Online learners want to feel that they are part of a class or program and that they are valued as students. The more they can become engaged in the course the more they will feel they are contributing to the learning process. This group is for educators who aspire to discuss and master the competencies necessary for exemplary performance and top customer service in a dynamic, rapidly changing education landscape. Group members share best practices, ideas, thoughts, reflections, and resources to help colleagues across the globe improve performance.
Consistency with grading among students is important, but "tolerance for error" with disabled students needs to be protected.
I appreciated learning about AT tools. The Job Access With Speech (JAWS) screen reading (text-to-speech) software for those who can't see would be especially helpful in an English comp. class like mine.
I learned that there is a lot of legislation in place to help people with disabilities, but instructors need to be diligent to apply these things in the classroom to come alongside students with disabilities.
I find it shocking that "schools find about 5% of their students self-report and 10-12% students with disabilities are anticipated from a national standpoint." This is important to note in order to generate content that is accessible to everyone, even if some students do not self-report.
I never heard of a "blogroll" before this, but creating a list of links that give students access to other sites within a blog is a great way to broaden their understanding and curiosity on a particular topic.
Instructors should "chunk" content in a class to more efficiently get information to students.
I never knew about sites such as TeacherTube, SchoolTube, iTunesU and Google Workspace for Education to engage students in the learning process. I need to take advantage of all the variety available to me.
I appreciate the suggestion to "Do No Harm" via social networking by not making that networking a place for propagating my own views.
Using a variety of tools for both synchronous and asynchronous learning is the best approach to reaching all your students.
Being and effective communicator is a two way street. We need to lead our students by setting the example. We also need to set clear expectations and ask that they share their expectations of us.
End of Content
Career Ed Lounge is embedded in over eighty professional development portals serving the career and technical education community. Performance Groups in the Lounge are integrated with related learning opportunities offered on these portals. With a few exceptions, Performance Groups are also publicly available to any member of the Lounge to maximize peer-to-peer learning and performance outcomes.