Oh look, the #BCNDP Government finally noticed the Post-Secondary system is collapsing. *slowclap*
Can hardly wait for that report next spring... maybe I will still have a job by then...
As an art teacher I was worried AI would come up as an issue of "why should I learn how to draw when I can use AI instead."
But the real issue is that my middle schoolers CONSTANTLY believe all art I show them is AI. Digital art. Photography. Oil paintings from the Western canon. "A human couldn't do that"
Being convinced that humans can't make great art is kind of terrifying
These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department. ---
Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of public schools as we know them. propublica.org/article/educati…
NEW: Programs for #Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump’s Anti-Diversity Push ==
Federal funding for organizations that help students with hearing and vision loss across eight states will stop at the end of the month, according to letters sent by a top #Education Dept. official and obtained by ProPublica.
Citing concerns about DEI, the U.S. Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states. “How low can you go?” one advocate asked. “How can you do this to children?”
I believe that especially for sensitive areas like #education, #healthcare, or #academia, there is no alternative to fully open #AI models. Everybody should start building upon them and improving them.
"Asked to generate intervention plans for struggling students, AI teacher assistants recommended more punitive measures for hypothetical students with Black-coded names and more supportive approaches for students the platforms perceived as white, a new study shows."
We know that educators are bombarded with (VC-funded) hype about AI tools as magical solutions. Please don't take these claims at face value and do your own due diligence. 1/4
A Common Sense Media study found AI teacher assistants generated more-punitive recommendations for students with Black-coded names compared with those with white-coded names.
Maybe this (and the #catholicchurch forcing him to publicly revoke his findings) is why somebody decided to steal this part of his body when he was moved years after his death.
From now on, this picture will be awarded by me to anybody who is talking bullshit that was scientifically proven wrong already.
Anyone who is blind, or who has worked with the blind, knows how expensive our technology can be. This couldn't be more true with relation to braille displays. Even the cheapest costs at least $799, and it's already behind the newest in that line, at $899. This is the Orbit Reader 20 and 20+. Now, a student in India wants to change that by creating a display that is truly affordable (under $50)! Please pass this on, so that we can give him greater recognition within the blind community. Even if it costs a bit more than he initially suspected it would, there is no excuse for the $2,000 to $5,000 average price of such technology when cheaper alternatives can be designed! He is determined to bring this to market, so let's help him do it and show our appreciation for his hard work on this life-changing project!
Texas Lawmakers Want a Charter School Network to Stop Paying Its Superintendent Nearly $900K. The School Board Says No. —
The rebuke from lawmakers and charter school leaders came after an investigation from ProPublica and The Texas Tribune revealed that Salvador Cavazos, who oversees fewer than 1,000 students, is among the most well-paid superintendents in the country. propublica.org/article/salvado…
A talk from the LibreOffice and Open Source Conference 2024 in Luxembourg, with Patrick Weber. More details: https://events.documentfoundation.org/libreoffic...
#Musk’s US #DOGE Service have fed sensitive data from across the #Education Dept into #ArtificialIntelligence software to probe the agency’s programs & spending…. The AI probe includes data w/personally identifiable info for people who manage grants, & sensitive internal financial data…
New Michigan Law Requires High Schools to Offer CS Classes - The state of Michigan will now require each public high school in the state to off... - news.slashdot.org/story/25/01/… #education
The Movement to Redirect Billions of Taxpayer Dollars to Private Religious Schools —
Private letters reveal the strategy behind the decadeslong quest — successful in 12 states and counting — by politicians, church officials and activists to make taxpayer-funded school vouchers available not just to the poor but to the wealthy.
Are you in Brisbane this week? NV Access are at the SPEVI conference at 293 Queen Street. We're talking all things NVDA & Mick is on a panel this afternoon on "The New Frontier of Braille" about multiline displays, chaired by Ben Clare.
I am a university student who originally planned to double major in computer science and elementary education, but I’ve recently faced some concerns that I’d like to address.
I’ve been told that pursuing a teaching certification might not be advisable because schools may be reluctant to hire a teacher with low vision, who is mostly blind, to manage a classroom of thirty or more students. This has been quite upsetting.
My dream was to work with elementary students, focusing on #STEM subjects and teaching technology-related topics like understanding tech, its role in the world, and the basics of programming. Now, I find myself uncertain about what path to take.
Working with kids, especially those in elementary school, is my biggest passion, even more than tech or music. It’s something that would truly fulfill me. Since I can’t have kids myself, guiding and teaching young learners is the next best thing. It’s a career I’m committed to and want to excel in.
Being advised not to pursue a teaching certification and to focus solely on computer science has been quite discouraging. I’ve been told to study elementary education as a secondary focus and combine it with my computer science studies. This might involve developing educational systems for kids, but it would likely mean limited direct interaction, possibly just during product testing, which isn’t enough for me.
So, I have a few questions:
1. Are there any educators with #Blindness or #LowVision challenges working with elementary students? If so, in what capacity do you work with them? 2. How has your disability affected your effectiveness in the field? 3. What challenges did you face in getting certified and qualified, and how did you overcome them? 4. What obstacles have you encountered in the classroom and with colleagues, and how have you addressed them?
If these questions don’t apply, what advice can you offer me in pursuing my goal of working with children? While tech is a focus, I’m open to being flexible, as long as it’s an area I’m confident in.
Finally, if teaching isn’t possible for me, what other career paths would you suggest that align with my goals?
I’d really appreciate any support and engagement in this discussion.
