Tag Archives: Technical help

W2 Activity 1: Technology Hardware Found In Classrooms

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Took a look at the Tech Pictures and feel confident that I find ‘most’ of these things in my workplace.

What we have…

  • Iphones, Airbooks, Blackberries, Cell phones and Laptops (which like to sleep, when not touched every 30 seconds during a presentation) 
  • Speakers
  • Scanners
  • Screens & projectors (also mounted in ways meant to continually challenge, lol) and cameras.)
  • Flatscreens (meant to work for skype-type calls, but have shown to have connection challenges when video is on).
  • JAWS (32-Bit)…a computer screen reader program that allows our visually impaired staff to read the screen either with a text-to-speech output or by a Refreshable Braille display.

What we don’t have…

  • Math Manipulatives
  • Kindle (though will see students and staff with them personally)
  • Slipper (Portable CCTV)

What I am not really sure about…

  • Other assistive technology gadgets

Unfortunately, I am on a vacation away from the college so I have not been able to take the photos of the technology I have available, so making a gallery or slideshow will have to wait until further into my homework. Looking forward to it.

W2 My Access to Technology

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Working for a BC college, we have access to all forms of computers (ipads, laptops, desktops etc), as do our students.

Bandwith

The bandwith can be an issue in the interior of BC with shaw.ca in residential but at the college we never seem to have trouble streaming videos, or uploading with ftp etc. Students are another story though as they will often be using residential connections. We have trouble uploading large videos, presentations, and photo albums.

Technical Support

We we have an IT dept that helps out the faculty and students so that is very helpful. Unfortunately, they are bound by our server and network systems as they are currently formatted (e.g. Not a lot of room on shared drived for storage or access from each campus to the same shared drives etc).

Ongoing PD & Directives

As a college, our faculty have a PD allowance every year and are encouraged to use it. Our Teaching & Learning Institute (http://selkirk.ca/research/tli) often brings in different speakers to help educate staff. We recently hosted a vodcasting workshop (http://selkirk.ca/news/selkirk-college-embraces-vodcasting-technology-teaching)
that was well attended by staff.

Regulatory Environment

As far as regulations go, there are always the privacy issues on sharing of emails from students without direct permission. This has come into play with e-newsletters being hosted outside of our secure network. This is contrary to the BC laws. This limits us in using email systems like createsend.com for student e-newsletters etc.

We have various college policies such as http://policies.selkirk.ca/policy/7110/ around use of electronic equipment, http://policies.selkirk.ca/policy/9300/ for computer assistance, http://policies.selkirk.ca/policy/8630/ for student email usage that will have an impact as well.