Assistive Technology

Assistive technology is technological advances that assist individuals with disabilities in ways that help them perform tasks and functions that they might have experienced difficulties in, or were previously impossible. These implementations can create independent learning in the student and foster cognitive growth. Assistive technology covers a wide range of devices in mobility, hardware, and software, such as wheelchairs to computer keyboards with larger keys, voice recognition products, or software that reads text on a computer.

An enormous variety of assistive technology is available to nearly all people so that they can have the opportunity to access information. These technologies provide significant assistance to individuals who experience vision, hearing, dexterity and mobility, language and communication, or learning needs.

I was really interested in learning about “learning” needs and how assistive technology can bridge instruction to learning for specific learning needs. Learning needs include dyslexia, attention deficit disorders, and cognitive challenges. Microsoft Accessibility: Technology for Everyone claims that, “Many individuals with learning difficulties and impairments are perfectly capable of learning if information is presented to them in a form and at a pace that is appropriate to them individually. Providing a multisensory experience of audio speech paired with a visual representation, for example. And, reducing visual and auditory distractions can aid the learning process for many people.”

I decided to focus on dyslexia, as a learning need to see what types of assistive technology is available for these learners. Because individuals who experience dyslexia may have difficulty with letter orientation, words within sentences, spelling, letter reversals, accommodations have become available to help them with their reading and writing. These technologies range from:

o Word Processors with spelling and grammar check to font size and color options.

o Reading Systems that read text aloud to the learner and highlight contrasting colors to focus on specific words.

o Concept Mapping which helps visualize larger concepts through mapping, rearranging, and organization.

o Phonetic Spelling programs that convert phonetic spelling into correctly spelled words (Franklin Electronic Dictionary and Yak Yak software).

o Word Prediction.

o Speech Recognition.

o Organizational Software to assist with keeping on task and staying organized.

o Talking Calculators.

I thought these sounded like great programs. I especially like the Phonetic Spelling, and concept mapping. Concept maps helps children with their writing in that it helps them to visually see and organize information to then use to create a cohesive writing. Individuals who experience dyslexia tend to learn visually and think in images, concept maps accommodate to their learning style, enhance their strengths, and increase their writing skills. The information is represented in nonlinear formats. Concepts are labeled with key words and relationships. The map is organized independently from rigorous writing structures. Color and graphics can trigger concepts, memory, and learning.

For my future teaching it's very important to be aware of the assistive technology available to help students learn in their own intelligence and to develop their learning so that they can become autonomous life long learners.

Resources:

http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?109

http://www.microsoft.com/enable/guides/learning.aspx

http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/Technology/atpwld.html

http://cmc.ihmc.us/cmc2008papers/cmc2008-p223.pdf

Images:

http://w301math-atresources.wikispaces.com/file/view/conceptmap2.png/33067835/conceptmap2.png

Exploring Tech Tools

For this week I am exploring tech tools that can be used in education. I chose to take a deeper look into podcasts. I had heard of them before and used them before, but never for teaching purposes. I explored the website www.sciam.com which gives quick audio podcasts about various science information. This would be a great way to introduce a topic for a lesson and give the children the opportunity to listen to someone besides their ordinary teacher deliver the information. I also looked at the website www.bookwink.com which uses video to tell stories about books or from books to children of all ages. When I got to the website I was immediately absorbed in the video podcast that started playing. It showed African Animals and told a summary of a book called A Long Walk to Water about a boy who was run out of his village during the war in Sudan. Seeing as how I have been to Sudan this story was incredibly relatable. This would be a great way to introduce African Studies to the class and learn about this war and the current issues this region of Africa is facing. I could see how this website would be very useful in the classroom the books travel around the world and introduce books to children. The video podcast would be a great way to spark reading enthusiasm, engage children in talking about books, and encourage them to pick up books and read. This would be a great tool to use in the classroom, though it is mostly for 3rd-8th grade students. Next I went to the website http://www.ESLteachertalk.com/ which is a podcast and blog website for ESL teacher who share resources, information, expertise, and teacher tools. The podcast I watched was about teaching holidays. They gave some web resources, though when I went to the first resource it was unavailable. They talked about how holidays are great ways to teach children new language that is unique to those specific holidays, such as Thanksgiving and cooking terms or sports terms. He says "What other terms can you apply to that Holiday?" not only does this increase new vocabulary but it also adds culture into the classroom. This website and podcast would be a good resource for teachers.

Because I love art and I like technology I decided to also take a look at Tux Paint so I downloaded it to my computer. It was a pretty basic paint program with some fun features for children to play and learn with. I like that the program had shapes. I thought it would be a good way for children to learn what various shapes look like. I wasn't as impressed by the program as I had hoped I would be. I also took a look at the Scratch website and downloaded the program to my computer. This program is just awesome a great teaching tool for teachers and students to be creative with technology. This program is highly interactive and allows the creator to make games, animations, music, stories, and art. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but it is something I would be interested in using in my classroom.

