web site icon and link) Observational assignmentWeb portfolio assignmentWeb query assignmentSubmit file assignmentTrue/false questionMultiple choice questionFill-in-the-blank questionImage map questionShort answer questionSlider question (Likert scale)Examination (launches a test)Strand (launches a tutorial module)Diagnostic (launches a self-assessment)Survey (administers a questionnaire)Control panel (creates a customized control panel)Menu bar (replaces or augments the current Serf menu bar)Banner (replaces or augments the current banner)Trailer (replaces or augments the current trailer)

Kinds of Syllabus Events

Creating an Event

Editor Viewer

Discussion Forums

Reading ForumTopics

Using theGradebook

Assigning Grades

Teaching in the Zone

Helping All Students by Giving What They Need, When They Need It

Identifying the Zone

Vygotsky defined the zone of proximal development as the difference between the difficulty level of a problem a student can cope with independently and the level that can be accomplished with help from others.Systems like Serf identify the zone and provide the help from others.

Throwing the Zone Away

In traditional teaching, we throw the zone away.Students take tests, the results of which often are never handed back.Students hand in term papers at the end of a course with no chance to rewrite them.We are throwing the zone away.

Teaching in the Zone

Constructivist teaching via the Web brings the student into the zone.The instructor becomes a coach who helps the student achieve goals.Time shifting makes the process efficient and manageable for student and teacher alike.

A Hypothesis

The effectiveness of an online learning system is directly related to the degree in which it facilitates teaching in the zone.Methods I use to do this include:

Giving the student another tryJust-in-time discussionCustomized scaffoldingGallery of other students’ work

Problem-based Learning

The problem with problem-based learning is assessment.How do you assess what each student has contributed in a cooperative learning environment?Systems like Serf solve this problem by logging what each student contributes.

Identifying Team Skills

Imagine an IMS in which learners with special needs could join teams and exhibit their online skills.Then imagine a Department of Labor database being able to match the skills of those learners to actual jobs that could employ students with special needs after they finish school.

School to Work

Helping Learners with Special NeedsPlan Careers and Get Jobs

DOL Databases

The Department of Labor is creating a suite of Web sites to help people get a career and obtain the training necessary to qualify for a job in their chosen field.Every American will have a Career Management Account and a Lifelong Learning Portfolio.

America’s Job Bank

America’s Job Bank lets you track job searches, post your resume, create cover letters and develop a personal online Career Kit to facilitate your job search.

                          

AJB Home Page

AJB Job Categories

AJB Computer Jobs

AJB Programmers

AJB Programmer Openings

AJB Selecting a Job

AJB Job Description

The Instructional Management Systems

Project

The Department of Labor Developed These Databases as a Contributing Member of the IMS

Project

Instructional Management Systems (IMS) Project

Develops open specifications for facilitating online distributed learning activities, such as:

locating and using educational contenttracking learner progressreporting learner performanceexchanging student records between administrative systems.

                 

 

IMS Partners

Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, SunDOD, DOL, ADL, ETSWebCT, Blackboard, Click2LearnPeopleSoft, SCTCalifornia, Michigan, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Miami-DadePlus hundreds of developers

WGBH NCAM SALT Grant

WGBH‘s National Center For Accessible Media has been awarded $1.8 million to develop access specs for online learning.This partnership with the IMS project aims to benefit the e-learning industry and learners with disabilities worldwide.

http://www.imsproject.org/pressrelease/pr010116.html

Specifications for Accessible Learning Technologies (SALT)

Means to enable alternate presentation in response to learner profiles Means to identify and activate accessibility features within content Solutions to enable accessibility of text— HTML, XML, PDF and E-books Solutions to enable accessibility of multimedia content— audio, video, illustrationsSolutions to enable accessibility of special material—mathematical notation, graphs, charts.

SALT ResultsYear I (2002)

SALT compiled a set of guidelines for accessibility in online learning tools.SALT created an extension to the IMS Learner Information Profile (LIP) to enable online learning systems to know the student's accessibility needs.SALT proposed an extension to IMS metadata standards to permit content to adjust based on accessibility settings in the LIP; hopes for approval Spring 2003.

The Web is Changing

From an HTML page-based paradigmTo an XML component-based modelIn HTML, you used a standard set of tags to create a static pageXML enables you to define your own tags for use in dynamic waysXSL lets you teach the browsers what to do when they encounter your special tags

XML and Special Education

XML is the trend in computing today.It is a markup language that lets you define your own tags.Applications can share data marked up as XML.Style sheets determine how the XML will display onscreen.Imagine style sheets for the different assistive technologies.

                                     

Web Services

XML can also be used behind the scenes for data exchange with a Web Service.A Web Service is a type of computer application that receives and responds to XML requests received over HTTP from clients on the Internet.Because HTTP is the most basic protocol on the Internet, the Web Service enables you to write program components that can serve any end-user or computer in the world to which you provide access.

What XML Can Enable

Access from PCs, PDAs, Wireless Devices, Set-top boxes, Mobile PhonesEmbedding of special features within content, such as audio, video, and illustrations Rendering of text in the learner’s preferred format—HTML, XML, PDF and E-books Real-time rendering of mathematical notation, graphs, and chartsAlternate representation in response to learner profiles

A Little SMIL

SMIL = Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language.SMIL is a W3C standard that is working its way into the browsers.SMIL is XML-based and has accessibility features.Let’s consider an example and then dream about the possibilities.

SMIL Possibilities

The Kennedy example knew whether to display the subtitles based on the accessibility settings on the user’s computer.Imagine what it could be like if the content could sense accessibility issues and adjust automatically to the user’s needs. That is what SALT is doing with its proposed linkage between the Learner Information Profile and the IMS metadata standards.

The Future’s FutureIs Education’s Challenge

How to Ensure Emerging Standards Meet the Needs of

Special Education

Recommendations

Join the IMS project.Join the Department of Labor’s AJB/ATB/Acinet project.Work with the WGBH NCAM SALT Partnership to make sure the IMS accessibility specs meet the needs of the special education community.Join the W3C WAI Project.

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."

-- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

W3C = World Wide Web Consortium