Well, here we are, the last day of the course. During the first week, I was feeling very overwhelmed with everything that was presented. Now, that I have had time to collaborate with my classmates and explore some of the assistive technology, I am very excited about what I have learned! I am already trying to sync my apple devices together using iCloud to make the most out of what I have. Fortunately, I have an iPad and an iPhone and I will be able to further explore the capabilities of these devices over the summer.
As I already mentioned, our school purchased two iPads during the month of June, which sat in the principals office and will sit there until September. What a shame right? I'm looking forward to sharing some of the apps that can support student learning with my principal. Hopefully this will ensure that the iPads are put to good use right from the beginning of the year. Who knows, maybe this will incise our school to fundraise enough money to buy a class set! How awesome would that be? I'm sure Maureen and I will probably be fighting over them at some point, whether there are two or twenty five!
As for the blog......I actually enjoyed the experience! Looking over my posts for the past three weeks, I can't believe how much I have actually learned. I learned how to blog: adding gadgets, pictures and changing fonts. I also learned about the reading and writing task analysis', how to upload documents to Scribd, embed codes, upload videos, use Blackboard and my most favourite thing of all, the apps that support student learning. These apps will make differentiation so much easier for teachers and exciting for students and teachers!
Here's one last video that I found very interesting.
I'm looking forward to checking out everyone's group blogs! Have a great summer!
Todays class consisted of working on our group blog for Written Output. We met in the Irving Centre which was nice and air-conditioned! Here's a photo below of our "opulent classroom"(Wade) thanks to Wade and his iPad with the 360 app!
Since I was not familiar with the different types of assistive technology that could be used to support writing, it was great to explore them and find out where they could be incorporated into the writing process. I didn't actually think that assistive technology could be incorporate so easily into the classroom, i.e. pencil grips and slant board. Wade, Maureen, Lara and I spent the morning researching, compiling our findings and publishing the information into our new fabulous blog which can be accessed at http://writingtaskanalysis.blogspot.ca/ This blog is a great resource that can be used as a reference for supporting students who experience difficulties with the writing process. It contains research information, videos, tutorials, website links and a list of assistive technology and the target areas for the writing process. This blog will be a very useful source that I'm sure I will refer to in the fall. It is also a great way for us to share different resources that we find helpful and think others would too.
Reading task analysis, blowing your nose task analysis and now the writing task analysis. Today in class Barb had us do some writing with a pencil and paper. It was an indication of how times are changing when there were quite a few people who didn't have any paper. We really do rely solely on our computers and other mobile devices.
This writing activity was the start of the writing task analysis, which I must mention is much more complicated than the reading task analysis that we completed earlier. The writing process depends on the reading process. In order to be a good writer, you have to be able to read well. Reading is decoding (deconstructing words) text and writing is encoding (putting words back together) text. These are two huge processes that students are expected to complete each and every day at school.
Below is the writing task analysis that Barb provided for us. It is quite the map. Last week I felt very overwhelmed when faced with this task. Today I was feeling much more comfortable when we are having this class discussion.
This process may seems like a lot to wrap your head around. However, before we can assist our students, we need to understand this writing process. Before we can recommend assistive technology to support students, we need to know exactly where they may be experiencing difficulty.
There are so many assistive technology programs that exist and I had absolutely no experience with any of them. I feel a little embarrassed admitting that since I have been teaching for seven years. However, I have never had any students who required assistive technology supports.
One of the software programs we looked at today was Co:Writer 6. Co:Writer is a program that offers word predictions when words are spelled incorrectly. It can be used in MS Word documents, Blogs, Email and online. From what I understand, it allows you to create your own word lists to de used when writing. This program seems like it would be a fabulous resource for students who experience difficulty getting their thoughts down because of their spelling.
Co:Writer 6 Product Demonstration
I am excited to explore some of the assistive technology that supports writing! We will be doing this as a part of our next assignment and putting it together in a new blog. Maureen, Lara, Wade and I will be working on this tomorrow and Thursday. I'm really looking forward to finding some apps to support students with writing difficulties. The link for our new blog is http://writingtaskanalysis.blogspot.ca/
So....on the weekend, I discovered that I can save a blog post without actually publishing it! I apologize to those of you who have read some of my posts when they were only half finished. Learning new things everyday!
