Jounal 8: Adaptive Technology

Communication:
Augmentive and Alternative Communicataion (AAC) includes all types of communication excluding oral communication that are used to express thoughts, needs, wants, and ideas. (asha.org)

An example of a low tech tool is using gestures within the classroom. In order for this system to be successful, the teacher and all of the students would have to clearly act out and show rather than tell information so that all students would understand, the special needs child would understand the teacher and classmates and vice/versa. This system, if succesful, will be able to eliminate the communication barrier.

An example of a low tech software tool would be the Click-N-Type virtual keyboard. This software is designed for students that may not have the ability to type and a computer keyboard but can use a pointing device or a computer mouse. It is a virtual keyboard that appears on the computer screen and works with any Microsoft Windows from 1995 to Windows 7. This will allow students that may not be able to type to still be able to search the internet and communicate electronically.



An example of a high tech hardware tool would be an iPad. There are several programs on the iPad that are extremely beneficial for classroom use such as Mathboard and Flashcards Deluxe. Mathboard has sources to help students with their math such as a mulitplication table and other visual math tools to help students learn. Also, flashcards deluxe helps students learn their vocabulary in a fun, innovative way. It also pronounces the words so there is no confusion.

An example of a high tech software would be Verbose, a text to speech converter that can read text aloud or save spoken text to mp3 files. This would be a great software for students with vision or reading disabilities. It also works great for students that are audio learners rather than visual learners. There many adjustable options such as pitch, tone, volume, and speed so it can help a large range of students.



Accessibility:
Input device is any machine that feeds data into a computer. So, an input device for special needs users could be a trackball instead of a mouse. It is an input device that is especially helpful for students that have limited fine motor skills, such as the ability to hold a pencil and write or dragging and picking up the mouse.

Journal 6

Google+: The Complete Guide

Parr, B. (2011, July 16). Google+: The complete guide. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2011/07/16/google-plus-guide/

Brogan, Chris. (2011, September 30). Educators- Google Plus is For You. Retrieved from http://www.chrisbrogan.com/gpluseducators/


The blog post, "Google + The Complete Guide" describes Google+ and informs the reader of its features and functions and also rates its difficulty of use. It says that Google+ was intended to compete with Facebook as a social network. Google+ seems to have extra features that Facebook doesn't offer such as video chats (hangouts) and group texting (huddle). But, it also offers circles (friend management) and photos, similar to Facebook. It was supposed to be an extension to Google's website and act as a profile showing notifications, like Facebook, once a Google+ member goes to the Google website. The blog states that it is admittedly more difficult to use than other social networks, but it also took members' comments and they seem to like how everything goes up into the cloud, meaning you can access documents and everything on any computer with internet access.  Google+ has some restrictions to the users it attracts. You have to be sent an invitation to be a part of the network, and also must have a gmail email account. In the blog post, he uploaded videos to show a video of how Google+ works. It describes the benefits of the "circles" feature and how you can talk to specific groups of people only, so people outside the circle that you would not want to view, can't. This is a more organized friend management device than Facebook. Also, you can have multiple person webchats through the "hanging out" application. Google+ also has applications to connect to your mobile phone, which is where "huddling" comes in. You can group text from your phone and have it connect to your Google+ profile. Google+ has more applications than other social networks, but because of that it also may be more difficult to use.

Question: Since Google+ is similar to Facebook, but has extra applications, do you think you would start to use it even though it is known to be more difficult than other social networks? If you decide to use Google+ in addition to other social networks, what aspects separated it from Facebook and other social networks that made you want to use it?

Answer: I think I would definitely use Google+ in addition to other social networks. The video that I watched in the blog that teaches a person how to use Google+ was sufficient enough for me to know the basics of Google+ so the fact that it is a little more difficult to use than other social networks wouldn't be a problem. The features that made me interested in Google+ was the circles, huddling, and hanging out applications. On Facebook, you can not block certain things from people to see, so the circles feature seems effective. The huddling is cool because it seems like it is a chatroom, being able to talk to many people at once while texting. That could be very useful. The hanging out feature is also cool because of the fact that you can webchat multiple people at once. I have Skype but you have to pay to be able to skype more than one person so Google+ is great. It is nice to have all features in one spot like Google+.

