hussainED.tech Blog

The Technology Teaching and Learning Center (TTLC) at the University of Houston-Downtown hosted their annual Technology Learning Conference on October 11, 2019. This y ear's theme was Making Our Learning Space More Accessible ; my notes on the sessions I attended are below. Session Notes YOUR ALLY IN CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY TIM HENNINGSEN We'll explore different ways to help make your course content more accessible using the Blackboard Ally tool. Learn how to prioritize and fix some of the most common accessibility issues, including those dreaded scanned PDFs. Alternative formats - promotes different forms of access: downloadable formats, annotatable, screen reader, audio, Braille, translations Accessible content i...

The proliferation of new forms of technology and media in the 21st century, such as smartphones and social media, has left us in a new age of innovation in our lifestyles, bringing with it a digital world. The natives of this new world are Generation Z, the generation born around the turn of the millenium and the years after. They have always known a world where technology was integrated into daily life and are faced with new challenges previous generations did not have to face. To meet these challenges of membership in the digital s paces of this new world they inhabit, they need to develop a new skill set, that of digital citizenship. I would define digital citizenship as the  application of principles that impact digital lifestyles, habits, consumptions and interactions in order to sustain and improve digital communities (Heick, 2018; Ohler, 2011; Ribble, 2015). Ribble (2015) discussed how digital citizenship needs to be modelled, promoted and cultivated in students at ...

Take A Stand Against Cyberbullying ( CC BY 4.0 ) by.i.s.b.e.i.g.e. In the social media age, cyber bullying has become an issue of great significance that has to be addressed not only by educators, but by our societal leaders. Cyberbullying can be defined as willful, repeated and aggressive acts conducted by an individual or a group over electronic media, in a situation of social power imbalance, intended to cause intimidation, embarrassment and emotional distress in a victim who cannot easily defend themselves. Cyberbullying needs to be addressed not only within the context of students and the educational system, but also as a societal concern that affects our health, wellness, relationships, and public discourse. Given that a large proportion of cyberbullying victims do not even know the identity of their bully/bullies due to the anonymity provided by electronic media, laws and regulations against cyberbullying, while important, are not enough to stop it. In addition to laws ...

" Copyright Symbols " ( CC BY 2.0 ) by  MikeBlogs As educators we need to be mindful when using the work of others, and also appropriately model this to our students. This is part of practicing and modeling ethical behavior, which is important to the idea of citizenship, both digital and not. The two major behaviors we need to avoid when using works created by others are plagiarism and copyright infringement. Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person's work as your own and not giving them credit. Plagiarism can be  a word for word duplication of another person's work or using their ideas in your own work without giving them credit. Copyright infringement is when a work that is under protection of copyright law is used without the permission and compensation to the copyright holder, infringing of the rights granted to them by the copyright. While both these acts can be thought of as fraudulent and unethical behaviors, copyright infringement is illegal ...

The proliferation of internet connected devices and digital media has made technology an integral part of contemporary life in the developed world, with practically every daily human endeavor having the ability to being augmented by technology. As we benefit from the presence of technology in the various facets of our lives, we also need to be aware of the issues of digital footprints, access, and the effects of technology on our behavior and well-being. Communication and the sharing of information has been revolutionized by social media; we can synchronously connect with other individuals from anywhere in the world. This has given us unprecedented access to information and to each other, affecting many fields, including business, education, and healthcare. A lay person can easily connect with a leader in any field on Twitter, creating a type of access and interaction that was impossible before social media. Using social media, the average person can express their views publicly the sa...

The "learning fundamentals" expressed by Peter Gray serve as an eye-opening look at the state of today’s educational culture: we seem to be doing almost everything completely contradictory to what he advises. I was actually cynical when I first heard about the Sudbury Valley School, because I assumed it was the type of school where the extremely wealthy seek out an alternative education, away from public schools and traditional private schools, the type of school you hear Silicon Valley executives sending their children. Given their backgrounds of privilege and opportunity, it really isn’t surprising that the schools for the children of the wealthy can produce the best outcomes; I was surprised to learn that the Sudbury school is non-selective, enrolls students from a wide array of socioeconomic backgrounds, and operates on half the budget of the local public schools. I thought it would be useful to organize Gray’s learning fundamentals into a table and to compare them to th...