Today class started off by looking at Kurzweil, which is apparently easier to download to a Mac as opposed to a PC. It took me about 10 minutes on the weekend to download the trial version onto my Mac whereas it took others 12 hours and some people were unable to download it.
Kurzweil 3000 costs $1000!!! It is an expensive program but it can do a lot of great things.
It was originally created for people who are blind
It is a compensatory strategy that provides students with reading and writing materials.
It is easy for students to use
Offers text to speech
Magnifies text for students who are visually impaired
Reading pace can increase and decrease
Highlights words as they are being read (good for students with ADHD, engages students and maintains attention to task)
Interactive (allows you to pause speech when necessary and repeat for students who need repetition)
Provides independence and multi-reading oppurtunities
Contains a dictionary that provides definitions which is good for students who can decode but do not comprehend (students with Aspergers)
Can develop a picture dictionary for visual learners
Offers translations in other languages
Available in French
Inspiration is built in
Offers word prediction
Provides independence
Engaging
I don't have any previous experience with Kurzweil, but it does seem like a program that contains a lot of great features. Although, when considering the steep price of $1000 per subscription the iPad seems much more appealing for schools that are operating on tight budgets. From what I understand, within HRSB Kurzweil can only be used by students who have a diagnosed learning disability, whereas, iPads are considered to be a UDL(Universal Design for Learning). Universal Design for Learning focuses on the idea of meeting everyone's needs, not just those students with diagnosed learning disabilities as do some forms of assistive technologies. i-devices are considered to be a form of UDL because everyone is buying them which brings the cost down for consumers. These devices also have a lot of built-in accessibility options available to all users.
Time is also a factor! Kurzweil requires time spent scanning documents into the program, when most classrooms don't even have access to a scanner. iPads allow for documents to be scanned in seconds, put into a pdf and opened in vbooksz. It's quick, easy and students can do it! Within the school system we are moving in the direction of digitized information, including textbooks. The DOE should be working on creating these documents that are accessible to all learners. It is reality that very soon students will be bringing their own mobile devices to school to use within the classroom setting. We need to focus on making the curriculum accessible, not changing the students so they can access the material. All of the advances make me anxious and excited at the same time. There is so much new information to learn and what seems like so little time. There are also so many great programs that we can be using to assist us as teachers so we don't need to try and recreate the wheel time and time again.
This website contains virtual manipulatives that students can use to demonstrate their understanding of mathematical concepts. It applies to students of all grade levels by incorporating interactive learning tools. This is one of my favourite math websites. The activities are engaging and students really enjoy them.
This website is a reading comprehension resource that focuses on using prior knowledge, making connections, questioning, visualizing, Inferring, summarizing, evaluating and synthesizing for grades K-4. It provides lesson plans and videos for teachers and interactive activities for students. This website promotes independence for students. It is a great way for students to improve reading comprehension strategies.
Story Jumper is a website that allows students to write and illustrate their own story books. It offers templates that students can choose from to begin their stories. There are several colourful pictures, backgrounds, characters etc to choose from. Books can be shared online and hardcopies can be ordered. This website promotes the universal design for learning since students can create a book on any topic to demonstrate their knowledge.
Bubbl.us is a brainstorming website. It allows teachers and students to create mind maps to organize thoughts and ideas. It is similar to Inspiration and Kidspiration. This would be a great website for any student or teacher to use to assist with brainstorming for science, story writing and pretty much any subject area.
Photo Story allows slideshows to be created using digital photos. Sound effects and voice narration can be added to the slideshows. There is also an option to add captions and titles to each picture/slide. Photo stories can be published as a movie. It is a program that is very easy to use. I used this program myself last year for the first time and I think it is something my students would really enjoy.
This morning I watched the webinar Fine Motor Skills. I was torn between which one to choose but since I'm not teaching math next year, I decided to watch the one on fine motor skills. I learned a lot of valuable information while watching this webinar, since it is not my area of expertise. Fine motor skills are the the ability to make precise coordinated movements using muscles and joints in the wrist, hands and fingers. This webinar presented many iPad apps that can be used to assist children who experience fine motor dysfunction. iPads can be used as a part of a comprehensive fine motor skill remediation program.
