TECHNOLOGY AUTOBIOGRAPHY REVISITED

My attitude toward technology as EDLF546 ends has not changed from my first technology autobiography entry: cautioned welcome. As an avid supporter of multimedia technology and as an ardent humanist, I am optimistic about individual and society’s use of information technology. Yes, we must be cautious, but that is how we ought to be with all things, instructional technology included.

There are many ways to express, implement, and utilize multimedia technology (i.e. entertainment, education, artistic expression). And, I strongly believe that technology can be employed through these means while bettering society and alleviating of human suffering locally, as well as worldwide.

I appreciate learning the various applications and opportunities for instructional technology from the others in the EDLF 546 class. The open forum format encouraged sharing of best practices and lessons learned. This is one of the better ways to identify innovative, or easy solutions to technology in education. Because of these things, I feel more comfortable with the technology, and more confident in my ability to better incorporate multimedia into my academic and professional life.

BOBBY AAA APPROVED REQUIREMENTS

My website doesn’t meet the Bobby AAA Approved requirements.

The first recommendation is to provide alternative text for all images. Most important, I will have to provide an alternate accessible version.

I was flagged because I used the table feature for the layout of my buttons.

I have to double check how I used color/images in Lines 49, 55, and 58. Bobby recommended that if I used color or images to convey information, that I provide another way to represent the information.

I was also cited for failing to make my website accessible. In this instance, I was flagged for not providing relative sizing and positioning values. I used absolute (pixels). I believe this is when I used images as buttons.

The second accessibility flag was in reference to making link phrases make better sense in case they are read out of context: Lines 49, 55, 58. Bobby recommended that I use style sheets to control my layout and presentation. I think it would also help for uniformity of the web pages.

The third accessibility flag refers to identifying the language of the text. This is crucial, according to Bobby, in helping the computer present the information in the best format appropriate for the language. (http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/gls/g125.html)

Now that I have the core guidelines for cleaning up my website, I certainly have a lot of work in front of me. Thanks Bobby, thanks Richard!!