What did you learn from Laura Fathauer’s presentation about User-generated content and Mashups that may help you in our class or in your other academic pursuits? Did she challenge your thinking? Did you offer you advice you will use?
I think it was very interesting that Fathauer spoke to her own work collecting information, and how one does not need to be a specialist in a field to use the internet in an attempt to offer aid to others. I like the emphasis on the everyday citizen making something of worth, offering up their own skills in this technological age.
User-generated content, and us all having the ability to make the internet a more open, welcoming, helpful place, also ties in to the accessibility matters she opened her presentation with. The idea that we make it so that the most people possible have access to the internet and its contents is very important to me. I think considering what tools are out there, both for myself and to help others, is something that will definitely help in my academic pursuits. As an education major, I want to make sure I am using all the tools at my disposal to make my work as accessible as possible, through compatibility with screen readers, etc. I want to take the advice she offered in general: thinking about what you can offer, and how you can take something and make it better, and have it reach as many people as possible.