​At just a couple of weeks into the 2024-25 school year (depending on where you live), there seems to be positive feedback to newly introduced cell phone bans in Canadian schools. But, are such blanket bans the solution students, parents, teachers, and administrators have been looking for?

​Since late in the 2023-24 school year a number of Canadian provinces have introduced sweeping new cell phone policies, including Nova Scotia (Government of Nova Scotia, 2024; Lau & Bryden-Blom, 2024), Ontario (King's Printer for Ontario, 2024; Rutherford, 2024), and Newfoundland and Labrador (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2024; Head, 2024). These new policies tend to take a tiered approach from blanket bans in lower grades, to permitting personal use during recess and lunch breaks for high school students. Most also include statements similar to that by the Government of Nova Scotia (2024) that there will be "[l]imited exceptions, like junior high and high school teachers allowing cell phone use in class for instructional purposes."

So far, so good? The new policies take an incremental approach to allowing older students greater flexibility to access mobile technologies. The policies also include language that recognizes potential pedagogical affordances and legitimate instructional uses of technology. There is also language around the need to teach children to use technology responsibly. And, so far, anecdotal feedback from both teachers and parents has been positive. Children seem less distracted in the classroom. And more young children are engaging in positive social activity during break times, rather than staring at screens. So, what's the problem?

​At that time, I raised concern that emerging policies were reactionary, and did not examine questions about how mobile technologies were actually being used in schools (including whether any of the schools had integrated targeted pedagogical plans for the use of technology). While there is still a need to ask those questions, this year's round of cell phone bans seems to be a response to a number of issues that go far beyond just time-on-task and test scores. For instance, there is significant and legitimate concern about the potential harms of technology overuse, misuse, and exposure to social media amongst students (Abi-Jaoude et al., 2020; Mayo Clinic, 2024). Fair enough. And, as I've noted, there is some language in the new policies that acknowledges the need to teach digital literacy and digital citizenship skills. But is that actually happening? And how did we get to a point where such sweeping bans are perceived as necessary?

​The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 was a technological and social game-changer (Apple, 2007). As I have noted in the past, smartphone technologies allow us to implement virtually any pedagogical approach that we as educators can dream up (Power, 2015). But, eight years after the launch of the iPhone, I noted in my doctoral dissertation that:

​While there are now many more graduate-level programs that focus on digital pedagogies, teachers still feel overwhelmed by technology (Government Technology, 2023; ISTE, 2023). Lack of time, resources, and support also remain an issue. So, we've had 17 years since the advent of the modern smartphone, and we still haven't prepared teachers or schools for their ubiquity. For over two decades, we've also had well-researched and robust guidelines and resources regarding the critical digital literacies and competencies needed by teachers and students. Examples include the 4Cs developed by the P21 Project (Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2007), the 7Cs of 21st Century Skills proposed by Trilling and Fadel (2009), and the ISTE Competencies for Educators (2024a) and Students (2024b). Yet, discussing her recent US-based research (Prothero, 2023), Allison Starks described mixed findings about the consistency of teaching key digital literacy skills, especially those related to newer technologies and technology-use issues.

So, the technology has been creeping into schools for over a decade-and-a-half, but teachers still don't feel confident or supported and students are not being adequately trained on key competencies including responsible and ethical use of technology.

​That brings us to another problem that hasn't been resolved in the years since the birth of the smartphone -- the dichotomy between Acceptable Use versus Responsible Use policies. Acceptable Use policies focus on how technology cannot be used. They also tend to take a crime-and-punishment approach. On the other hand, Responsible Use policies focus on how technology should be used. They tend to take a collaborative approach with an emphasis on the development of critical competencies. Despite research and advocacy on the benefits of shifting to Responsible Use policies (Countryman et al., 2016; Murray, 2024; Randles, 2023), most school districts continue to publish and enforce Acceptable Use policies. Newly implemented Canadian school cell phone use policies fall into that category.

So, in addition to failing to prepare ourselves to use technologies that surround us in everyday life, we have also reverted to policy approaches that contradict the research on how policy can support the development of key competencies.

​Long story short -- blanket school cell phone bans put us at risk of burying our heads in the sand to the detriment of preparing students to thrive in broader society.

​The aim of the latest Canadian school cell phone policies seems to be to curb the negative impacts of technology addiction and social media, and to increase classroom engagement and student achievement. But, their implementation may have some nasty unintended -- but foreseeable -- consequences.

