The End Is Here
It is here. It came and went in a flash. Well, this supposed flash was many more years than expected, but this blog post is my last of this class and my last “paper” before graduation.
I am grateful for this class. I came to it in a circuitous way, but I did.
Maybe, just maybe, it was divine intervention, divine timing I’d say.
And the Begining Starts Now!
I am using it already.
Yes, I said it. I am.
All the learnings from this course, that is.
For one, diving into the deep end of digital accessibility allowed me to bring a fresh perspective as an advisor to an EdTech startup, and my deeper learnings were infused into a recent project discussion with the UNICEF-Ghana and Ghana’s Ministry of Education – it even allowed us to make some decisions when it came to students with special needs.
An advocate of digital accessibility I will continue to be!
And the website I developed? The feedback was very helpful. The second set of feedback came after I had a chance to incorporate the first set of feedback into the website; then I shared it with a school founder/leader of a new school.
It was great to learn that the founder already had digital accessibility in the organization’s strategic plan. This might have been why the website on digital accessibility shared with this leader did not necessarily provide this leader with new information or what to do next.
Now what was quite interesting is that this leader felt it very important for students to create digitally accessible content but for staff, this was not as important.
I even shared it with a team on another project as we are in the midst of building a website. I was glad to take note that even when I was not in a recent meeting, the topic was discussed!
And the process of building the website – well, my consulting client will get a standard report in “academ-ese,” but they will also get a mini-website so that the data gathered can be easily found. I mean why give them a bunch of folders on a google drive when we can tell a story and weave in the data? To find the recordings from the focus groups, go to the website. To find the summaries of the discussions, go to the website.
I even created a one-page website for a recent Elementary School virtual reunion. I mean, why send text message upon text message every time there is an update? The thought alone of constantly providing updates with multiple links that will be missed was just what I decided to do no longer. From the event’s agenda to the event rules, to a video of the school song – on the website they all went. All I had to do was send all a simple link, ONE LINK; multiple links need not apply, please!
And as for podcasting, I have even recorded a second for fun; it was short, but it was satisfying to create. It might need some tweaking but once I have a process and a teeny tiny bit of time, I will continue. It is possible.
Podcasting is here to stay!
Growth of The Voice
I often kept my “voice” online in the realm mostly of images or sharing the thoughts, sayings, philosophies of others, or responding to others. But here, I got a chance to share my voice, the non-academic version that is, and it surely was liberating.
I am ready; as ready as can be, to add words and sounds to my images as my voice online.
And I have to say, this is not just for my personal thoughts and ideas, but I know I will use these new tools for work-related endeavors.
And for the finale…since I could not find a way to complete a Flipgrid Short using my account, a regular Flipgrid prevailed (I even found the HTML code to embed here use the WordPress “Text” tab! so adding this in after publishing this blogpost). I did it!!