[Xerte] Re: Xerte in primary schools - turning into philosophical discourse.

Dave Burnett d_b_burnett at hotmail.com
Mon Nov 7 15:45:53 GMT 2011


Hope is not a strategy.

;-)


Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2011 15:35:31 +0100
From: reijnders at tor.nl
To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Xerte in primary schools - turning into philosophical discourse.


  


    
  
  
     I knew you were an optimist!!! ;-)

    

    Op 7-11-2011 15:20, Alistair McNaught schreef:
    
      
      
      
        A fair point and well made! You will have
            noted of course my final point was “it could be risky putting in a functionality
            that could be used inappropriately in the distance learning
            context”.
         
        To a large extent it’s a maturity issue. The
            more ‘accessibility mature’ (ie aware and intelligently
            active) an organisation is the more there is to be gained by
            mixing and matching partially accessible solutions to meet
            particular needs. However, the concept of partial
            accessibility is dangerous in an organisation that lacks
            accessibility maturity because it then becomes an excuse for
            doing little or nothing and you can get cringe-worthy
            attitudes like “these resources are specifically designed
            for ‘normal’ people” – which just means “I don’t know any
            good practices and couldn’t be bothered finding out”.
         
        There’s some interesting discussion to be had
            around the area. My observations would suggest there are
            four main categories of developer in relation to
            accessibility:
        ·        
              The denialist – doesn’t consider it and
            wouldn’t know what it involved or why it was important.
        ·        
              The minimalist – does what is required to
            cover their back in terms of legislation and contracts.
        ·        
              The optimist – actively tries to engage and
            support learning with the use of different resources with
            different levels of accessibility in order to meet as wide a
            range of needs as possible by different methods.
        ·        
              The purist – only creates resources that are
            wholly standards compliant and fully accessible to all users
            irrespective of disability.
        The following comments are worth noting.
          
        Purists maximise the number of people who can
            use their resources but depending on the nature of the topic
            and the learner, they can compromise on the number of people
            who enjoy using them. They might also create resources at a
            slower rate.
          
        Denialists, minimalists and optimists are all
            well served by Xerte.
          
        Purists don’t use it because it’s based on
            Flash and everyone knows Flash is not only proprietary but
            also completely “inaccessible”
          J
         
        A
         
         
         
         
         
        
          
            From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
                [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk]
                On Behalf Of Dave Burnett

                Sent: 07 November 2011 12:46

                To: Xerte list

                Subject: [Xerte] Re: Xerte in primary schools
          
        
         
        
          

              

              Alistair, is this not the slippery slope you have
              cautioned us of on other occasions?

              What of the danger of a non-accessible piece escaping into
              the wild, like a GMO?

              ;-)

              

              

            
          
            
                
              
            From:
                Alistair.McNaught at HEAcademy.ac.uk

                To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

                Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2011 10:19:20 +0000

                Subject: [Xerte] Re: Xerte in primary schools
            
              It’s only a non-no when you have no
                  idea who your audience is or what their specific needs
                  might be - for example when creating an online course
                  that could be marketed to people with different
                  nationalities, disabilities or connectivities. 
                
               
              In primary and secondary education,
                   Xerte is likely to be used in a class based context -
                  for example with an interactive whiteboard.  In this
                  case, teachers will often use timers to produce a
                  creative tension or create friendly competitiveness
                  between groups or even just help distractable pupils
                  stay on track. For some learners that can be a trick
                  that helps include them.
                
               
              Like many aspects of accessibility it's
                  not the technique that is accessible or inaccessible
                  but the context in which it is applied. I can,
                  however, see that from a developer point of view it
                  could be risky putting in a functionality that could
                  be used inappropriately in the distance learning
                  context.
               
              A
               
               
               
              
                
                  From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
                      [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk]
                      On Behalf Of Julian Tenney

                      Sent: 07 November 2011 09:58

                      To: Xerte discussion list

                      Subject: [Xerte] Re: Xerte in primary
                      schools
                
              
               
              >Would be nice if Xerte had an “add
                  page timer” option that could give you a countdown for
                  doing a task under time pressure. I might copy the
                  technical list into this email in case anyone there is
                  working on a similar idea.
               
              I thought that was an accessibility
                  no-no?
               
              
                
                  From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
                      [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On
                        Behalf Of Alistair McNaught

                      Sent: 05 November 2011 09:43

                      To: A list to facilitate and support
                      teachers using Xerte Online Toolkits

                      Cc: Xerte discussion list

                      Subject: [Xerte] Re: Xerte in primary
                      schools
                
              
               
              
                Thanks John and Bob for the ideas –
                    the John’s Moodle book has given lots of ideas
                    already just flicking through the contents.
                 