​In a general sense, such bans may stifle the freedom of students and teachers to leverage digital tools effectively. Yes, the new policies state that there will be "[l]imited exceptions, like junior high and high school teachers allowing cell phone use in class for instructional purposes" (Government of Nova Scotia, 2024). The key words here are "limited" and "exceptions." Both of these words create barriers for teachers and students, who must justify their use of tools such as cell phones before getting permission to do so. This is antithetical to Soloway and Norris' (Power, 2013) description of technology for mobile learning as tools that are "ready at hand, at the moment you need them." For many teachers, the impact may be that it won't be worth their time to pursue permission to engage in rich learning opportunities, despite the explicit recognition by new policies that legitimate pedagogical uses may be permitted.

The unintended consequences for many students may be far more dire. I'm thinking of students who use technology -- including cell phones -- to increase accessibility in their daily school experiences. While I could (and have!) put together entire books about this (Power, 2024a), I'll provide just a couple of examples here. 

​Outside of regular classroom activities, three of the aims of prohibiting primary, elementary, and middle school children from using their cell phones during break times are to encourage decreased exposure to social media, to increase "healthy" social interaction, and to decrease incidents of cyberbullying. I have heard of recent social media comments to the effect that "no child that age should bury their faces in a screen for recess and lunch." In reference to a child with a severe anxiety disorder resulting from chemical-neurological issues, who also has significant mobility issues caused by a degenerative neuromuscular disorder, another social media comment implied that "it wouldn't hurt him to try to socialize more." Without getting into medical specifics, the ability to use their cell phone for personal use at recess and lunch has been a critical lifeline for this specific student, whose anxiety disorder and mobility issues all but preclude "normal, healthy social interaction" on the school playground. Comments such as those noted above are ableist and imply that the student simply needs to try harder to make their disabilities disappear. Again, were this student still in middle school they may well be able to get an exception to the rule allowing them to use their phone at recess and lunch. But, they would still be faced with the unreasonable burden of constant justification (an impossibility due to the severe selective mutism accompanying their anxiety disorder). And they would still be faced with the unreasonable burden ​of being singled out as different from their peers. The question is, why should they have to face this?

​17 years after the introduction of the first smartphones, we find ourselves in a position where we have not heeded the warning signs of significant issues until they came to a head. We have not adequately adapted teacher preparation to a point where teachers feel comfortable with this technology. It appears that we have not done enough to prepare our students to responsibly and ethically use this technology, and to recognize the interactions between technology and the world-at-large. And, we continue to implement policies in counterintuitive formats. Today, we are faced with a new technological emergence in the form of Artificial Intelligence applications. Their use in schools and in society is growing at unprecedented rates (DeLaire, 2023; OpenAI, n.d.; Power, 2024d; Shankland, 2024). The slow pace of adapting -- or rather reacting -- to change we've seen since the launch of the iPhone simply won't cut it this time. We need to be proactive about preparing teachers, developing Responsible Use policies, and imparting the digital literacy and citizenship skills needed by our students in the age of AI. We also need to do better when it comes to inadvertently erecting new barriers for some of our most vulnerable students.

​The latest round of Canadian school cell phone policy updates appears to be well-intentioned. Parents, teachers, administrators, and policy-makers are reacting to a clear need to do something to increase classroom engagement and to protect the mental health of students. But, returning to my original lamentation drawn from my 2018 blog post (Power, 2018):

​These are questions that we need to consider, such as:

Abi-Jaoude, E., Treurnicht Nayor, K., & Pignatiello, A. (2020). Smartphones, social media use and youth mental health. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 192(6), E136-E141. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7012622/

Apple (2007, January 30). Apple Reinvents the Phone with the iPhone. https://www.apple.com/ca/newsroom/2007/01/09Apple-Reinvents-the-Phone-with-iPhone/

Cerullo, M. (2024, September 10). Apple's new AirPods Pro dpouble as a hearing aid. Experts call it a game changer. CBC News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/apples-new-airpods-pro-double-hearing-aid/

Countryman, J., Vardakas, M., & Taffe, M. (2016). Acceptable use policies. http://educ5101jmm.pbworks.com/w/page/104432989/PBL%201%20-%20Group%204%20-%20Acceptable%20Use%20Policies 

DeLaire, M. (2023, August 31). More than half of Canadian students over 18 use AI tools: survey. CTV News. https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/more-than-half-of-canadian-students-over-18-use-ai-tools-survey-1.6543380

