Module 11

This weeks module was packed with new technologies and information.  The Office Publisher program was annoying at times but I was really proud with my end result.  Sometimes it was hard for me to manipulate the text boxes. I think it all came together nicely despite some of the technical failures that I had.  Signup Genius is a site that I am pretty familiar with and I already had an account with them.  My advisor uses Signup Genius to organize advisement appointments each semester.  I think it is a great tool to use, it offers various templates for people to use for free.  I like the educreation website a lot more then photostory3.  I know that the sites aren't too similar but I would rather use educreation.  Of course I haven't actually made a video using the site, but the end result seemed better to me.  Educreation is interactive where photostory3 videos are not.  I don't dislike the photostory3 tool and I was very happy with my video.

Module 10

I enjoyed the readings this week as well as the digital story activity.  In the "Digital Stories Targeting Social Skills for Children with Disabilities" article Cori More wrote, "When children experience difficulties in social areas, they may experience difficulties across many settings." This is true for people with and without disabilities.  If you can't properly function in social setting then you will be very limited in life.  Having good social skills can be beneficial to you in education as well as work.  More also wrote about peer tutoring.  I have had a lot of experience with the Montessori teaching ideology so I absolutely love peer tutoring.  It is a good way to get students actively involved in their learning.  Even struggling students can benefit from tutoring their peers.  Having a student teach a skill can help them refine it in themselves.

My uncle is autistic and throughout the years he's had a lot of classes and been given a lot of tool to teach him how to interact in social situations.  He has had many workers work one-on-one with him.  They would take him out and teach him how to cross the street, wait in line, how to tie his shoes, and lots of other things.  Whenever there was going to be a change in his schedule, that we were able to anticipate, we would slowly expose him to it.  Whenever he got a new worker or  when my grandmother would go out of town we would have to give him constant verbal reassurances.  I chose to make my digital story about going to the store.  For a while, whenever my grandmother took my uncle shopping with her he would expect to get anything he wanted.  If she said no then he would try to sneak it.  We had to work very hard for months to get him out of that habit.

I thinks that social stories can be very beneficial in the classroom.  It is very important to use vocabulary that students can understand.  Digital social stories with an audio narration of the story can help students who aren't strong visual learners.  Having students make their own social stories about specific social skills that they need to work on would help engage them in the learning process.  Having their families on board would help students carry the skills they learn out into the real world.

This week our focus in class was Assistive Technology (AT) and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).  AT is the broad term for the devices, services, and solutions that encourage independence for people with disabilities.  AAC includes all types of communication that helps promote interaction, school performance, and self-worth in students with disabilities.  I was somewhat familiar with both of these terms, but I enjoyed getting some in depth information on them.

ACC is amazing because it empowers students with disabilities, it gives them a voice. There are many different AAC techniques available to people.  Pictures, symbols, and word boards can give students access to a wider vocabulary.  Small signs and gestures can also help with communication.  These techniques enable students to answer questions in class as well as ask them.  ACC techniques are types of Assistive technology (AT).

AT helps level the playing field for students in school as well as adults in the work force.  I choose to do a WebQuest on Christine, a 42 year old women who had Multiple Sclerosis.  As an accountant typing played a huge role in her career.  Unfortunately she was unable to use the standard QWERTY keyboard.  The WebQuest took me through the different legal responsibilities of employers. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employer with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities, unless it would cause undue hardship.  That means that an employer must supply the AT needed for individuals to properly complete their jobs.  

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Section 508, the Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with disabilities Act of 1988 and The Americans with Disabilities Act passed in July 1990, were all put into place to make sure that all individuals have equal access to technology that can improve their independence. This legislation ensures proper assistance for students in school and adults in the work force.

I thought that the WebQuest was well laid out and easy to navigate.  I think it can be a truly valuable tool in the classroom.  They give students a chance to actively learn rather then just get talked at.  WebQuest can be used for both individuals and groups and can be easily modified to fit the different levels of learning.  I think they would work best as in class assignments so that you can assure that each student gets proper access to the internet.