                I can see some “Xerte Spot the
                    Difference” activities with the Morph Image template
                    and some external links to jigsaws using the NewPage
                    navigator template.
                Talking of templates I could probably
                    do a nice “climate cross section” using the tabbed
                    navigator to work down the latitudes. I’ll try the
                    new Hangman template and I have a great audio clip
                    from my friend (who set up the charity) describing
                    his encounter with an angry hippo as a child when he
                    was head butted into the river. That will go really
                    well with the audio slideshow template. I could do
                    another style of spot the difference with the
                    annotated diagram template. If I’ve got time I’ll do
                    a Camstudio screencapture describing the Savanna and
                    then turn it into a synched video followed by a
                    multichoice quiz.
                  
                 
                Would be nice if Xerte had an “add
                    page timer” option that could give you a countdown
                    for doing a task under time pressure. I might copy
                    the technical list into this email in case anyone
                    there is working on a similar idea.
                 
                Being primary age kids I’ll probably
                    not risk the Flickr and YouTube templates since the
                    results involve a degree of unpredictability!
                 
                That’s my weekend sorted..
                  
                 
                Thanks for the ideas – I just needed
                    something to get the creative juices flowing. I’ll
                    let people see the finished products when I’m done .
                 
                 
                A
                 
                
                  
                    From: A list to facilitate and support
                        teachers using Xerte Online Toolkits
                        [mailto:XERTEFORTEACHERS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] 
                          On Behalf Of Bob Read

                        Sent: 05 November 2011 08:52

                        To: XERTEFORTEACHERS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK

                        Subject: 
                  
                
                 
                Hi Alistair
                Like John I’d also
                    recommend having a look at some on line jigsaw
                    websites such as
                    www.jigsawplanet.com
                    . The puzzles are made within seconds and I’m sure
                    you could use some photos or images of scenes
                    relevant to overseas development as the basis of
                    some activities.
                  
                Sounds like really
                    useful project – good luck!
                regards
                Bob
                 
                 
                 
                Bob
                    Read
                Training
                    and Development Adviser
                ACER
                Suite
                    1 Lancaster House, Meadow Lane
                St
                    Ives, Cambs PE27 4LG
                  
                tel
                    01480 468198
                Mobile: 07795
                    260483
                 
                http://www.acer.ac.uk/
                P 
                    Please consider the environment before printing this
                    e-mail 
                 
                
                  From: A list to facilitate and support
                      teachers using Xerte Online Toolkits
                      [mailto:XERTEFORTEACHERS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] 
                        On Behalf Of John Doubleday

                      Sent: 04 November 2011 19:59

                      To: XERTEFORTEACHERS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK

                      Subject: 
                
                 
                
                  Hi
                      Alistair,
                
                
                  Games
                      are the thing...online snakes and
                      ladders....jigsaw, simple word search
                
                
                   
                
                
                   This
                      is a Moodle2 book for teachers of 4-9 year old 
                      You may get some ideas.
                
                
                  http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=55&rid=5125
                
                
                  cheers
                
                
                  johnD
                
                
                  
                    
                      Digital Teacher-Super Tech
                
                
                  On
                      Sat, Nov 5, 2011 at 4:08 AM, Alistair McNaught
                      <Alistair.McNaught at heacademy.ac.uk>
                      wrote:
                  
                    
                      I’m
                          doing some volunteering for a small charity
                          creating resources for primary school children
                          to help them understand development in general
                          and the activities of the charity in
                          particular. We’re using Xerte to create
                          resources for use in the primary classroom.
                          Whilst I have lots of experience with Xerte
                          and lots of experience in teaching development
                          to post 16 audiences I have little experience
                          of primary classrooms so if anyone has any
                          hints and tips about the kind of approaches to
                          take, the kinds of resources I might be
                          integrating with etc I’d be very grateful.
                        
                       
                      Alistair
                       
                       
                      Alistair McNaught
                      Senior Advisor
                        
                      JISC
                            TechDis
                      C/O The Higher Education
                          Academy Building
                      Innovation Way
                      York Science Park
                      YORK
                      YO10 5BR
                       
                      07870567659
                      Skype: alistair_techdis
                      http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk
                        
                       
                      Interested in pragmatic
                          inclusion- focused staff development? 
                          

                          See JISC TechDis 
                            ITQ for
                              accessible IT practice
                          information and
                          
                            taster resource.
                        
                       
                    
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