Excalibur Publications (2016, January 21). New Academic Accommodations Adopted by York’s CDS (Full interview with Navi Dhanota). [Video]. https://youtu.be/pBHp5NBSaH0

Ferguson, E. (2024, May 2). Alberta Education asks parents about cellphone use in schools. Calgary Herald. https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/alberta-education-ontario-cellphone-ban-schools-parents-opinion

Flanagan, R. (2018, May 30). PC platform includes ban on cellphones in schools. CTV News Kitchener. https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/pc-platform-includes-ban-on-cellphones-in-classrooms-1.3952316#_gus&_gucid=&_gup=twitter&_gsc=Qi5DSUU

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (2024, August 20). Provincial Government Reminding Families About Use of Personal Electronic Devices in Schools. https://www.gov.nl.ca/releases/2024/education/0820n02/#:~:text=Families%20in%20K%2D6%20schools,Acceptable%20Use%20of%20Technology%20Policy.

Government of Nova Scotia (2024, June 6). New Cell Phone Directive for Nova Scotia Schools. https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2024/06/06/new-cell-phone-directive-nova-scotia-schools

Government Technology (2023, September 25). ISTE: Most New K-12 Teachers Not Confident About Technology. https://www.govtech.com/education/k-12/iste-most-new-k-12-teachers-not-confident-about-technology

​Head, J. (2024, August 29). N.L. government mulling cellphone ban in middle school, high school classrooms. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/cell-phone-regulations-1.7307372

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (2023). Transforming Teacher Education. [Report]. https://info.iste.org/epp-white-paper

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (2024a). ISTE Standards: For Educators. https://iste.org/standards/educators

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (2024b). ISTE Standards: For Students. https://iste.org/standards/students

Kenny, R.F., Park, C.L., Van Neste-Kenny, J.M.C., & Burton, P.A. (2010). Mobile self-efficacy in Canadian nursing education programs. In M. Montebello, V. Camilleri and A. Dingli (Eds.), Proceedings of mLearn 2010, the 9th World Conference on Mobile Learning, Valletta, Malta.

King's Printer for Ontario (2024, August 28). Ontario Cracking Down on Cellphone Use and Banning Vaping in Schools. https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1004501/ontario-cracking-down-on-cellphone-use-and-banning-vaping-in-schools

Lau, R. & Bryden-Blom, S. (2024, August 31). Back to school: Optimism abounds as new cellphone rules set to begin in N.S. classrooms. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/10726794/nova-scotia-school-cellphone-policies/

Maharaj, S. (September 9, 2024). For successful school phone bans, administrators and parents need to support teachers. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/for-successful-school-phone-bans-school-administrators-and-parents-need-to-support-teachers-238142

Mayo Clinic (2024, January 18). Teens and social media use: What's the impact? https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/tween-and-teen-health/in-depth/teens-and-social-media-use/art-20474437

Murray, T. (2024, June 1). Acceptable or Responsible? What's Your Use Policy? [Web log post]. Thomas C. Murray. https://www.thomascmurray.com/blog/usepolicy

Ontario Human Rights Commission (2016, January 6). New documentation guidelines for accommodating students with mental health disabilities. [Web page]. https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/news_centre/new-documentation-guidelines-accommodating-students-mental-health-disabilities

OpenAI (n.d.). ChatGPT [Software application]. https://chat.openai.com

Partnership for 21st Century Learning (2007). Framework for 21st Century Learning. [PDF file]. https://www.battelleforkids.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/P21_framework_0816_2pgs.pdf 

Power, R. (2013, November 7). Soloway and Norris Mobile Litmus Test. [Video]. https://youtu.be/FPP2VKIP5xI

Power, R. (2015). A framework for promoting teacher self-efficacy with mobile reusable learning objects (Doctoral dissertation, Athabasca University). http://hdl.handle.net/10791/63

Power, R. (2016, March 2). Ban First, Ask Questions Later… The Problem with Calls to Ban Mobile Devices. [Web log post]. xPat_Letters. https://robpower74.blogspot.com/2016/03/ban-first-ask-questions-later-problem.html

Power, R. (2018, June 11). Still Banning First, Asking Questions Later... [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/still-banning-first-asking-questions-later

Power, R. (2024a). The ALT Text: Accessible Learning with Technology. Power Learning Solutions. https://pressbooks.pub/thealttext/

​Power, R. (2024b). An Overview of Selected Tools to Support Accessibility. The ALT Text: Accessible Learning with Technology. Power Learning Solutions. https://pressbooks.pub/thealttext/chapter/an-overview-of-selected-tools-to-support-accessibility/

