Equity of access as well as provision!

Sue Watling / / digital exclusion 2010, equality and diversity

Government digital plans are back in the news. Lack of media acknowledgment of digital exclusion continues to exist.  It’s ok to mention exclusion through provision but not through access.  The Guardian makes this distinction explicit. Unemployed/jobseekers to sign on from home  and citizen personalisation of MyGov web services  Quote GB “MyGov dashboard will … allow citizens to shape information for their own needs” and “… manage their pensions, tax credits and child benefits, as well as pay council tax, fix doctors or hospital appointments, apply for schools of their choice and communicate with children’s teachers.”  No GB. This can only happen for those privileged through means of access.

Ofcom announced plans for superfast broadband. While government excludes mention of its own link between digital and social exclusion (Digital Britain), and the implication that those who would benefit most will be denied access,  Ofcom make explicit the equivalent of digital exclusion through lack of service provision.  “…large numbers of homes and businesses are in locations which cannot get any sort of broadband, either because they are too far from an exchange or because the lines are of poor quality.” I have family in rural Holderness with a half MB connection, yet still pay a similar amount as myself for their ISP connection. That’s inequitable but not as much as being denied access to the digital data itself.  

Years of international standards designed to increase web accessibility still fall short of ensuring equal access for assistive technologies.  Open Source, which the government plans to use, is less regulated than traditional ‘closed’ web environments. By definition, open source encourages repurposing. This may be for the common good but if responsibility for accessible content shifts from the designers to the users, then it effectively escapes regulation. Politics of freedom aside, the socially disempowered need support. Web standards were an attempt to ensure equitable access. They might not be 100% effective but remain a matrix against which inclusive design and practice can be measured. We are all living through a digital revolution. There needs to be much greater acknowledgment of the needs of those who stand to benefit most.

The Cove

Sue Watling / / nothing to do with work

The Cove  won best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards. Funded by the Ocean Preservation Society, the team secretly filmed the  slaughter of dolphins in a secluded cove in Taiji, Japan. Bizarrely, Taiji looks like a town that loves dolphins. Sculptures and murals of these mysterious mammals are everywhere.  But the cove is shut off with barbed wire and  keep out notices reinforced by aggressive local fishermen. Visitors are clearly not welcome. 

In the 1960s, animal trainer Ric O’Barry captured and trained the five dolphins who played Flipper in the international children’s TV series. Since then O’Barry has travelled the world campaigning against keeping dolphins in captivity and was instrumental in putting together the team of people who made this film. In Taiji, young female dolphins are captured to be sold to the multi-billion pound animal entertainment industry via organisations like Sea World. The remaining males and the babies are slaughtered in barbaric fashion that turns the sea red. The film is worth watching even if you need to close your eyes for the final scenes. Global attitudes to whaling are covered, the unsustainability of overfishing the oceans as well as the gritty economic realities of nature versus income. I’m not a sushi fan but I would certainly think twice about watching dolphins in perform in captivity again.

 Coincidently, today’s Guardian runs the story of the closure of a California restaurant for selling whale meat after the Cove filmmakers secretly filmed the evidence while in town to collect their Academy Awards.

Digital disconnection

Sue Watling / / digital exclusion 2010, nothing to do with work

For a week I experienced digital disconnection. In the Lecrin Valley in rural Spain with no electricity, and only a log stove to fight the cold, even my mobile roamed for data in vain. It was a short-term experience of digital exclusion. The area was remote, full of orange, lemon, olive and almond trees. The closest I got to digital technology was the petrol pump at the garage seven miles away. It was a different pace of life, one where digital exclusion appeared to be the norm. The village is on Google maps  but life is lived in a traditional style far away from retail centres and the ‘education, information and entertainment’ buzz of a 24/7 Internet. I thought I would miss being connected but I didn’t. It was a timely reminder of how pervasive digital technology is becoming in my life. At a time when government policy is moving towards creating an increasingly digital society, touching base with nature isn’t a bad thing. They say you don’t know what you’ve lost ’til it’s gone. Last week was a good reminder not to lose sight of the values still to be found in an analogue world.