In the past, I haven't really had to work with children to develop their fine motor skills. This year I will be teaching a grade 1/2 combined and a grade 5 class that has a lot of varying abilities and behaviours. From the conversations I have already had with this years teachers and the learning centre teacher, I know that these apps will be beneficial to some of my students. As I mentioned before, our school did purchase a few iPads this past year. If Maureen and I prepare a list of apps that we think could benefit the students and suggest that our principal view the apps on youtube, I am hopeful that she will allow us to make purchases. By doing this, the iPads can be used as centre activities within classrooms and to support individual students. I know there will be some controversy amongst students because there are only two iPads, but once there is a routine in place while we have access to them, hopefully it will be successful. I'm a little nervous about next year, but I'm hopeful that I will be able to incorporate some of this assistive technology into my class to engage the students and motivate them to learn.
I loved all of the apps presented in the webinar! A few of my favourites are:
WritePad
WritePad costs $9.99. It is a handwriting recognition app that instantly converts handwriting to text. Students can use their index finger or a stylus to write. It provides some great activities to reinforce handwriting. I think this activity is a great way to motivate students to practice their handwriting. It is an activity that would benefit all students.
Bugs and Buttons
Bugs and Buttons costs $2.99. It is a pinch and grab activity that requires thumb and index finger control. Students need to apply the necessary pressure on the screen to drag the bugs and other objects to the necessary jars. As the levels increase, the activities become more difficult. This is a great activity for students to work on developing their fine motor skills without them even knowing that they are actually working! Love this app!
Dexteria
Dexterity costs $4.99. It is an app that provides therapeutic hand exercises supporting and enhancing fine motor skills. It also helps children and adults with their writing. It promotes dexterity, finger sequencing, isolation and control. A stylus can be used to complete activities. This app is very engaging for students in order to complete in class tasks.
Touch and Write
Touch and Write is a free app.It also the user to touch the screen with their finger or a stylus and learn letters, numbers and words. You can write with shaving cream, ketchup, gelatine, pudding, chalk or a pencil. There is a option of two high frequency word lists and you can also create your own. There is also a choice of 29 different paper styles. It enhances handwriting skills, control and grasp. This is a great engaging and creative way for children to write.
Today Maureen and I only had a few apps left to shop for and we were able to find those fairly quickly. We continued working on completing our chart where we identified 10 apps that can support and enhance performance for students with reading disabilities. I found this activity to be time consuming, but very useful. We had to become familiar with the apps by providing a description, indicating who they wold be useful for, how to integrate them in the classroom and where they fit into the reading task analysis.
Below is the table that we created. Scroll through the pages to view all ten apps. Assignment #2
I never considered blowing your nose to be such a complicated process! But boy do I take it for granted! This morning we attempted to create a task analysis for the process involved for the body and brain in order to blow your nose. Lets just say it involves a lot more than getting a tissue, blowing and putting the tissue in the garbage.
Blowing your nose requires attention to task, kinesthetic functions, auditory processing, working memory, visual processing, balance, gross motor skills, fine motor skills and the list goes on and on. There are so many steps that have to be in place before the task can be completed. From what I have learned today, this is no small task.
While Maureen and I were trying to complete this task, we experienced a little frustration along the way. We weren't really digging deep enough at first. We were focusing on the physical process, not everything else that goes along with it. This process really made me reflect and think about my students who experience difficulties completing specific tasks in class and how they might feel when this occurs. This task analysis relates back to the reading task analysis that we are continuing to work on. As Barb said, "Reading never just happens, it is one of the most complex cognitive processes that occur in the brain." As I continue to work on the reading task analysis, I realize just how complex the reading process is.
PBS The Secret Life of the Brain
This film contains five different episodes: The Baby's Brain, The Child's Brain, The Teenage Brain, The Adult Brain and the Aging Brain. Below is the episode on The Child's Brain.
APP SHOPPING!