I chose to follow the blogs of Kevin, Peter, Rochelle, and Heather. I am also following the blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wes Fryer. As I searched Wes Fryer's blog I found a post he provided on finding free e-books online, which do not infringe upon any copyright laws if they are old enough, yet sites like amazon will still try to sell them for full price. He gives a full explanation on how to sync them to your e-reader. Fryer also posted a blog about using copyright-friendly images effectively in presentations. He discusses how to use Fair Use rights as learners and educators. He also posted a video about Fair Use created by Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University. I encourage everyone to check it out at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo

I think this video is pretty hilarious and relevant to the blog posts I read written by my classmates.

Like the video blog post we all seemed to have learned what Fair Use was and how we will be able to use that in our classrooms to be able to provide students will materials that are okay to use for learning if it is done so in a responsible and appropriate way.

While doing our copyright research we seemed to have all learned a lot about copyright laws and Fair Use, but maybe still have some leftover questions. Heather was left wondering what the actual guidelines were to determine what can and cannot be copyrighted and how copyright infringement is caught and punished. Rochelle seems to be intimidated by the constantly changing copyright laws.

While I don't have the answers to those questions and am also intimidated by the changing copyright laws, I do believe it is important for us as educators to stay connected to these laws as they change and make sure that we are modeling responsible behavior when it comes to copyright. Like Peter writes about in his blog, it is important to teach children the proper rules for citation to avoid any larger problems later in life. In the early childhood years this can best be taught through modeling appropriate behavior when it comes to Fair Use and Copyright Law. Being informed is the first step in that direction.

Copyright

I began by looking at the Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers issued by Teaching & Learning. I really like how specific it is. It could be used as a great resource for teachers to refer to. I went on to look at Copyright 101 for Educators: Winter 2003. From this reading I gathered that to get copyright a person needs to get written permission from the actual creator or copyright holder in writing or they should not use it. One issue on copyright for teachers is the use of academic citation of sources because of the fact that the teacher or student may or may not be documenting these electronic sources in a complete bibliography. This issue, however, relates to fair use. Fair use are limitations on restriction rights of copyright holders. Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act provide guidelines for determining Fair Use. Something that I learned from this reading was how best to prepare yourself as a teacher to use copyright laws and Fair Use appropriately in the classroom. I learned that it is okay to use sound clips, songs, and graphics from the Internet in the classroom if it is in PowerPoint presentation, face to face meeting, or a password protected website if their is a limited audience. It is not okay to re post or distribute these taken images or videos/audio clips.

Educational Blog Expoloration

The first blog I chose to check out was called Always Learning (from Bb) located at http://kimcofino.com/blog/ I chose to look at this blog because it is made by a teacher at an international school, which is an interest of mine. I read about professional development with a purpose. The blogger reports that the best part of teaching this is learning with the students, in the classroom, at school, with the entire department collaborating together, a topic that we have discussed several times in our own class. The teacher was able to sit down and work in small groups with the children to learn together, which she said was a blast. It surprised me that at the end of the 55-minute lesson the children were able to master the skills, in some cases much faster than the teacher. I think I can apply this to my teaching by seeing the importance of learning technology with the students and accepting that they may be better at technology than me, and that’s okay.

The next blog I chose to explore I found online. It is called The Writings of Lee Kraus. It is located at http://www.leekrausonline.com/ I watched a really great video on here about motivation. The speaker in the video reports that recent research done by economists found out that people are not motivated to do creative things in technology and innovation for money, but by autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Another interesting post I read compared technology in schools to technology in the home. One of the surprising thoughts that came from that is the fact that student’s access to technology at school is overly structured, limited, scheduled, and locked. Where at home it is likely none of those things, making technology at school less innovative and open than at home. When children are given more freedom to work with technology, they are able to accelerate their autonomy and be self-directed learners.

The third blog I chose to look at is called, Moving at the Speed of Creativity. It is located at http://www.speedofcreativity.org/ On this blog I read about electronic portfolios and the importance of connecting learning between the grades. I also watched a really cute video some students made called “Gotta Keep Learning” to the tune of the Black Eyed Peas song “I Gotta Feeling.” The video illustrates how students want to use technology to keep learning. The blog also gives tips such as how to find and read ebooks not purchased on Amazon on a Kindle. I found some pretty neat stuff.

The last blog I explored is called Open Educator located at http://gwegner.edublogs.org/ This blogger writes about how technology connects students to the outside world to experience things that they would otherwise be unable to understand. He writes that the web can fill in gaps in comprehension. He says, “The internet is the greatest repository of human knowledge ever assembled and traversing its vastness one network link at a time is all one person can do.” Its great to be able to appreciate the Internet for these opportunities to expose students to greater learning.

The blog I am choosing to follow is Moving at the Speed of Creativity listed above.