Are students hurt by social media?

Is Twitter hurting students? According to a post by Carin Ford of Higher Ed Morning.

Dr. Tracy Alloway of Scotland’s University of Stirling, says her study shows using Facebook stretches our “working memory” (our short-term or recent memory), while Twitter, YouTube and text messages tend to weaken it.

The study Ford cited focused on younger students. Ford went on to say, "prospective college students are increasingly using Facebook for more than just social interaction. According to a new Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions study, more than 70% of college admissions officials have received “friend requests” from students using Facebook and MySpace."

This brings up other questions, what are the ethical considerations of teachers friending students on social media sites, like Facebook? Since these sites may not be as accessible as university provided media outlets; are faculty members putting disabled students at a competitive disadvantage by "friending" non-disabled students on social media sites?

Technorati Tags: twitter, Social Media, ssloansjca

Bikes hazard to disabled at SJSU?

Here are some of the photos I have made recently of bikes locked to the exterior stairwells of SJSU's Clark Hall. These stairwells are used routinely as exits from the classrooms in Clark Hall and would serve as emergency exits from Clark Hall in the event of an evacuation. In addition to the obvious safety issues, I am concerned about the barriers these are for people with disabilities.

I have tried to get University Police to act on this. My understanding from conversations I have had on this is they are waiting for more bike lockers. In my opinion; to put the needs of bicyclists before providing accessible facilities is a form of discrimination directed at people with disabilities. I think we should be striving to provide accessible physical facilities just as we are striving to provide accessible technology.

When I addressed the issue to the Disability Resource Center at SJSU, Lucille Surdi the ADA Compliance Specialist wrote me back:

The ADA Compliance Office has spoken with Chief Barnes regarding your notification to us of the bikes being locked to the exterior stairwells of Clark Hall. The Chief and UPD are working over the past several months with AS Transportation and FDO to address this situation throughout the campus for the entire campus community. Proposals are being developed for more bike racks and more bike cages. This situation is being overseen with coordination from other university departments and is diligently being addressed. UPD is currently enforcing the issue of unsafe bike parking and has impounded many bikes that create a hazard. You are correct, safety is always the primary concern and please do report any direct safety issues to UPD as soon as possible.

I had a previously scheduled appointment next week to discuss this issue in person with them. In the same e-mail Surdi said:

My office had scheduled a meeting with you and I for next week but I do believe that this matter is being appropriately handled and prioritized and there is no need for a meeting. We thank you for bringing this to our attention and we will be monitoring this situation in the coming weeks.

Sounds like bureaucratic double-speak to avoid doing anything to me. In my opinion providing safe emergency exiting of buildings as well as accessible facilities is more important than having people be able to park bikes all over campus. I am a cyclist myself, I rode my bike to work this morning. It amazes me how many abandoned bikes there are in the bike lockers and chained to poles on campus. Perhaps these can be removed if we really need more on campus bike parking.

UPDATE: March 11, 2009

Yesterday University Police Chief Andre Barnes came over and spoke with me and looked at the problem personally. I really appreciate that! He explained to me some of the issues they have been having with dealing with impounding bicycles and enforcing regulations regarding the parking of bicycles on campus. In my opinion this is not about impounding bicycles or creating new demands on scarce resources.

The cyclists I have spoken to who were parked there. seem to have not been aware they were creating a hazard. Perhaps something as simple (and as cheap) as campus foot patrols or CSOs posting notices on bikes informing bike owners that they are blocking fire exits, as well as creating barriers to people with disabilities, could go a long way to mitigating this situation and improve safety as well as accessibility. Maybe if you just ask folks to park elsewhere, they will. This does not have to be expensive.