Who would have thought we would be shopping in class! We finished up today's class with a little shopping. Everyone I know loves shopping, so what better way to end a class? I really enjoyed searching for apps to support students with reading difficulties. As I was reading some of the descriptions and reviews there were certain students in my class last year that I knew could benefit from the apps we were exploring. I was also thinking of ways I could use these apps in my class this upcoming year. My school purchased a couple of iPads in June, so I look forward to testing out these apps with my students. We'll be compiling a list of the apps we chose and posting them here tomorrow. Stay tuned....
Today each group presented interesting Apps from the webinars we viewed. I found the presentations to be very useful. Each group provided many different Apps that were unfamiliar to me. It was great to see a snapshot of these Apps so I can further explore the ones that interest me the most.
The first group to present viewed the webinar: Executive Functions and Apps. Students with executive dysfunction have a deficit in the
frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lob encompasses everything that you need
to be successful in the classroom. The Apps presented during this presentation were iRewards, Work System, Pictello and Sock Monkey.
The second group presented on the webinar: New Apps in Action for LD: Enhancing Input and Output. The Apps presented were Reading Comprehension, Mastering Sight Words, 7 Notes Premium and Tools 4 Students.
We were the third group to present. Below is our Powerpoint presentation that we put together including our favourite Apps that were presented in the webinar: Top Free Apps for Special Education. We have also included a complete list of Apps presented in this Webinar at the end of the Powerpoint presentation.
Top Apps PP
The forth group presented on the webinar: Reluctant Writers. The Apps this groups chose to present were Strip Designer, Pictello, Writer's Toolbox and Instant Poetry.
The fifth group to present viewed the webinar: Reluctant Readers. The Apps presented were ibook, Story Builder, Vbookz, Stanza and ABC Pocket Phonic.
My favourite apps from today's webinar presentations were:
Strip Designer
Strip Designer is a great app for anyone! It could be incorporated into any subject area and across many different grade levels. It would be a great way to get students to create photo albums, tell stories and let them have fun creating their own comic strips. My class this past year would have been very excited to use this app. I taught a 3/4 combined with a very wide range of abilities. Even though their abilities varied greatly, everyone would be able to participate in this activity. My students were a very eager group who enjoyed writing and publishing texts using different programs. I am looking forward to trying this app with my grade 5 class next year!
Pictello
Pictello is a great app for students with limited fine motor skills and students who have difficulty creating ideas. It can be used to create talking photo albums and picture stories. Each page of the album can contain a picture, five lines of text and a recorded sound. I think this program would be a great motivational tool for reluctant writer's. They would be able to incorporate pictures and sound to create an interactive book. This app would be a great way to engage all students!
Instant Poetry
Instant Poetry is an app that allows you to choose a theme with a word bank provided based on that theme. This makes writing poetry easy for first time and experienced poets. There are several fonts and colours to choose from. Students can also add personal background pictures to their poems. For me, poetry doesn't come easy, therefore I always leave it until the end of the year. This past year I went outside my comfort zone and did a full unit on poetry. I think this app would be a great help for me as the teacher as well as my students.
After our presentations we went back to the reading task analysis, which was causing me to feel very overwhelmed! First of all, I could not find my presentation which threw me off from the beginning. I felt like I was falling behind because I was spending so much time trying to locate it. FINALLY, I found it and got started right away! We were moving at a very fast pace and I found it extremly hard to focus and keep up. I was trying to pay attention, stay focused and type at the same time, but the typing was taking over. I was relieved when one of my colleagues expressed the same concern, ahhh, it's not just me. Luckily Barb reassured us that we would be continuing to work on this as a group tomorrow. Instantly, my anxiety subsided :)
Update on QR codes
Since learning about QR codes, I've been seeing them everywhere, on fruit, vegetables, moisturizer, shampoo bottles and all sorts of things. I scanned the code on my bag of cherries tonight and it brought me to a video on youtube about Sweet Cherries from the Chelan Valley. The video showed the process of how the cherries get from the farm to us. Who knew! Learning something new everyday. Here's the video below.