 In another blog, Chris Brogan posted "Educators-Google Plus is For You", which he first explains the benefits of the circles feature, that you can share information with a specific group of people. It gives an example of creating a circle of the members of the class you teach, including the students and their parents. This way, you can share lesson plans and the specific members will be the only ones that are able to view them, being private to the outside world. The blog post also discusses the benefit of comments and the ability to answer students' questions and interact with them virtually through hangouts. You can join hangouts with students as well as asking a special guest to join. The article concludes with various links to step-by-step directions about getting started with Google+ and its different features.

Question: The blog post seemed to share many benefits for teachers to use Google+, but it did not specifically identify the benefits for students to be involved with it. What could be the main benefits for students to use Google+?

Answer: Google+ is a great source for students to not only locate homework and worksheets, but also to ask the teacher questions and participate in a hangout if there is extra assistance needed on an assignment. Also, it would be helpful for students to interact with their classmates as well to form study groups, ask questions, do homework together, etc. This tool might also help the classroom unity become stronger because students are more engaged and are building a community with each other. I think by having students interact outside of school through Google+ will definitely improve their desire and interest to learn, their social skills and relationships with the teacher and classmates, as well as their academics by getting extra help and studying with their peers and teacher.

Journal 7: My Personal Learning Network

A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is a way for a person to gain and spread knowledge through a form of interaction such as sharing resources and ideas for future professional growth. Studying to become an elementary school teacher, there is a lot that I can learn from more experienced teachers. Creating my own Personal Learning Network, I have been able to use connect with other educators and learn through their experiences and ideas. My PLN consists of Twitter, an online social networking service which enables members to follow, communicate and share ideas with others; Diigo, a social bookmarking website which organizes specific websites through tagging and grouping; and Educator's PLN, a personal learning network for educators.

Using Twitter, I am able to communicate with other future educators, current educators, and education groups. I follow all of my classmates as well as other educators such as CATeachersassoc, flourishingkids, teachingwthsoul, teachersnet, and Weareteachers. You can also follow specific hashtags which allows you to participate in chats of the specific topic. I was able to participate in a chat with #urbaned on October 30th at 6:00 PM to discuss the relationship with standardized testing. Most of the people involved in the chat were saying that they thought education needed to be more about passion in learning instead of pressure to learn. Many also said that they were happy their schools were "data informed rather than data driven". I understood that as being aware of the standards and requirements of teachers to cover specific material for testing, but they were not teaching solely to do well on those tests, but to teach their students to have passion for learning and motivate them to participate because they want to, not because they have to. The chat was very informational and it also gave me a good insight on how to veer away from teaching for testing, especially because teachers now have an increased workload from budget cuts. It gave me good ideas such as assigning the students to write two sentences after each lesson about how they can use the information they just learned in real life. This way, the students are recognizing the information is useful, and not only taught to be tested on. It seems to be a good reminder for everyone when the pressure to do well on tests is overwhelming. The chat was very beneficial and gave me good ideas for my future teaching profession.

Diigo is a very accessible resource for organizing certain websites to refer back to it in the future. It is done by simply downloading the Diigo toolbar and bookmarking websites! You also can give the website certain tags for an even easier way to locate specific websites. And, Diigo also allows you to follow other users and have access to search their bookmarks as well. In that way, it acts as an excellent PLN resource to collaborate with others in your field and share information. I currently follow 7 people including Vicki Davis, Shelly Terrell, and many others. I chose to follow these people because they are educators and bookmark interesting information that could benefit me and other educators. In my Diigo library, I have tagged 3 bookmarks as PLN. The first is an educational blogger who titled his blog "learning.now". His blog discussed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and talked about the pressures it gives the students as well as the teachers to perform well due to testing. Another bookmark that I tagged under PLN was entitled "School Matters". It talked about educational news, specifically Tennessee's charter schools testing and how most charters schools do not have accurate data. The last bookmark that I tagged was from an educational blogger named Joanne Jacobs. Her blog post was entitled "A Tale of Two Teacher Evaluations" and discussed a teacher, Marilyn Rhames, and her experience at a school with an inexperienced principal and the importance of having an effective principal to manage a school and its staff.
By tagging all three of my sources under "PLN", they will be accessible to other Diigo user educators that search for resources under PLN. I also can search for PLN tags and come across others' posts for my own knowledge, so it truly acts as a great connecting network.

