Making Digital Assignments Accessible

 I had high hopes for completely digitalizing all homework assignments for my classes this year.  However, I quickly ran into trouble with students who did not have regular home access to a computer with what I consider basic software.  Here are a few thoughts I have on how to be successful in assigning digital assignments in schools with limited technology access (These are in no particular order):

1.     Digital assignments should allow for ample time for students to make arrangements for computer use.  I typically allow a week for all take-home assignments that require computer access.  This way, students can plan with parents to get to a library or a ride home from school after spending time in the lab or my classroom.

2.     Try to ensure sources are compatible with older versions of software.  I’ve had students explain they couldn’t complete an assignment because their flash player or browser was out of date.  In a perfect world, I’d like to think that parents would understand the importance of regularly updating their home computers.  However, at least in the population I work with, this just isn’t currently the case.  It might be worth it to have regular access to a computer with an older browser or older version of flash, just to test out a site you’d like to send students to.

3.     Finally, I think it would be worth it to try to work with URLs that are as simple as possible for students to type correctly.  This has been such a sticking point for my class web page that I’ve been working on this year.  The site is hosted through our county’s Google site, and two months in, students still claim my site “doesn’t work.”  It does – they just struggle with the details of typing the URL in correctly.  Any way to minimize user frustration, I think, would lead to a more positive digital experience for students.  For now, I’m considering getting bookmarks or pens made up with my URL – anything to bombard my students with the importance of correctly typing in URLs.