Blog Post 7 - Twitter, Web Design, and Assistive and Adaptive Technologies

Welcome back!

I covered in an earlier post how much I enjoy keeping up with this blog- that I feel it gives me enough structure to properly lay out my thoughts and gives some sort of guidance as to what I should mostly write about, while simultaneously giving me enough freedom to write it almost however I see fit. Twitter, on the other hand, gives me that same freedom but absolutely no guidance. I have never in my life been an avid user of social media, nor have I ever been particularly conversational. I just don't ever feel like I have much to say, plain and simple. Trying to make myself post something on Twitter has been a pain for that reason. I don't know what I want to post, I don't know what I want to retweet, I don't know what I really even want to keep up with- I'm just kind of lost with it. I'm sure if I used anything aside from Snapchat on a regular basis I might manage it, but as it stands I can't even think about how to get my page off the ground. I suppose I should, though, if I want to get a decent grade. As such, starting tonight once I find my Twitter account's login info, I'm going to post or retweet something- I don't particularly care what, or who it's by, or whatever, I just need to get something on that empty page to make myself get that going. Once that's done, I'll do my best to post daily on the page.

While I certainly haven't acquired any Twitter skills to speak of, what I have learned a bit about is web design! Web design is something I've toyed with since as far back as elementary school, probably. Back around then, I went on some website creator and threw together a shoddy guide to being good at the video game Team Fortress 2 (I was not remotely good at that game and my recent trip back into that mess has taught me that I still am not). Going into the web design project, I was definitely interested in using what 8-year-old Dylan had learned. With the skills I'd learned from both class and personal experience, I did my best to put together this website for the project. Personally, I'm not all that satisfied with the result- sure, it doesn't look bad, but I just feel like Weebly's options were kind of limiting. They give you a template to toy with and it's pretty difficult to deviate from the template's layout without actually changing to a different one. While I couldn't actually give this website to a class or anything, this did give me an idea of just how useful a class website could be. I mean, Canvas is already super useful, so having an entire website dedicated to the class with all the info you could possibly need would be absolutely great.

I'd fit in a segue from web design to assistive technology but I'm kind of blanking on how I can connect those two things. Man, this paragraph is going to flow awkwardly- it already does because I'm ranting about segues.

Anyway, assistive technology is basically what it sounds like- it's technology to assist people with disabilities in performing tasks with ease. It goes without saying how, not just valuable, but absolutely necessary that is in a classroom setting. Students need to get the support they need in order to reach their full potential, so a lack of such technology is really detrimental. My own personal experience with these technologies is nonexistent- however, my family does have a history of eye troubles, specifically degenerative eye disorders like retinitis pigmentosa. Most of my uncles have this disorder, and as such they use various technology to offset its effects. If they have to read on a web page, they use white text on a black page and magnify the page to make reading as easy as possible. If they are reading a book, they get it as an audiobook. It goes without saying that these sorts of options being available has been very beneficial for them. One issue I see with implementing assistive or adaptive technology in the classroom is dependent on something that I really hope ends up not being an issue- prejudice. Last summer, I went on a cruise with my family. While we were stopped in Puerto Rico, we took a tour through the rainforest. With us on the tour was a woman who must have had severe vision issues- when she opened her phone, she had to place a magnifying glass against the screen and hold the screen up to her eye to read it. I noticed that my brothers were all going back and forth kind of cracking jokes about it. While I definitely hope this isn't a problem in the classroom, I could definitely see students viewing another student's issues and accommodations as kind of funny. That said, I don't think student reactions are any reason to not offer this sort of support to those who need it.