[Trainer-Talk] any thoughts on teaching Web navigation

Tue Sep 5 23:16:16 UTC 2017

Hi all 

I've been thinking about this a lot lately too. I think the "mechanics then strategy" approach is generally correct. 

Lately I've been taking the same long and relatively complex document and presenting it to the student in three formats, Word, PDF and as an html document. This way I can focus on the "mechanics." Then when we go from word to the other formats, we are focused on the strategy. This is only somewhat successful. If anyone has any better ideas, please share. 

Thanks
Stephen Alexander Marositz JD, CPACC
Assistive Technology Specialist, Pasadena City College
Phone: (626) 585-7242

-----Original Message-----
From: Trainer-Talk [mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mark Nelson via Trainer-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2017 7:20 AM
To: 'List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology' <trainer-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Mark Nelson <mydigitalapex at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Trainer-Talk] any thoughts on teaching Web navigation

The following is over simplified for the sake of brevity.  Anyone wanting more information can contact me off-line at Mark at MyDigitalApex.com.

There are two parts, the mechanics and the strategy, and they have to be taught in that order.  

The mechanics is the learning about the tools for navigating elements, headings, tables, links, etc.  those should be taught individually and reviewed as often as necessary until the student demonstrates, through learning measurement processes,  mastery of how to find/navigate/interact with each.  Then, he/she has the tool box in place and knows how to use each tool.  

The strategy piece is the most difficult to teach of the two categories above.  That is, in part, because some people are wired for and good at devising a strategy and some are not.  The approach I use here is to ask the student what type of things they want to do on the web.  With that information, we can go to sites of the type they will use in their real life.  This Is important, as learning sticks best when applied to real, versus artificial, experiences.  At first, the student will need to be coached as to how to devise a strategy for navigating sites.  As teaching continues, the instructor should coach less and less, until the student is doing this on their own.  Practice by the student is critical here, as any student will rely on the teacher when the teacher is present but cannot when they are working on their own.  Students who practice will progress, and those who don't, wont or will do so very slowly. 

Mark Nelson
Certified Assistive Technology Instructional Specialist

-----Original Message-----
From: Trainer-Talk [mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dean Martineau via Trainer-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, September 5, 2017 6:57 AM
To: 'List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology'
<trainer-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Dean Martineau <topdot at gmail.com>
Subject: [Trainer-Talk] any thoughts on teaching Web navigation

I would like to know what difficulties, challenges and solutions you have for teaching Internet use.  I believe it is much more complex than it used to be.  It is hard for me to convey an air of confidence to students when I run into difficulties myself. I have found that the JAWS/Chrome combination is the best, and I imagine that NVDA is about as good, perhaps better.  Even with it, things just don't always work. I don't have the occasion to do a lot of training, but when I do I would benefit from experiences and strategies anybody would like to share.

Thanks in advance.

Dean

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