Using Facebook in the Classroom

In general, there are many risks involved with using the internet in the classroom.  There are numerous inappropriate sites on the internet that students can stumble upon.  According to Bernie Poole (a Professor in instructional technology),  teachers can't simply take away internet privileges if they catch students misusing it. So in order to keep students from abusing it, teachers should properly explain what is considered appropriate and inappropriate use of the internet.  

As for using Facebook in the classroom could be both proper and improper, it all depends on the limits teacher put on it.  Facebook suggests that rather then teachers friending student they should create classroom pages or closed groups.  Doing this helps avoid confusing personal life with professional life. Before using Facebook into your classroom you should first look into your school's policy on doing so.   

Facebook for Educators is a Facebook page created in 2011 by Linda Fogg-Phillips, Derek Baird, and BJ Fogg.  although it claimed to be the "official Facebook for Educators guide", I found it difficult to 
navigate.  Facebook in Education is another page on Facebook for Educators. I found this page a lot easier to navigate and much more informative.  they have separate folders for all their success stories, resources, and such.

According to Sarah Kessler, if teachers are going to use Facebook in the classroom then they have to be very specific with what they will be using it for.  Guidelines should be  created and then  fallowed through.  she also suggested creating interactive groups and pages rather then friending students.  Kessler also acknowledged the age restrictions put on Facebook and offered some alternative sites to use.

Personaly I think Facebook could be a really valuable tool to use in the classroom.  As long as it is used appropriately, it would be easy to implement since students are already familiar with the cite.  We as teachers need to keep up with the times.  Like our proffesor said in her video, Facebook is the second most popular site on the internet.  Educators would be remiss to ignore its popularity and power.

After reading through the list of the best Web 2.0 Applications for Education, I came across the sitehoover website.  Sitehoover gives users the ability to make a homepage to keep track of go-to sites.  The site also gives users the opportunities to make folders for specific themes.  This website can help students with and without disabilities.  It gives students with disabilities the extra organizational support that is often needed.  When students start a research project, they can create a folder to house the websites used for that specific assignment.  This site would also be great for when it’s time to type the work cited page. 

On my sitehoover page I put together some of my favorite websites.  On my page I have two folders. One houses some of the math websites and videos I like to reference and use, and the other has ELA videos I like.  I also have some of legitimate sites I use for searching topics.  

While the numbers given in the “Do You Know” video were impressive, they did not take me by surprise.  For years society has become increasingly internet centered.  Schools have started to transition to e-books.  Often times, e-books are cheaper than textbooks.  They have also made the switch from tradition black boards and white boards to interactive smart boards.

Mod 3 Reading Response

UDL in the Web 2.0 World

The article "Web 2.0: A New Generation of Learners and Education" written by Dina Rosen and Charles Nelson, addressed the many changes in technology that we have experienced in just a short timeframe. 

"Gillmor (2004) wrote, "In the past 150 years we've essentially had two distinct means of communication: one-to-many (books, newspaper, radio, and TV) and one-to-one (letters, telegraph, and telephone).  The Internet, for the first time, gives us many-to-many and few-to-few communication."  This change in communication has given teachers all over the world the chance to communicate with each other.  They can meet up on a website to share and critique lesson plans.  Teachers can use blogs and sites to produce mass social sharing of information, images, and more.

The internet plays a major role for applying an EDL in the classroom.  With the internet teachers and students can access an unlimited amount of educational sites.  There are websites that cater to all different types of learning styles.  Teachers are able to make changes to their lesson plans quickly with the use of Word Processor.  Word can also be used for students who can’t use pens or pencils.

This class in itself is a form of UDL.  Because this course is purely online, students have much more leeway in when they work on assignments.  This is beneficial for people who have children or who work. 

The Today Show video was hilarious and mind-boggling all at once.  The utter cluelessness of the anchors was really funny, but I couldn’t really fathom how someone couldn’t understand what the internet was or what one could do with it.  It has been so prevalent in my life that I can’t, and don’t want, to imagine life without it.