Archive for March 2014
Each student is different. That's the first thing that a teacher should keep in mind when stepping into a classroom. Each student has different learning level, some being faster than others, and some being slower than others. As teachers, the first thing we learn is that everyone is different and each style of learning is vastly different from child to child.
In the video Enabling Dreams, it shows students (pre-school to college) using different assistive technologies to help them do school work and other activities that they would not normally be able to do without them. The young girl who was a sophomore at the University of Washington says that "Assistive technology is the major foundation of my life. Without it I could not exist as I am today." (The George Lucas Educational Foundation, 2014) Thanks to the assistive technology that she has access to, her cerebral palsy is no longer a problem when it comes to getting her homework done and any other outside activities.
Being a Special Education major and wanting to master in Speech Pathology, I will hopefully be seeing kinds different assistive technologies that I'll be able to use with my future students and one day patients to help them with their everyday lives. These assistive technologies don't just benefit these kids in school but also with other activities outside school. In the film it gave examples of wheelchairs getting students from place-to-place, a joystick helping a young man play the horn, and tools helping kids who can't speak communicate with their teachers and caregivers. "Assistive technology provides creative solutions that enable individuals with disabilities to be more independent, productive, and included in society and community life" (Center On Disabilities Technology And Persons With Disabilities Conference, 2002).
One of the biggest problems with assistive technology is that there is a lack of information and knowledge amongst administrators, educators, and even parents on the availability and uses of these devices to promote access to general curriculum (Assistive Technology Training Online Project, 2005). If more people were educated on what these devices can do for their children and how they are available for them, there'd be more students having an easier time getting things done in the classroom and at home without having their disabilities be an obstacle for them. They will be able to transition from secondary learning to higher education easier than those who don't have these devices.
It is amazing how far technology has come in regards to making life easier for these individuals with disabilities. Before all the technological advantages that we have today, people with disabilities were mostly stuck at home where they were viewed as a nuisance or trouble because they needed constant care. They weren't even allowed to go to school. But now with all the assistive technology that we have today they don't have to be looked as as helpless because they're able to do things for themselves like non disabled individuals.
References:
"Assistive Technology: Enabling Dreams." YouTube. Edutopia, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/embed/rXxdxck8Gic?rel=0>.
"Trends and Issues." ATTO: Introduction to Assistive Technology:. School of Public Health and Health Professions, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014 <http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Foundation/intro/introtrends.php>.
Sagstetter, Mary. "2002 Conference Proceedings." 2002 Conference Proceedings. AbleNet, Inc., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. <http://www.csun.edu/cod/conf/2002/proceedings/16.htm>.
1 comment
Pertaining to our game Fraction Fling, the rubric was fairly easy to create. The game is very simple and to the point when it comes to grading it. The only problem that I found hard to grade was the Knowledge Gained segment of the rubric. The game does give clues as to what would be the point of the game, but not enough for the targeted audience to fully grasp what the concept of the game would be.
I'm a special education major so I would most likely not be using this game in any of my classes that I would teach in the future. Although, if my content area was math I would use this game as a starter to learning simple fractions. I wouldn't use it as a basis for my lessons but I would use it to show them the relationship between the number (i.e. 1/2) to the model that represents it (a pie chart fraction). This game doesn't go into anything other than determining basic fractions and what they look like. The game doesn't teach students how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide fractions so teaching kids about fractions with this game would be pointless and irrelevant to anything other than an introduction to fractions.
The most helpful tool that we used in creating our presentation was Wix. The website builder is very easy to navigate and use, especially for first time webpage designers. We did have some difficulty starting out though. We needed to use outside resources (Youtube, Google, etc.) to figure out how to add some media into the website because the instructions given by the site weren't very clear or helpful. Also when it came to us saving the content on our site, the things that we saved would sometimes disappear after we publish it.
The site also comes with many different templates that you can use to start off the design of your website. These templates are organized into categories that could pertain to any webpage builder (games, business, personal, etc.) which made the process of looking for a design to use very easy and manageable. I would recommend this webpage builder to anyone thinking about designing their own website, especially if they are new to making webpages.
Wiggio was a very helpful tool that my group and I used. We used Wiggio to send out mass emails with information that was needed for our group presentation and it went straight to our email. Wiggio also has a mobile app for iPhone and Android so you didn't need a computer or internet browser to gain access to your account. The only problem I personally had with Wiggio was that it didn't send you notifications, through email or the app, in sufficient time. There would be times where we would make plans to meet up to work on the presentation and the email wouldn't be received until hours later.