Walking the Labyrinth

Sue Watling / / Uncategorized
In the Engine Shed on Monday and Thursday (11.00-2.00) the Ermine Street Labyrinth is laid out for people to experience ‘walking the labyrinth’. This large canvas labyrinth offers an opportunity for some time out and reflection. Labyrinths and spirals are ancient symbols that may be representative of life cycles and the continuity of life patterns.
Les Acklam and Eunice Mathers
Les Acklam and Eunice Mathers
If you haven’t experienced it before, then do something different and walk the labyrinth during Healthy Campus week.
The labyrinth laid out on the floor of the Engine Shed
The labyrinth laid out on the floor of the Engine Shed

Monday morning…

Sue Watling / / nothing to do with work

When you arrive at work and colleagues ask how you are, the last thing they want to hear is that you’ve had a terrible journey, the coffee jar was empty,  your computer’s crashed and your lunch is at home on the kitchen worktop.  It’s a whole lot easier to say I’m fine. But when used in this context, Fine is an acronym that stands for Fed-up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional.

So when you next hear this, and notice the smile is strained, offer some of your coffee and the reasurance that it’s ok because you’re fine too 🙂

Virtual Revolution and Heavy Rain

Sue Watling / / nothing to do with work

I was disappointed in the BBC’s Virtual Revolution series. It completely failed to address the potential of technology to ensure equal access to the Internet. The invisibility of this issue is really quite sad. For all the parallels made with the legacy of Gutenberg there was no awareness that from Gutenberg to Google those in need of assistive technology are having access denied. Even with all the technical assistance in place, most of today’s virtual environments remain inaccessible. Current debate on the BCAB forum reaffirms this – BMI Baby and Easy Jet should know better or do they just not care?

Episode 4 started promisingly but didn’t really go anywhere. It asked if the Internet is altering us but failed to cover issues like those raised in the CIBER report about the changing behaviours and attitudes of young people online and the implications this has for ensuring appropriate future digital literacy. Maybe my horizons are too narrow. I accept programmes have to be selective but I believe passionately in equity of access – how could they not care about such blatant discrimination – and I worry about the effect of continual digital engagement on young brains. Which is my other point and it’s not the Internet. Heavy Rain is the new PS3 game by Quantic Dream. Described as a classic film noir thriller, the level of available interaction is amazing.  The graphics are so fantastic you’re not sure if you’re watching a film or playing a game. I had to watch because I couldn’t play it. I struggled with Grand Theft Auto and Heavy Rain was totally beyond me. My brain isn’t capable of the multiplicity of actions required to operate at this level and I’m not sure I really want to. I’d rather be out in the sun on the allotment.  I suspect the greatest danger of virtual environments is as Sherry Turkle said in Virtual Revolution 4 ‘We are no longer nourished but we are consumed by what we have created.’

smart or not so smart

Sue Watling / / nothing to do with work

An article in today’s Observer calls for random dope testing of students to detect the use of ‘smart drugs’ being taken for cognitive enhancement. If you didn’t already know, then it tells you Ritalin and Modafinil are available over the Internet. Improving ‘alertness and attention’ in this way is raising ethical concerns about potential cheating. It’s ok to improve brain functioning while studying but not under exam conditions. I have a three hour exam coming up; my first in decades. If there were a quick fix solution to memorising 12 weeks of study materials and writing three one-hour essays, then I would be sorely tempted. But the problem with effective drugs is the speed at which they become habitual. We seem hot wired to seek out improvements on our current state of mind and then feel compelled to repeat the behaviour as and when required.  Dependency is a dangerous direction of choice.  The article suggests legalising cognitive enhancement could result in either shorter working weeks with more leisure time or a 24/7 working culture with greater productivity and, presumably, capacity for creativity. Sounds quite appealing with echoes of Soma in Huxley’s Brave New World which had ‘all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol and none of their defects’.

Drugs are a bit like technology. It’s not what they do but the way in which they are used. Smart drugs raise questions about the legitimacy of chemically altering mental capacity. Should we struggle with what we have or is it ethically acceptable to seek to enhance it? Or is altering the brain like plastic surgery to alter the body; your money your choice! The highest risk seems to be buying drugs over the Internet in the first place. There’s no guarantee you’re not getting sugar pills in plagiarised packaging. The other danger is the more students, researchers and scientists (Can a daily pill really boost your brain power? Nature 20/09/09)  participate in self-medication then greater advantage will be taken by those illegally supplying this new lucrative market.

