#Hackforchange Homework Alert

RantWoman owes the world further fulmination about the recent #hack4Seattle  #hackforchange events. The world may not be aware of this. Furthermore, the world is not required to be grateful.

RantWoman totally wants to endorse and encourage the youthful developers who created the two top prize winners from the Seattle event, both homework management systems. RantWoman WANTS to do this, but she cannot. Instead, RantWoman needs to talk about some more messy requirements RantWoman hopes the developers will consider moving forward.

Earth to RantWoman. Homework alert!!!! Irrepressible Nephew! Honework Alert!!! Last time RantWoman and Irrepressible Nephew hung out, what is or is not happening in the realm of homework was a big topic of conversation. Irrepressible Nephew is 12,in sixth grade. In RantWoman's opinion, he is old enough to take SOME responsibility for the situation. And...

RantWoman and Irrpressible Nephew hung out with RantMom aka Grandma for an evening over Memorial Day Weekend. First there was some issue of negative numbers. So Nerd Auntie got out a piece of paper, drew a number line and we did some practice. Irrepressible Nephew seemed to get the concepts fine except when his mind wandered. Then this week, RantWoman had one of those try not to nag conversations she sometimes has with Little Sister. More homework issues. Other Family communications issues. What would be helpful?????
Irrepressible Nephew has LOTS of grownups in his court:

--Little Sister, his mom is very on the ball except when her medical issues get in the way. Little Sister's household includes a computer with good internet connections but no one uses Smartphones. (Something like 90% of the students in Seattle Public Schools qualify for free or reduced price lunches; this also means they qualify for some or another discount connectivity option--except that some of the available options would also be barriers even for the functionality required to deal with online homework management. RantWoman HOPES the product developers will also think about the capacity of their target user groups.)

--Irrepressible Nephew's dad who does not speak a lot of English and, RantWoman suspects would not have a lot of fun in any language about some school topics . This means the kid gets to be bicultural and learn small pet management in two languages; it does not mean his dad is a good source of help either about specific topics or even about managing the homework stream. Sigh.

--A whole passel of people connected wit hhis school. RantWoman refuses for various reasons even to go near anything to do with the people in the picture getting paid to be involved.

--Abuela G, who lives far away. Even if she lived close though there is still that language problem. RantWoman mentions Abuela G though because, although RantWoman is unencumbered by precise numbers, RantWoman is willing to bet that lost of the youthful developers or their schoolmates also have grownups in their lives who do not speak or read English. Do the developers ahave any thoughts about who will be target users and who else might be involved? How might a homework managemetn system work with these realities?

--Grandma, aka RantMom. RantMom is not a TOTAL technophobe but she is definitely a desktop computer and not very smart phone kind of gal She definitely is willing to be part of the Nephew/ Grandson education cheer squad. But would the homework management applications facilitate this?

--RantWoman, aka Sensible Auntie, trying to invest energies efficiently, also aka Bad Auntie in terms, possibly of setting bad examples of obstrepersousness, and aka Worse Auntie in terms of  being totally unapologetic about some strands of obstrepersouness. In case the world cannot tell, RantWoman is a big fan of irrepressible Nephew both in the energetic creative kid he is and in terms of him becoming a well-connected functional adult. Rah! Rah! Rah!

Bad Auntie can relate to the kid sometimes being bored; Sensible Auntie considers it her job to TRY to help keep things on track. As for Worse Auntie though: RantWoman quaintly demands that if she were to be involved in the homework management, the homework management system will need to be accessible to her via screen reader. RantWoman aka Blind Auntie also knows several other screen reader using blind parents who should be entitled to have exactly the same expectation.

RantWoman's problem about the accessibility expectation. RantWoman has not checked out the winning homework management  systems. For one thing, at this point RantWoman is not sure she could find the links in the tweet stream from the weekend. For another thing, when RantWoman WAS checking out accessibility of things connected with #hack4seattle, the first two things she touched had issues RantWoman needs to test further. After two different problems, RantWoman decided to STOP forthe time being lest she break everything she touched.

RantWoman is certain she owes the world a tirade about #hack4change events using coding tools that come close to generating accessible applications  automatically. RantWoman is certain she owes the world a tirade about this topic, but at the moment she is also juggling conversations about Irrepressible Nephew and his immediate homework management needs; the live homework issues are ahead of .. in queue!