Today our group met to discuss our Webinar, Tops Apps in Special Education. We viewed the Webinars at home and we were ready to discuss this morning! We chose the Apps that interested us the most and created our Powerpoint presentation based on those Apps. It was interesting hearing what Wade, Lara and Maureen thought about all the different Apps that were presented and which ones they preferred.
The App that I chose is Settings which is an accessible option built into i-devices. There are many options included in the Settings application. These include voice-over, zoom, large text, white on black (high contrast), speak selection, assistive touch and split keyboard. All of the options in the settings application can be used to support student learning in the classroom. They FREE accessible options that are built into the i-devices.
Lara chose Dragon Dictation. It is one of the Apps made available to assist student learning and teachers as well. I am looking forward to experimenting with this App with my students in September. Below is a video that provides a demonstration of Dragon Dictation.
iPad and Dragon Dictation -Free App
Maureen chose to present MathTappers. It is an combination of seven different interactive applications that can be used to promote student independence. They are very engaging activities that I think my students would love to play!
Wade chose to present Maps. Maps is a built in mapping application that can be used to engage students during class time. Students can take virtual tours anywhere to become more familiar with different places.
After spending some time experimenting with Blogger today, I think I am finally getting the hang of this! We'll see what the next two weeks bring!
I just finished watching our Webinar: Top Free Apps in Special Education. There are some really great FREE Apps available to support student learning. I can't believe these services are offered for free. Even though iPads and iPods are costly, we are able to access so many programs at a fraction of the cost. While watching the webinar, I was trying to load all the Apps onto my iPad, but there are so many! I will have finish later.
The morning started off with keynote speakers Dr. Phil Ferguson and Dr. Diane Ferguson from Chapman University. Their presentation was called Circles, Squares, and Triangles: The geometry of Family/Professional Relationships. Their session started off with some visuals of where they live in Orange, California. We continued with a group activity. We were asked to list three adjectives that described parents of children with disabilities. The three adjectives our group came up with were: protective, passionate, hopeful. We followed up with a whole group share. I enjoyed the approach they took to their presentation. The visuals grabbed people's attention and they involved everyone right from the beginning. The activity allowed us to engage in professional conversations as a whole group.
Their presentation focused on the importance of communication and involvement between families, schools and communities. It is very important to involve parents/guardians in the school community. Asking parents how they would like to be involved allows them to take on tasks that they feel comfortable doing, as mentioned, creating a compost.
One quote that stayed with me from this presentation is, "We think of parents as a resource or in need of resources." This is so true! When parents are actively involved in their child's education, we think of them as a great resource. When parents are not involved, we automatically jump to conclusions and imply that they are in need of resources. We often don't consider the outside factors that might contribute to them not being involved in their child's education: finances, travel, emotions, etc.
The theme of families continued into the second presentation with Karen Dyke as well. She is the Principal at Aldershot Elementary. Her presentations was called, What's Home Got To Do With It? She began her presentation with some visuals as well, similar to the first presentation. Her visuals presented some comparisons of urban and rural school settings. The presentation focused on the importance of creating strong relationships between home and school. Her school closed and they were moved to another building a few kilometres away. Due to this move, the amount of parent involvement diminished. The parents who were actively involved were no longer visible in the new location. These relationships are sometimes difficult to maintain in rural school settings due to the distance between home and school, amount of time it takes to get there and unfamiliarity with the building. I was able to connect to the rural school setting that was discussed. I grew up in a small community in Newfoundland and there were eleven people in my class from grade primary to three. When I started grade four we moved to a new school where several schools amalgamated. This new school was now a twenty five minute drive from my community as opposed to the five minute drive before. This twenty minute commute really made a difference in the amount of parent volunteers that remained the same from our old school. This parental involvement is essential in a school community.
Apps, WOW! I am really enjoying learning about the apps that are available to better meet the needs of our students. Prizmo is an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) app that allows you to take a picture of text, including bills, whiteboards, business cards and upload it onto iPads, iPhones and iPods within seconds. Once the text is uploaded onto these mobile devices, it can be cropped and edited to enhance the picture. The app can then be played as text to speech. This app would be a great tool for students who experience difficulties with reading. Check out the video below that will walk you through the Primo process.