Power, R. (2024c). Barriers to Accessibility. The ALT Text: Accessible Learning with Technology. Power Learning Solutions. https://pressbooks.pub/thealttext/chapter/barriers-to-accessibility/

Power, R. (2024d). Evaluating Graduate Education Students’ Self-Efficacy with the Use of Artificial Intelligence Agents. Journal of Educational Informatics, 5(1), 3-19. https://journalofeducationalinformatics.ca/index.php/JEI/article/view/269

​Randles, J. (2023, January 4). 5 Tips for Creating a District Responsible Use Policy. [Web log post]. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). https://iste.org/blog/5-tips-for-creating-a-district-responsible-use-policy

​Rutherford, K. (2024, July 9). Ontario's policy on student cellphone use starts this fall. Should this northern board dial restrictions up? CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/cellphones-classroom-student-restrictions-social-1.7257561

Shankland, S. (2024, January 10). OpenAI's GPT Store Now Offers a Selection of 3 Million Custom AI Bots. CNET. https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/openais-gpt-store-now-offers-a-selection-of-3-million-custom-ai-bots/

Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times. John Wiley & Sons.

​Microsoft (2024, June) has announced that it will be retiring the Flip website and mobile app. Many of the features of Flip will instead now be integrated into it's Teams for Education (n.d.) platform. Microsoft says the move will allow educators to "easily share video assignments and messages with students and receive video responses using the Flip camera," and that the change will "[save] educators time having to onboard to Flip outside of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem."

​Unfortunately, this change will come at a cost to some of my instructional design practices. My preference has been to embed interactive activities directly into my courses (such as on content pages in the Brightspace (D2L, 2024), Canvas (Instructure, 2024), or Moodle (n.d.) learning management systems). I do this because it means my students can seamlessly interact with course content and these rich activities, without having to navigate outside of the course (and then find their way back to where they left off!). Going forward, I would need to ensure that I have a "team" set up with all of my students enrolled in it in Microsoft Teams -- something that I can only do IF my organization uses Office 365. For some of my courses (and for many other educators), this is not the case!

​In order to continue with my preferred seamless instructional design practices, I have started shifting my Flip-based activities over to Padlet (n.d., b) walls. Like Flip, Padlet will let you share video content by either:

​The benefit is that Padlet walls can still be embedded directly into a web page or a content page in your course. The drawback is that Padlet does not have all of the features that Flip did, such as auto-generated captions and the ability to use an avatar instead of your recorded image.

​Here are some examples of Padlet walls that I have set up to replace Flip-based activities in my recent open access eBooks Everyday Instructional Design (Power, 2023) and The ALT Text (Power, 2024). Both contain some sample posts, as well as demonstrations from Padlet (2024, March 6) on how to record video directly in your posts:

D2L (2024). Brightspace: So Much More Than a Learning Management System. https://www.d2l.com/brightspace/ 

Instructure (2024). You. The Power of Canvas by Instructure. https://www.instructure.com/canvas  

Microsoft (n.d.). Empower students and educators with Microsoft Teams for schools. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/teams

Microsoft (2024). Flip. https://info.flip.com/

Microsoft (2024, June). Flip June 2024 Email. [PDF file]. https://static.flip.com/email-assets/Flip-June2024-email.pdf

Moodle (n.d.). https://moodle.org 

Padlet (n.d., a). Import from Flip to Padlet. [Web page]. https://padlet.com/flip-importer

Padlet (n.d., b). Padlet: Who we are, our policies, and links to useful information about Padlet. https://padlet.com/about

Padlet (2024, March 6). Record and upload a video. [Video]. https://youtu.be/5Q_rzb9qTAw

Power, R. (2023). Everyday Instructional Design: A Practical Resource for Educators and Instructional Designers. Power Learning Solutions. ISBN: 978-1-9993825-8-2. https://pressbooks.pub/everydayid/

Power, R. (Ed.). (2024). The ALT Text: Accessible Learning with Technology. Power Learning Solutions. ISBN 978-1-7390190-2-0. https://pressbooks.pub/thealttext/pressbooks.pub/thealttext/

Power, R. (2024, June 11). Unboxing EdTech: Flipping to Padlet. [Video]. https://youtu.be/ELGf39Azvf0

​One of my instructional design students recently raised a good question about the use of color to emphasize text in digital documents (one that warrants a bit of a "mea culpa" on my part!). In the first weeks of the term, I advised students to avoid highlighting text or using colored fonts for emphasis. Then, in a recent response to another student's discussion forum questions, I highlighted her questions to set them apart from my responses. The recent question was along the lines of "you told us never to highlight text because it is a digital accessibility violation, but you just highlighted text in your post... can you clarify?"

