Journal 9: Adaptive Technology

Communication:  research one no/low tech tool and one high tech tool that assists special needs students in the communication process.

AAC stands for Augmentative and alternative communication.  It refers to the different ways people with impairments or restrictions can communicate.  They help people either with speaking or writing down the things they want to communicate.  These tools can either be low tech or high tech.

Teaching Textures

A low tech tool I found was a set of teaching textures.  It comes with a bunch of different patches of materials, and each material feels differently, they all have different textures.  It incorporates sensory input into activities, and it can help students who are visually impaired or for students who need tactile cuing to help them understand language.  If a student was visually impaired, different patches could be placed around the room as to label things and areas so the student knows where they are, or what to do.

ALLREADER

A high tech tool I found was the ALLREADER.  This device may be used by students who have visual impairments, such as blindness or low vision.  This tool combines many different features, including a scanner, optical character recognition, voice synthesis, a Daisy player, and a CD-Rom drive.  A Daisy player just converts print to audio.  This would help a student in your class with a visual impairment read the assigned books.   Also it would allow the student to read a classmate’s writing so they could work collaboratively. 

Accessibility: research one hardware option and one software option

Easitrax

Input devices allow students to use a computer without the standard mouse and keyboard.  They provide other ways to accomplish the same tasks.  One such device is the Easitrax, which is a type of joystick.  This would be considered a hardware accessibility option.  It is used like a mouse, but it helps students with motor impairments.  It scrolls and moves with the joystick, and only requires fingertip manipulation.

A software tool that can be helpful for students with dyslexia is ClaroRead.  It turns writing to speech, and allows students to proofread their own work.  It also allows students to scan writing and it will read that writing aloud.  This would allow the student to read and write and keep up with the rest of the class without being hung up by mixing up the letters.

Journal 8: "Find the Truth About the Pacific Tree Octopus" NETS-T IV

Ferrel, K. (2011). Find the truth about the pacific tree octopus. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(12011), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-august-2011.aspx

In this article students were required to do a research project.  They were required to either research the phrase “The Tree Octopus” or “All About Explorers.”  The “facts” that students discovered from seemingly reliable online sources were not factual at all.  Students were amazed that the information published online was unreliable.  One of the sources that they found false facts was actually created by teachers to educate students about unreliable sources.  The students learned that they need to check their sources to make sure they are trustworthy.  This was an eye opening experience for these students and it is beneficial for all students to learn early on.

1.  What are the five “W’s” to look for to make sure a website is reputable?

When checking to see if a source is reliable you should look for the who, what, when, where and why.  This will help you find out who is writing the information, what group they are with and what they are writing about, and what their motives for writing the information are.   

2.  What is a good way to know if a source is reliable right away?

If a website ends with .edu or .gov it is more likely to be reliable, so students are encouraged to use these sources.

Journal 7: My Personal Learning Network (PLN)

A Personal Learning Network, or PLN, is a connection of people who learn from one another and share a wealth of knowledge with one another.  Through the use of Twitter, Diigo, and Classroom 2.0 I have been able to make connections with other students and educators who share similar personal and professional goals.  As a teacher I will benefit from having a PLN because I will get resources, ideas and feedback from the members of my PLN that will help me grow and mature in my career. 

To get a start on building my PLN I became a member of Twitter.  On Twitter I have set up a Hootsuit deck that allows me to have multiple columns to follow different streams.  I have been able to follow my home stream, edchat and mathchat.  Some of the people I'm following include David Craig, Jill Thompson, Jennifer Harden, Julie Hill Reulbach, and Laura Laing.  By folowing these people and hashtags I can get resources and see ideas posted by the people who tweet in these streams.  I am currently following a number of my classmates, my professor, and some of the participants from a mathchat discussion. 

On Thursday, July 28 at 5pm I participated in the mathchat discussion.  The subject was “how do I stimulate students seeing connections in math?”  Luckily I used Tweetchat to view the chat because the experience was very fast paced.  There were some good thoughts, and it was cool to have so many different people involved at the same time from all over the world.  Some of the ideas included applying math to real life, bringing in guest speakers, and leading students to connections. 

Diigo is another great networking tool.  It allows you to see sites that other people have bookmarked.  So, if you follow people on Diigo who are interested in the same educational things that you are, then you can benefit from the sites they bookmark and use them as resources.  I found five people to follow on Diigo, Erin Remple, Lesley Reilly, Karen Soohy, and Mariln Western.  I searched the community for subjects such as math, education, lessons, technology and PLN.  By doing this I was able to find Diigo members who bookmarked valuable sites related to things I am interested in, and I now follow these people.  I tagged three sites under PLN.  First I tagged a site that discussed the steps of building your PLN.  Then I tagged a site that further described how to develop your PLN.  The last site I tagged PLN discussed ways to find good teachers to follow in Twitter.  These sites will help me grow my PLN and benefit more from my PLN. 

In addition to Twitter and Diigo, I became a member of Classroom 2.0, a social network for educators, and those interested in education.    While on Classroom 2.0 I watched a video called “Rockin’ Rhombus.”  In this video a man walks around and asks a handful of people, mostly adults, three questions.  He asked for the definitions of a rhombus, and isosceles triangle and a trapezoid.  None of the people knew the correct answer and these were third and fourth grade standards.  This was astounding to me.  These adults had forgotten things so easily.  It makes me realize that it takes something special to get students to retain information, and as the video suggested, songs help students retain things.