In addition to Twitter and Diigo, I also use a personal learning network called Educator's PLN. It displays educational forums, blogs, and videos for members to watch to learn about educational news and resources. I watched a video called "Ipads in Classrooms on Long Island" because it interested me. The video discussed the benefits of using Ipads in classrooms, the educational benefits rather than the focusing on the popularity of the device. It said that the Ipads have more applications that can be very useful to students. For example, it showed the Ipad's ability to highlight text and add a note to that specific portion to refer back to. About the issue of costs to provide all classrooms with Ipads, they said it is less expensive than one would think because it takes away from other expenses such as photo copying, printing, and textbooks. It was interesting to see how useful and user-friendly the Ipad was, especially for students in a classroom. I wonder if this idea of using Ipads in class will spread throughout the world!

Journal 4

It's In the Bag

Basham, J. D., Perry, E., & Meyer, H. (2011). It's in the bag. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(2), 24-27. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20110910?pg=26&pm=2&fs=1

The article, "It's in the Bag" seemed very interesting. It discussed a new idea about students carrying a digital backpack which carries three specific forms of technology. The first is foundational technology, the core hardware and software of the backpack, such as a laptop. Next is modular technology which are devices for specific instructional goals such as an ipod touch or digital camcorder. Lastly it mentioned instructional support materials which are curriculum resources that provide structure and specific information for learners to learn and be guided. These materials included instructional documents, podcasts, videos, and content-based apps.

These backpacks are modified to be specific for different age groups by altering the materials for different leveled curriculum. They were tested in the fields that the content was based in, specifically for Elementary schools, Middle schools, and High schools. These field experiences tested the students' ability to learn using the different forms of technology and proved to be successfull in all three fields. Although it may not be realistic to provide each student with a digital backpack, this idea definitely did teach me that using forms of technology can be very useful in the learning process of students. It will help my future with incorporating many different forms of technology into lesson plans, but also helped me currently with my nanny job, as I help children with homework every day. These lessons might help my approach in helping them to understand.

Questions:

1. The article showed that the students were able to learn at a higher capability with the use of technology. Why do you think the technology improved the students' ability to learn so well?

2. How might a teacher be able to incorporate this idea into an everyday routine? What types of technology could be effective?

Answers:

1. I think children learn well when they are presented with material in a way that is hands on. When they are able to participate by doing, instead of listening or writing, it may be more understandable.

2. A teacher could incorporate all three technologies in lessons by using a variety of specific technologies with specific material. Some examples that could be incorporated into the lessons would be videos and photography, for a visual understanding photography, certain interactive computer software, for the hands-on understanding.

Journal 3

Students Dig up Dirt to Learn About Internet Safety

Morehouse, J. (2011). Students dig up dirt to learn about internet safety. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(2), 34-35. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20110910?pg=36

After reading this article, I became much more aware of the dangers of posting personal information on the internet. I have always been the type of person to not really worry about the possible consequences of sharing online, especially when so many other people are doing it as well. I thought the posibility of someone looking up individuals' identities seemed a little farfetched. However, this article informed me that it is much more common and easy than I previously thought. People often search for questionable personal information during an interviewing process to find reasons no to hire you. Also, maintaining a professional demeanor at a current job can be ruined because of something online. The author's approach to writing this article was very effective. Making his readers learn how easy it is to find specific information about a person by having them actually try it themselves, makes more of an impact on the severity of the issue. With the popularity of social networking websites and the youth now getting involved, I feel that it is a teacher's responsibility to encourage technology but also to provide them with the knowledge that this article entails so they can continue in safety.

Question1: The article showed the dangers of posting information online. How would I, as a teacher, be able to encourage students to not post personal information online?

Answer: If I tell them the consequences and give them the tools to set their posts private, I think they will be influenced enough to not post publicly. Also, encouraging them to not share personal information that they wouldn't share to a stranger could help them realize the dangers as well.