Prizmo: iPhone/iPod Touch OCR App
I have seen QR codes in many places and I had no idea what they were used for until today. QR (quick response) codes are similar to barcodes since they both provide information. QR codes are able to store more information about a product or topic such as website addresses and text. They are called quick response codes because cell phones and other mobile devices can scan them and provide further details. Instead of having to type a website address, you can scan a QR code using a QR reader on your smart phone and it will bring you directly to the intended website. QR codes can have many uses in the classroom. Some of these uses are: to read books aloud to students, make books, completing surveys, taking students to specific websites without typing the url. I feel I still have a lot to learn about QR codes. I think I may need to attempt to make one in order to better understand the process. I have added the App to my iPhone and I'll be scanning all the QR codes around my house to check them out! Check out the link below for an introduction to QR codes.
Today we also began to discuss the reading task analysis. To start we read a text entitled Dracula. As we read the passage we were suppose to be thinking about the process we were using in order to read the text. When we were finished, we discussed this with a partner and then we came together and discussed it as a group. I didn't realize how difficult this actually was until we started to discuss it as a group.
A reading analysis is the break down of the reading process. When we break the reading process into steps, we are able to recognize where students experience difficulties and then we are able to identify the supports we need to put in place to meet their learning needs.
The first question we looked at was, 1) Why do we read? I felt pretty comfortable answering this question. For information, for pleasure and to derive meaning. When we looked at the second question, 2) What is the first step in the reading process? I struggled to come up with an answer. After a lot of discussion, we finally zoomed in on something that now seems so evident and simple, students have to attend to the task (be engaged and motivated). There are many factors that can affect a students reading. We need to consider sounds, background noise, nutrition, sleep, self-regulation (staying in their chair), emotions and prior knowledge. The message from discussing the reading task analysis was, if a student is missing a part of this reading process, we need to be able to identify that and support them, possibly with assistive technology. Before we are able to do that, as Barb said "You need to know how really good readers read before you can
identify where students are having difficulties." We didn't finish with the reading task analysis, we are going to look at it again during tuesdays class.
From here we started to explore with Inspiration and Kidspiration. We began inputting some of the information from our reading task analysis. I first used these programs at an inservice a couple of years ago and I love using them to do brainstorming activities with my students. The programs are very fun and easy to use.
A quote that I found interesting from todays class was something Barb said. "Our vision wasn’t made for reading, it was made for
survival. We are changing the purpose of vision. We are using it for reading." I never really thought about vision in thee terms, but hearing that makes me think how much we take things for granted sometimes.
It was great so see familiar faces when I arrived at Acadia this morning for our Assistive Technology class! Assistive technology is a new learning experience for me. I don't have any experience or knowledge with devices from the past or present; however, I have already taken the leap and purchased an iPad and an iPhone. I am very excited to learn how I can incorporate these into my classroom!
With the new forms of technology developing rapidly, we are seeing a convergence of technologies. This convergence requires us to create a new perspective towards assistive technologies, new theories, new products and new practices. The iPad, iPod and iPhone are being labeled as disruptive technologies. Disruptive technologies are known as new products that replace previously existing technologies. They are universally designed learning devices. This means that due to the high number of people who are buying them, they are more affordable and accessible. They are also portable, functional, inclusive and attractive for children.
The apps we explored today were Pic Collage and Book Creator. They were very user friendly and could be easily adapted into any classroom and used with all students.
This is my Pic Collage that I created in class today. It represents all the things that are precious to me. This was a very fun activity that I would like to do with my students in September. I think they would enjoy it just as much as I did!
Book Creator is a very interactive program that allows students to create personalized books. Students can insert text, images, personal pictures and audio. Once the book is complete, students can publish their book and export it to iTunes. This allows students to feel like a real accomplished author author. Below is a tutorial video on how to use Book Creator.
Well, here we are, the last day of the course. During the first week, I was feeling very overwhelmed with everything that was presented. Now, that I have had time to collaborate with my classmates and explore some of the assistive technology, I am very excited about what I have learned! I am already trying to sync my apple devices together using iCloud to make the most out of what I have. Fortunately, I have an iPad and an iPhone and I will be able to further explore the capabilities of these devices over the summer.