Closet door stays shut!

Sue Watling / / nothing to do with work

Any form of person-phobia is unacceptable. The SU posters associating LGBT with abuse are forthright and difficult to ignore. 10/10 for impact; there’s no doubting the message. Or is there?  What sort of awareness is being raised? Isn’t linking LGBT with hate crime discouraging for anyone wanting to know more about alternative lifestyles?  Deeper meanings may lie underneath but posters are not always the ideal medium for provoking thought; sometimes it’s the surface message which dominates people’s time and attention.

The risk with promoting uncomfortable images is the observer may make the wrong association. Linking LGBT with violence says homophobia shouldn’t be happening but, because it is, you might want to think twice about putting yourself in that position. Nothing positive or reassuring about being LGBT is evident. Result? A missed opportunity. Closet door stays shut. At best, the viewer is unavoidably reminded of the lack of space in social discourse for difference and that legislation against discrimination is never enough to prevent it.

Pure fantasy

Sue Watling / / CERD

A report by Universities UK, Active Ageing and Universities: Engaging Older Learners, suggests that a new target for higher education should be the ‘retired’ as they may represent ‘crucial future activity for universities’. Yet another avenue of widening participation under Mandelson’s mandate for the expansion of new routes into higher education.  Last week at the Lord Dearing Memorial Conference, the man with the plan said: Part-time degrees, shorter and more intensive courses all offer the potential to lower student support costs, use resources more intensively and improve productivity.

This is pure fantasy. The word technology was avoided in this keynote although I suspect it lay behind the reference to alternative modes of study especially since current policy borrows heavily from the DEMOS Edgeless University report on the reasons why HE must embrace technology. If this is the case, then to say that changes in course delivery will cut costs is the wrong message.

Technology alone is not enough; as anyone who has worked in this field over the past decade can testify. Confidence and competence with computers can never be assumed for either staff or students. Resistance is alive and well and not without good cause because what the techno-addicts fail to recognise is that for many people virtual delivery involves change in practice and that requires more support – not less. It’s not a question of an ICT Helpdesk, valuable as that is, but , for staff in particular, pedagogical support for the transfer of teaching and learning from on-campus to the personal computer,  to the small screen netbook, or even smaller mobile phone; the moving from face-to-face interaction to media delivery.  As well as ensuring learning development support for traditional academic practice, there is the need to ensure digital literacy for both staff and students. Understanding authenticity and citation with search engines. Accessing electronic journal databases. Utilising the academic value of tools such as refworks and turnitin, blogs and wikis and constructing electronic portfolios. All this under the umbrella of virtual pedagogy; the change in the relationship between student and teacher as the lecturer becomes the facilitator of the vast breadth of knowledge sources on the Web and no longer the sole gatekeeper of subject expertise.

Then there are the issues around course design and validation, the requirement for inclusive practice and provision of alternative formats. Let me know what I’ve missed. How can we quality assure such a major change in direction? If all this can be done using existing resources as well as cutting costs, then those who care about the future of higher education should be very scared indeed.

out of the darkness and into the light…

Sue Watling / / nothing to do with work

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Rhubarb  may not be the most exciting of foods but it has an illustrious pedigree; one which belies its current status. The plant’s history can be traced back to 2700 BC in China and medicinal rhubarb, the powdered root, was a staple of international trade routes in the time of Marco Polo. It’s health properties were reinforced on Friday when researchers at Sheffield Hallam announced that rhubarb contains anti-cancer properties. This weekend I visited the Rhubarb Triangle in the West Riding. Here rhubarb is grown and picked by candlelight in long, low-ceilinged forcing sheds; thwarting nature and depriving the plants of light to create a sweet, stunningly red-coloured stalk. They use methods handed down through the generations and in the darkness you can hear the buds emerging from the roots with a distinctive ‘pop’. Rhubarb is easy to grow; it can be forced by placing a bucket over the crown, it freezes well and it’s good for you too. Following the promotion of natural remedies such as bilberries and goji berries as miraculous health endowing super-foods; 2010 could be the year that  Rheum rhaponticum emerges from the darkness and into the light.