[Click Here to See More Photos]

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

An effort to provide accessible education to students with disabilities

North Idaho College capture system

Thanks to Bedan Kamau, Sr. Instructional Designer, Learning, Instructional & Information Technology, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona for his e-mail. Kamanu said, "North Idaho College will be implementing a new classroom capture system as part of an effort to provide accessible education to students with disabilities. The college will be using SpeakerBox from ClearSky Systems for the lecture capture program beginning in January 2009." Here is a link to a related article in Campus Technology.

Our new Content Management System

Umm, did I miss something here?
<sarcasm>We have a new Content Management System to help us improve the accessibility of our web site. This system is very easy to use and is full of information to guide us when we make a mistake. When an error is made the user is instantly and intuitively guided to the proper way to accomplish his/her task!</sarcasm>

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

EnACT/ATI Summer Institute is here but I am not there

EnACT/ATI Summer Institute at SJSU
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, the mission of EnACT (Ensuring Access through Collaboration and Technology) is to support students with disabilities within the California State University in attaining their postsecondary educational goals. The EnACT/ATI Summer Institute is being held at San Jose State University. It started Monday, July 9 to Thursday, July 12. This morning I had breakfast with Abbe Altman of the CSU Center for Distributed Learning and a number of other folks from CSU campuses throughout the state. I really wish I could be at EnACT/ATI Summer Institute since it is so close, but I cannot as we are in the middle of an important search for a staff member to fill a vacancy at our help desk. I expect we will be hit with requests for services from faculty, staff and students for support in making their instructional materials accessible. The information being taught in the sessions at the conference would be very helpful in accomplishing that. The moral of the story, we need to find a way to record these sessions and make this information available for people who cannot attend the sessions. My suggestion, a podcast, perhaps something based a The Podcast Academy model.

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

EnACT/ATI Summer Institute at SJSU next week

EnACT/ATI Summer Institute
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, the mission of EnACT (Ensuring Access through Collaboration and Technology) is to support students with disabilities within the California State University in attaining their postsecondary educational goals. Recognizing that faculty play a pivotal role in the success of all students including students with disabilities, EnACT is designed to provide faculty within the CSU system the skills, support and training necessary to ensure that students with disabilities are provided a high quality postsecondary education.

The EnACT/ATI Summer Institute will be held at San Jose State University Monday, July 9 to Thursday, July 12. The actual Institute will be 3 days in length.

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

Dreamweaver CS3 Interview

About Dreamweaver CS3
This is great for web developers, or those who want to be:

If you create web pages for education institutions and are as concerned as all of us are about accessibility and 508 compliance, in short, you have got to check this out. In this Scoble Show interview Robert Scoble talks with Kenneth Berger, Adobe’s Product Manager for Dreamweaver CS3. Scoble and Berger talk about many of the new features of the new CS3 version of Dreamweaver, including accessibility compliance. There are some great new tools here!

Technorati Tags: Robert Scoble, Scoble, Scoblizer, SJSU, CSU, California State University, Education, Section 508, Adobe, ssloansjca

Contractor Cars on Campus

Contractor's cars make for an ugly campus
When contractors park on campus, literally on campus, they do more than make SJSU look junky. They make it impossible for emergency and other traffic to move without driving over landscaping.

Technorati Tags: San Jose State University, SJSU, CSU, California State University, San Jose, ssloansjca

Accessibility Session Friday

For Faculty Tomorrow, Accessibility Session
My wife and I have been very sick and I forgot to post this earlier. I sincerely apologize for the oversight and hope you can make it to this important event:

Are your instructional materials accessible to all? Universal Design for Learning is a model pedagogical strategy that empowers faculty to effectively and creatively design and teach courses in a way that makes learning accessible to a wider range of learners. UDL is a proactive approach to designing course instruction, materials, and content to benefit people of all learning styles without adaptation or retrofitting. Thus, UDL provides equal access to learning, not simply equal access to information. This presentation will review the principles of UDL and examine various ways faculty have successfully adopted these strategies across different academic disciplines.

Fri. Feb 9, 2007, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM, IRC 210. More info and contact info to RSVP is here.