Christians or other people of faith may wish to consider these thoughts from Pastor Mark Peake of First Presbyterian Church of Monterey on Election Day, November 5, 2024.
Starting with the basics Exploring our graphs with VoiceOver How does it relate to other accessible graphing tools? Epilogue Starting with the basics With the release of their latest batch of operating systems Apple made some substantial updates to…
For our (small) master dissertation about #education (but mostly because we are interested), we are doing research about using #OpenStreetMap within #secondary education (roughly 12 - 18 years old, but with a focus on 16 - 18 years old).
The long-term goal is to create a usable #lesson where pupils go out and map using a data collection app. If you have any experience with this, would you be so kind to spend 10 minutes of your time to fill out the survey?
Cybersecurity course: 𝗢𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲, 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀-𝗼𝗻, 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲! Czech Technical Univeristy's "Introduction to Security" class opens online for free! 14 weeks of deep attacking and defending. Join us and register for free. Starting on Sep 26th. cybersecurity.bsy.fel.cvut.cz/ #cybersec #infosec #blueteam #redteam #education #security
"We ask children to do for most of a day what few adults could do for even an hour. How many of us, attending, say, a lecture that doesn't interest us, can keep our mind from wandering? Hardly any."
I learned about secure software development on the job, but like ethical computing (which I've talked about before), this should also be included in formal education. Because of the current threat models, topics like security by design and zero-trust frameworks are critical when developing Internet systems. linuxfoundation.org/press/linu…
Recently, user Jordan shared a small but meaningful experience made possible with #NVDA: "When NVDA by NV Access reads alt text from your favourite #restaurant menu, now I just found a new #dessert I want to try! Thanks to NVDA, my day is getting off to a perfect start."
The figure most folks want to see is the percentage of home pages that had detected WCAG 2 failures. it is marginally better than 2023 but you will have to read the report.
It is also worth noting that sub domains have been excluded from the scan. The WebAIM team decided the long-term results would be better.
I understand that this has a big impact on #government and #education sites.
Parent or teacher interested in a Covid safe school?! Centered in disability justice. One is forming in MA/RI, location TBD. Email for more info or with questions!
My favorite outcome so far: a student remarked (paraphrasing here) that she didn’t realize how much she had to say in her paper until she saw how wrong the AI was, how much it missed the point.
Observing her own reaction to BS about her topic made her realize she’d underestimated the extent of her own newly-forming knowledge. That…that is the sort of outcome an educator dreams of.
March 21: "Foundations First: Improving C’s Viability in Introductory Programming Courses with the Debugging C Compiler" - a live talk, evidently viewable over Zoom
If you ever teach people C or learn C, this might interest you
Currently pouring over a sample exam sheet set for Finnish highschool students in German as foreign language in 2020 to assess the accessibility of the exam solution. It's got everything an accessible test needs: a table of contents, a good heading structure, native HTML 5 media player with almost perfect accessibility, native controls such as radio buttons and edit fields to give the answers. The students were to pass the test by connecting their computers with an Ethernet cable to the examination machine running a special OS, presumably a fork of Debian. The test was taken by tunneling into the examination machine through the web browser and handling the exam in an accessible HTML from there. Sadly, the audio recordings for the listening part do not seem to be available. Pity, as they reference Whatsapp voice messages. Would be fun to check for their authenticity based on the sound quality. On that note: Do language exams in your countries reference modern communication methods or is it still a telephone? When I took my final in German, "Social media: pros and cons" was just a subject of the mini essay I had to put together as part of the writing assignment. web.archive.org/web/2020012122… #Accessibility #Blind #Finland #Education #Languages #German
![FPC Monterey View - November 5, 2024
[From the Pastor’s Desk, page 2 of 2]
4 General Character. Of course, no one is perfect and we lean into grace but sometimes it's easy to see where one candidate is trying harder to demonstrate selfless rather than selfish behavior. This includes a realistic look at how the candidate has handled his/her own family and interacted with the public in the past.
5 If a candidate is proposing restrictions to health care and education then that candidate is working in direct opposition to the Gospel.
6 A whole life approach to things in general. As opposed to merely “pro-life” this means an attitude that works towards solutions that make the choice for life more likely. So, things like universal child care, access to affordable health care, etc. are to be worked toward.
7 Specific to this election is a consideration of immigration. Here is what the Bible says about that: Leviticus 19:33-34: "When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Note that this is a direct command from God.) And in the Greek scriptures, Hebrews 13:2: "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” What candidates and policies honor that sentiment?](https://fedi.ml/photo/preview/640/605835 "FPC Monterey View - November 5, 2024
[From the Pastor’s Desk, page 2 of 2]
4 General Character. Of course, no one is perfect and we lean into grace but sometimes it's easy to see where one candidate is trying harder to demonstrate selfless rather than selfish behavior. This includes a realistic look at how the candidate has handled his/her own family and interacted with the public in the past.
5 If a candidate is proposing restrictions to health care and education then that candidate is working in direct opposition to the Gospel.
6 A whole life approach to things in general. As opposed to merely “pro-life” this means an attitude that works towards solutions that make the choice for life more likely. So, things like universal child care, access to affordable health care, etc. are to be worked toward.
7 Specific to this election is a consideration of immigration. Here is what the Bible says about that: Leviticus 19:33-34: \"When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Note that this is a direct command from God.) And in the Greek scriptures, Hebrews 13:2: \"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” What candidates and policies honor that sentiment?")