So... my "mea culpa." ​My initial advice came across as a "hard and fast" rule -- NEVER use color for emphasis. The truth is, it is a bit more like the "i before e" rule of English spelling than an absolute. There are plenty of exceptions to the "i before e" rule in the English language. And, there are plenty of nuances to the "rules" around using color for emphasis of text in instructional design. In my early course advice, I didn't get into these nuances because we'll be exploring digital accessibility basics for instructional design in more detail later in the course (as students are building ID pilot projects). The original student had highlighted some key points in a discussion post for emphasis, and another student had configured all of their discussion posts to use a purple font. So, I brought up the topic of the use of color for emphasis a bit early, to get my students thinking about how to avoid creating unnecessary barriers for their reading audiences (kind of like how primary school teachers emphasize the "i before e" rule in the early grades, and let students learn the exceptions and nuances of English spelling later on). 

​The truth is, you CAN use colored text or highlighted text for emphasis. BUT, it ONLY works for "sight" readers who have no visual acuity issues. Such techniques will cause issues if:

​So... you CAN use color for emphasis. BUT, you must carefully consider the potential unintended consequences for your audience! The best strategy is to avoid using colored text or highlighted text unless absolutely necessary. That will avoid all of the issues noted above. Another strategy is to include some additional form of emphasis to grab the attention of "audio" readers, such as adding a graphical icon with appropriate ALT text like the following:

In the example above, the "alert" icon creates additional emphasis for "sighted" readers. It also contains the ALT text "This is an important point!," which will be read aloud to "audio" readers who are using screen reader applications.

​Finally, you should always "test" your product before sharing it. You can use a color contrast analyzer tool like the free Colour Contrast Analyzer available from TPGI (2024). When testing color contrast ratios (the perceptive differences between the foreground (text) and background (page or screen) colors), be sure to also test the ratios when displaying the content in grey scale, and when displaying the content on a dark mode screen. Here's how that would look using a sample of the text like what I shared (using yellow highlighted text, and some text with a purple font) via our course discussion forum:

Let's take a look at the results of color contrast tests on each text display version to see where we run into potential accessibility issues.

As you can see, the yellow highlighted text that I used in my discussion forum post is still readable, and passes all levels of WCAG standards for digital accessibility (World Wide Web Consortium, 2023). But, how about when that text is viewed in grey scale or on a "dark mode" screen?

Now, let's take a look at the text formatted with a purple font.

The color contrast test results show that using a purple font can be problematic for your readers in just about any screen display mode.

Sometimes it is necessary to use color to emphasize things when creating digital teaching and learning resources (or any digital text resources). For instance, differentiating between items based on their color may be a functional technical requirement (such as with colored buttons), or one of your required content learning outcomes (such as differently colored safety labels). In those cases, you can use the following strategies:

The key is to ensure that any emphasis you intend to create by using color is not lost for any readers who cannot actually perceive that color, or who will have difficulty viewing the text because of the color choice!

OpenDyslexis (n.d.). OpenDyslexic: A typeface for Dyslexia. https://opendyslexic.org/

Power, R. (2020, February 13). Helping Everyone Access Your Online Teaching Resources. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/helping-everyone-access-your-online-learning-resources

Power, R. (2023, April 6). A Picture Isn't Always Worth a Thousand Words... [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/a-picture-isnt-always-worth-a-thousand-words

Power, R. (2023). Chapter 17. Accessibility in Online Learning. Everyday Instructional Design: A Practical Resource for Educators and Instructional Designers. Power Learning Solutions. https://pressbooks.pub/everydayid/chapter/accessibility-in-online-learning/

TPGI (2024). Colour Contrast Analyzer (CCA). https://www.tpgi.com/color-contrast-checker/

World Wide Web Consortium (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/

If you're reading this post, then there's a good chance that you're teaching an online course with the Education Department at Cape Breton University. In December 2023, the Province of Nova Scotia announced a new partnership wtih CBU to help address the need to rapidly prepare new teachers for the province's P12 classrooms (CBU, 2023; Pottie, 2023). In Winter 2024, CBU will be piloting an accelerated 8-month online Bachelor of Education program. CBU has had previous success with the online delivery of 12-week BEd courses during the COVID-19 pandemic (Power & Kay, 2023; Power et al., 2024). This post has been created to share some resources that will help instructors quickly adapt their existing 12-week courses for a 6-week delivery format as part of the new pilot program.

