Linking research & learning technologies through standards

After considerable deliberation the Australian Government has endorsed adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 (WCAG  2.0) for all government websites. This decision supersedes the previous mandate for compliance with WCAG 1.0 Level A checkpoints. The initial announcement came via ministerial press release on February 23, 2010 and the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), who’ve been managing the WCAG 2.0 evaluation and transition planning, amended the accessibility section of the Web Publishing Guide the following day:

Government agencies will transition to WCAG 2.0 over a four year period, reaching level Single A within two years, and Double A within four years. A Transition Strategy will outline the process for implementation, and will address scope and inclusion issues. The Transition Strategy will be made available on the Web Publishing Guide in July 2010.

Agencies are reminded that it is still a requirement to publish an alternative to all PDF documents (preference for HTML or RTF). Advice on the accessibility support of PDF documents will be made available at the conclusion of the PDF Accessibility Review Project, due early 2010.”

AGIMO’s announcement brings some clarity to the application of WCAG 2.0 for government materials and mandates a higher level of adherence than the government was previously mooted to be considering (and in doing so is likely to benefit a greater number of users) but a number of questions remain in terms of the breadth of the AGIMO transition strategy, who they’ll consult and the position of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

We’re still in a situation where we need to predict the actions of AHRC, but as the AGIMO WCAG 2.0 position is closer in spirit to the interim WCAG 1.0 position of AHRC, it’s reasonable to assume that the level of conformance advocated by AHRC is not likely to be any less than that endorsed by AGIMO. The forthcoming completion of the PDF review and the Web Publishing Guide update provide a basis upon which to anticipate that AHRC will make a statement about WCAG 2.0 in the near future, so the next few months will be a key time for interested parties to participate in transition discussions and look out for announcements.

As a member of the program committee and one of the organisers I am probably not the most unbiased person to reflect on the recent IDEA event. However I will just the same. IDEA has been running for about six years and although each event has seemed to be worthwhile, the general buzz about this one was it was the best ever.

As usual IDEA brought together practitioners from all sectors of education: schools, vocational education and higher education both in the presenters and in the participants. This creates the first good thing to note. There are not many venues where practitioners from across education can get together and interact. So IDEA is a great opportunity to facilitate cross sectoral conversations and to allow practitioners to gain knowledge and expertise from other sectors. This type of knowledge sharing across the educational sectors is vital for the well being of education as a whole.

While IDEA always tries to attract technology/IT people, policy makers and leading edge teaching practitioners, this time we created a program where a conversation was developed between the teaching and the technology practitioners. And it seemed to work. Another thing to note about the event structure was short sharp panel presentations with plenty of time for audience participation. There were a lot of very good panels, one of the most engaging was ” What Technology Do Teachers Want”  which featured presenters from Schools, Universities and Vocational Education. There were three great presentations , one can be found at http://www.linkaffiliates.net.au/idea10/files/IDEA10_20100311_AndrewDouch.pdf

As has been the case over the last three occasions the IDEA event incorporated the Learning Impact Awards (LIAs). This offers the opportunity for implementations of technology to compete to be judged as to who has had the most learning impact. The top three Australian entires then get financial support to attend the world finals (organised by IMS Global), this year in Long Beach California . In previous years Australian entries have done very well at the world finals. As part of the judging event participants go on a “speed dating” session with each of the entries as do the judges. This year the top three in the people’s choice was the same as the top three from the judges, just the order was different.

2010 was the first time IDEA has had a formal Program Committee and worked with a professional conference organiser. Both added greatly to the value of the event.

Another innovation this year was to stream the event live and then have a video archive available for later viewing by event participants as well as those unable to attend the event itself. In truth we did not promote the live streaming enough (maybe we were nervous as it was our first foray into this), but at least we have captured the event for posterity.

Also in 2010 we managed to attract some more sponsors which allowed for a bit more sophistication with food and technology at the event.  At the same time the sponsors were able to engage with key practitioners across education in one  small venue. Presentations by Motorola  http://www.linkaffiliates.net.au/idea10/files/IDEA10_20100312_RobArmstrong.pdf  and Lappset  http://www.linkaffiliates.net.au/idea10/events/speakers.html#makela further enhanced this engagement.

You might wonder what could be improved. Well there are possibly a few things, although the program committee thought this was being obsessively self critical, including:

• We probably packed in too many speakers not leaving enough time for audience interactions
• We made the first day of the Open Form a bit too long so some people were too tired to fully participate in the speed dating (which for many was a highlight)
• There was probably too many presentations not enough action on the IDEALab day

But overall everyone seemed to get a heap out of the three days and there was a real buzz. The senior policy people present also remarked on how valuable the event was.

In terms of  the future there does seem a place for a cross sectoral event in this space and the Australian regional finals for the LIAs are a must for continuing to foster innovation and good practice for using technology for learning. Hopefully there will be a funding mechanism to allow investment for future IDEA events. March is not necessarily the best time for the event, in previous years it has run in October/November but it needs to be timed so that LIA winners can get organised to go to the world finals which are usually in May.

To see all the presentations, view the video clips and get a sense of the atmosphere of IDEA go to http://www.linkaffiliates.net.au/idea10/ and watch that space for the next event!