This week the SITE conference is happening in Las Vegas. I was asked to be on two panels both related to equity. Unfortunately the website doesn't seem to have a full schedule and agenda for me to reference.
One panel, The Changing Landscape of the Digital Divide: Opportunities and Challenges for Teacher Education was organized and led by Paul Resta from UT. Bonnie Bracey Sutton was on site with Paul while Robert McLaughlin and I were connected via Google Hangout.
The second panel: Research Panel on Supporting Teachers and Accessibility in K-12 Online and Blended Learning Contexts was organized by Leanna Archambault. You can read about the other panelists on Michael Barbour's Virtual School Meanderings blog.
As I was preparing for the second panel -- where I was talking about the research done for the Access and Equity for All Learners in Blended and Online Learning I thought that talking about the access issues in K-12, to an audience of predominantly teacher educators would make the issue too abstract. I wanted them to connect with and take some responsibility for access, so rather than talking about the K-12 research, I presented the findings from the U. Cincinnati and Youngstown State University OCR reports. (see 1/5 Post) I don't know how it was received, but based on conversations with a variety of higher ed folks, I believe many online courses are not fully accessible.
Leanna was concerned we might not have good internet access to I put together a brief PowerPoint slide show with narration. (not included in the link below) I was listening to the entire panel on Skype. I only used the first five slides for my presentation, thinking the others might be useful if there were relevant questions. (There were no questions.)