It is much easier to create or adapt online teaching and learning resources when you have a plan of attack. I cover pre-planning strategies, including storyboarding and blueprinting, in detail in my eBook Everyday Instructional Design (Power, 2023) (see Chapters 7-16, and Chapter 20). For our purposes, the quickest and easiest way to plan for rapidly converting our existing courses is to start with adapting the course syllabus for a 6-week delivery model. I walk through this process in the following short video demonstration.

With your updated syllabus in hand, it is now much easier to figure out how you need to revise your existing Moodle (n.d.) course content from a 12-week format to a 6-week course format. In the following video, I walk through the process of preparing my blank course "shell," and importing my existing content from a previous term.

With my previous course content imported into my new "shell," in this video I demonstrate how I adapt that content for 6-week delivery.

For even more resources on working with Moodle, check out my Moodle Tips and Tricks for Educators playlist (compiled during the COVID-19 pandemic).

Just like adapting our existing Moodle course resources, it is much easier to simply reuse the Microsoft Teams (2023) spaces that we have set up from previous terms. This avoids having to recreate or repost all of those useful resources, and having to set up a new "Join Code," and make sure that we have the correct code posted in Moodle for the upcoming term. In this video, I walk through the process of "cleaning things up a bit" so that the Teams space is ready to share with a different group of students, and scheduling recurring live class sessions.

For even more resources on working with Teams, check out my Microsoft Teams Tips and Tricks for Educators playlist (compiled during the COVID-19 pandemic).

​Cape Breton University (2023, November 30). Province of Nova Scotia Announces New Programs to Educate More Teachers at Cape Breton University. https://www.cbu.ca/newsroom/releases/province-of-nova-scotia-announces-new-programs-to-educate-more-teachers-at-cape-breton-university/

Microsoft (2023). Microsoft Teams: Meet, chat, call, and collaborate in just one place. https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software?rtc=1

Moodle (n.d.). https://moodle.org

Pottie, R. (2023, December 1). Nova Scotia to offer new fast-tracked teacher training from Cape Breton University. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-to-offer-new-fast-tracked-teacher-training-from-cape-breton-university-1.7046820​

​Power, R. (2020, March 13). A rapid transition to online learning survival guide. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/a-rapid-transition-to-online-learning-survival-guide
​
Power, R. (2023). Everyday Instructional Design: A Practical Resource for Educators and Instructional Designers. Power Learning Solutions. ISBN: 978-1-9993825-8-2. https://pressbooks.pub/everydayid/

​Power, R. & Kay, R. (2023). Higher Education Faculty Supports for the Transition to Online Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Educational Informatics, 4(1), 49-72. https://journalofeducationalinformatics.ca/index.php/JEI/article/view/191

Power, R., Kay, R., & Craig, C. (2024). The Effects of COVID-19 on Higher-Education Teaching Practices. International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education, 38(2).

​I make it a point of reflecting on all of the end-of-course feedback commments that I get every term, to see if there is anything that I could/should be doing to improve the experience of students in my courses. One comment that I read this term has stuck with me for a few days now, causing me to think about the nature of the feedback that I give to my students, especially on paper writing assignments. I decided to write this blog post to share with future students because I don't think that the underlying issue relates to the quality of the feedback. Rather, I think my students deserve some clarification about how I go about the marking process and preparing their feedback, so that they can rest assured that I am not rushing, nor am I ignoring my obligation to provide them with customized individual feedback. ​​The student commment in question was along the lines of:

​Well, the answer is an emphatic "yes!" I do read everyone's papers. And, I do provide customized feedback where needed! But, there is a reason why I often provide identical comments. After many years of grading research paper assignments, I have found myself commenting on a number of similar issues. I have compiled lists of ready-made comments to address those issues, to streamline my workflow. I have also spent a lot of time tweaking how I use a combination of Excel grading spreadsheets, and the mail merge feature in Word, to prepare rubrics with feedback comments for my students. I cover that process in the following video:

​Since recording this video, I have further streamlined my grading and commenting process. Rather than just one column for "Comments" in my spreadsheet, I now have a column for comments on each of the main rubric categories. The reason why "a lot of us got identical comments" is because I use my list of ready-made comments for common issues to copy-paste the appropriate comments into each column. If there is something I need to provide more detailed feedback on for one student's paper, then I will prepare a new customized comment for that column for them!