Question 2: Learning about the consequences and dangers of adding information online, who do you think should be at blame: the person posting, or the people using the information in a negative way? Also, do you think this unsafety is a negative aspect of technology?

Answer: The personal information is posted by the person, so, it is therefore the fault of the person allowing it to be read by all who sees it. However, it is simple to fix. We just need to encourage more people to avoid posting personal information and it wouldnt have an effect on technology at all.

NETS-2



Journal 2

Join The Flock

McClintock, S. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience.. (8 ed., Vol. 37, pp. 14-16). International Society for Technology in Education.Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607?pg=14&search_term=JOIN THE FLOCK&search_term=JOIN THE FLOCK

Before this class, I was not very clear on what Twitter was or the purpose for it. I thought it was just another social network website where you can read about celebrity's social lives and conversations. And, having a facebook, I decided I didn't need another social account to maintain. I was also hesitant to start something new because I was intimidated with having to figure out a whole new network style, especially when I am slow to catch on to new technology. But, after a few weeks of this course and reading the informative "Join the Flock" article, I realized that Twitter is much more than a communication method. I learned that it can actually be very useful professionally as well as socially. It also is not difficult at all because the information that interests you appears automatically without having to do anything! I learned that Twitter is a great resource for teachers to contact other educators and talk about and share effective lesson plans, new helpful sources and ideas, and even just to seek advice. I now realize that Twitter is more than just another method for communication, but it also acts a source to learn and educate yourself in whatever subject you chose to "follow".

Question: The article showed us that twitter can be useful for teachers for finding resources from other teachers. How can Twitter be helpful for teachers in other ways than finding resources for lesson plans?

Answer: Following teachers can also be helpful because you can seek advice about the teaching experience. With the budget cuts effecting the education system, teachers are struggling all over the nation. So, being able to communicate successful ideas and methods of adapting to the new teaching environment, it could help to create an outlet to the difficult system.

Enhance Your Twitter Experience

McClintock Miller, S. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning and Leading With Technology, 37(8), 14-17

I felt like the "Enhance Your Twitter Experience" article was a much more hands on, learn as you go approach to new Twitter users. The "Twitter Twerminology" section was my personal favorite because it was a quick and helpful guide to learn about the concepts and lingo of Twitter. Being a new "tweeter" myself, I found it to be very easy to understand the capabilities of Twitter and how to use them. I learned how to search already established hashtags and how to retweet other posts to all of my followers. Also, I learned how to make certain lists of my followers and how to search through other user's lists by using my Tweetdeck. After learning about Tweetdeck, I feel like I will be able to use this a lot in order to find other teachers or educators to follow so I will be able to get more information and insight into new teaching resources. I liked how motivated the author was to spread the idea of twitter and encourage that everyone can benefit from it because I was hesitant at first and now I am grateful that I got a chance to learn and share information by being involved in Twitter.

Question: Twitter sounds like a very useful tool, but it sounds like it takes a lot of effort to  post information for other teachers to use as well as look for sources that others have posted. How much time do you have to invest in Twitter to maintain a useful page?

Answer: Twitter makes things easy so when you need to look for new sources, everything is laid out for you, so it does not take much time at all. Also, posting tweets is easy also so it is not time consuming. You can spend as much time or as little time as you need.

NETS-5

Technology Self-Assessment: School 2.0

After the technology self assesment quiz, I chose the NETS-T 1 module: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity. I chose this because I think creativity allows children to have more fun with learning and makes it more enjoyable, which is extremely important and can possibly encourage further learning. I chose to use the "Create Art All Together Now" resource under number 3 in this module. This lesson showed a video of the creativity involved in google spreadsheets. It showed how you could color specific squares in the spreadsheet to create specific designs and illusions. I decided to chose this resource because I think it is important to allow students to show their creativity through art with technology because it not only teaches them important technological resources that they could use in the future, but also shows encourages and helps spacial management, planning, cognitive thinking, strategic tools, and imagination. From watching the video, I learned that spreadsheets did not have to be business oriented and boring. I didn't know you could provide color, so therefore, I did not know that designing pictures from the specific colored boxes could be possible. It adds something new to spreadsheets, and could possibly affect the use of them in schools.