​It takes a lot of time to read through a batch of student papers. It can take much longer if I embed unique comments right into every paper, or draft new comments for each and every student -- time that could be better spent if a lot of the issues are the same. I try to "automate" as much of the process as I can so that my students can benefit from a quicker turnaround time for my feedback -- especially in shorter terms, or when they need that feedback in order to move on to the next stage in an ongoing project!

​Another end-of-course survey respondant wondered why I focused so much on formatting issues in my feedback, rather than focusing on the content itself. Well, that couldn't be further from the truth... but I don't blame the student for getting that impression! That's because in addition to my general feedback rubric with the comments described above, I also provide each student with a 3-page checklist of general formatting, APA v7 formatting, and document accessibility issues noted in their submissions. I cover the reasons and the process for that, and provide ready-made templates that anyone can adapt for their own grading, in my blog post Adding Accessibility to Student Feedback.

​Long story short on this one -- I use another Excel spreadsheet to record an "X" in any column for formatting issues that applies for a student's paper, and then use Word and mail merge to "spit out" the checklists for the entire class with one click of a button. So, I don't actually pay more attention to formatting than to content when grading student's papers. Instead, I review the document once for formatting issues, check them off, and then go back and read the paper in detail. This allows me so avoid the "red pen fatigue" of highlighting or commenting on these formatting issues as I go through the paper (and writing the same comments multiple times across multiple papers). It also allows me to focus exclusively on the content during that second read through!

​Just because I'm using the same ready-made comments for a lot of the feedback I provide on students' papers doesn't mean that I'm ignoring individualized feedback. It actually means that I'm streamlining my processes so that I don't waste my time writing new comments where you don't really need them. This allows me to customize feedback for just the areas where there are things that you could tweak in your projects, and get that feedback to you as quickly as possible!

Power, R. (2020, February 6). Automating Feedback Rubrics Using Spreadsheets and Mail Merge. [video]. https://youtu.be/in0gx1iTTNc

Power, R. (2022, February 16). Adding Accessibility to Student Feedback. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/adding-accessibility-to-student-feedback

​Sometimes we share videos with our students that are not narrated, and that contain just on-screen text. While viewers can technically read the text embedded in the video, this method does not truly meet Digital Accessibility requirements. That's because the use of embedded text in a video is the same as embedding text within an image in a document. It is not machine-readable, and thus it excludes audience members who may need to use a screen reader application for any reason (they may be visually-impaired, have low language reading ability, have a reading-related learning disability such as Dyslexia, or they may be a non-native language speaker who needs to translate your text for better comprehension). 

The two best ways to help all potential viewers get the most out of your non-narrated video content are to:

• Make sure you have Closed Captions enabled, using the on-screen text for the captions text.
• Provide a transcript file for your video.

​YouTube Creators (2021) has an excellent overview of how to add or edit captions either when you are uploading your video, or after your video has already been published. Remember, for a video with no narration (just text on screen), you will need to transcribe that text into the captions editor (either manually, or copy-paste the "slide" text from your video, and insert it to align with the timings when it appears on screen.

​Another option for creating subtitles or captions for a non-narrated video is to use an external video editing application, like Screencast-O-Matic (2019). This option works well if you have a copy of the video file (MP4 or other format) on your computer, but is less useful if you use a tool like PowToon (2022) to create your video and export it directly to YouTube (because you cannot download the video file unless you have a pro-level subscription).

​While the following webinar demonstration video (Power, 2021, April 9) features the creation of captions for a narrated video using Screencast-O-Matic, the steps for creating, editing, and uploading your captions file to YouTube would be the same for a text-only video.

​In addition to making sure your text-only video has Closed Captions enabled, I also strongly recommend adding a transcript file for your visually-impaired users. A transcript file can be opened or downloaded. Your audience members can then use any screen reader application (such as JAWS (Freedom Scientific, n.d.), NVDA (NV Access, 2023), or Google Read and Write (Texthelp, 2023)) to read the on-screen video text out load to them. The following video shows how I uploaded a transcript file to Google Drive, and then added a link to that transcript to the video description for my instructor welcome video in YouTube. Remember to make sure your transcript file meets basic document accessibility requirements before sharing it! For more on that topic, refer to my blog post Helping Everyone Access Your Online Learning Resources (Power, 2020).

Freedom Scientific. (n.d.). JAWS. [computer software]. https://www.freedomscientific.com/  

NV Access (2023). About NVDA. [computer software]. https://www.nvaccess.org/about-nvda/

Power, R. (2019, November 9). Hi There! Meet Rob Power. [video]. https://youtu.be/ff-6GtdX9xM

Power, R. (2020, February 13). Helping Everyone Access Your Online Learning Resources. [Web log post]. Power Learning Solutions. https://www.powerlearningsolutions.com/blog/helping-everyone-access-your-online-learning-resources

Power, R. (2021, April 9). Creating Your Own Video Captions (Webinar Demonstration). [video]. https://youtu.be/4ghNMjCDOfg

Power, R. (2023, May 1). Adding Transcripts to YouTube Videos. [video]. https://youtu.be/q5z_ZHCVFjg

PowToon (2022). https://www.powtoon.com/

Screencast-O-Matic (2019). Video Creation for Everyone. [Web page]. https://screencast-o-matic.com/

Texthelp (2023). Read&Write for Google Chrome. [computer software]. https://www.texthelp.com/products/read-and-write-education/for-google-chrome/
​
YouTube Creators (2021, May 5). How to Add Captions While Uploading & Editing Your Videos. [video]. https://youtu.be/rB9ql0L0cU

​There are lots of cases where the graphics we use contain text. Sometimes it is unavoidable. The questions you should be asking in this case are:

​The following graphic illustrates a common example of graphics that I see in my email inbox where actual text should be used instead of the image:

​There is nothing in this graphic that could not be put in regular text format, and a screen reader cannot "see" the text in the image to read it out to you. Sure, you could repeat the text within the ALT tag for the image, so that a screen reader will read it out... but what's the point? The graphic does not actually clarify or add anything to the message, and you are wasting time creating the graphic and typing the text into the ALT tag when you could simply type it right onto the page! Additionally, text within your image will NOT reflow and resize based on the reader's screen size and orientation, which could also render that text unreadable to your entire audience. You are also preventing anyone who uses an Accessibility plugin from modifying the font, color, or contrast of the text to make it more readable in their specific context. And, besides the message potentially being lost for anyone using a screen reader (if they do engage with the content at all), there is the potential that your intended audience may also view the message as SPAM, and thus ignore it!

​Here is a better example of a graphic that could be used to accompany the same message. In this case, you can see that the image is being used to draw visual readers' attention to some key points. The accompanying ALT text tells a screen reader user why the image is being used. And the main points of the message are included in regular text format in the body of the page.

​If you are going to use a graphic as part of your message or content page, make sure you test that image in "dark mode." Most of the time, we are not working in dark mode when we create graphics. If our graphics have transparent backgrounds, they will display differently for any reader who has adjusted the color scheme of their screen. Parts of the graphic may end up getting "washed out" by a different color screen background, rendering them unreadable. Here is an example of an email message that contains a graphic with a transparent background, as viewed in dark mode on my mobile device. The message was unreadable until I got to my desktop computer!

​The quick fix to this is to remove the transparent background before publishing the graphic, and choose a background color that has a sufficient color contrast ratio with the foreground (text).

​I recently ran into an issue during a Microsoft Teams meeting, and did some digging afterwards to troubleshoot. The problem was that I could not hear any sound through my wireless headset during the meeting, while using a custom audio configuration that had previously worked flawlessly (a Logitech USB webcam, Blue Snowball external microphone, and a SkullCandy Hesh 2 Bluetooth headset). 

I played around with my system, and determined that this issue does not impact other online meeting platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, or Skype – just Teams.

I frequently received questions about using tables to organize content on web pages or course content pages in an LMS. I also frequently see novice instructional design students do this in order to make content line up for aesthetic purposes. The problem is, if you are not well-versed in HTML coding, and using tools like Bootstrap UI to create engaging, interactive, responsive page elements, then using simple "tricks" like aligning contents with tables, manually formatting text for emphasis, or manually inserting lines on your pages to create visual divisions between content can actually create more problems then they solve!

Insprired by a recent flurry of questions from my ID students, I put together this video to demonstrate what problems you create when you use tables to organize content (among other issues). The key recommendations to optimize course page layout, minimize cognitive overload, and minimize Digital Accessibility issues are:

Power, R. (2023, February 20). UX and Accessible Course Pages. [video]. https://youtu.be/QEvJ6r1ylDo

The Everyday ID eBook is available as an Open Access / Open Educational Resource via the Pressbooks platform, and can also be downloaded in both ePUB and PDF format, at ​https://pressbooks.pub/everydayid/