Journal 9 - Assistive Technology

NETS-T (2, 4, 5)

Communication
Augmentative and Alternative Communication, or AAC, refers to any type of commucation that assists those who may have difficulties with speech, language or writing.  Devices can range from low/no tech, like gestures or signing, to advanced software and hardware.  AAC gives the power of communication to those who cannot express themselves verbally.

A low/no tech device is the Mayer-Johnson's Picture Communication Symbols (PCS).  It is one of many communication displays that utilize a library of symbols and pictures to represent people or objects around the student.  The student can then point to a picture to represent their message.  For example, pointing to a hamburger can mean, "I would like to eat a hamburger".  Although it seems to be very simple and basic, a communication display, like the PCS, allows the student to make choices without the frustration because of a lack to verbally communicate. A low tech device such as this, however, requires that the person being communicated with pays attention.  Therefore, there must be a system in place that allows the student to get the attention they need effectively.

A VOCA device literally gives their user a voice.  VOCA, or Voice Output Communication Aid, is a high tech device that uses the same concept as a low tech communication display, but adds a dedicated speech output apparatus.  Depending on the technology, some basic VOCA devices can store certain messages while more advanced devices can have an almost limitless vocabulary.  Mayer-Johnson also offers a series of VOCA devices called the DynaVox series.  When the user

Accessibility
Input devices differ from these devices because they are geared to provide accessibility to those who have physical or cognitive difficulties, impairments, and disabilities. Hardware and software input devices must be compatible with a computer and its programs to work.  Chorded Keyboards are a hardware option that replaces a standard keyboard for physically impaired users who may have difficulties sitting at a workstation.  The keyboards have fewer keys, but letters are typed by hitting a combination of keys, like playing a musical chord on a guitar or piano.  The BAT Personal Keyboard has only seven keys and is more similar to piano because it allows the user to rests their hand on top, with the fingers over four home keys and the thumb can move between the other three keys.  The Twiddler is a pocket-sized mouse pointer and has full-function keyboard used similar to a guitar.

Some software input devices are already integrated into  current computer systems such as speech and voice recognition programs.  Speech recognition software allows people to give commands or enter information using their voices rather than relying on a hardware device, such as a mouse or keyboard.  Of course, this requires a microphone attached to the computer in order to receive the signal, but again, many computers have integrated microphones into their systems.  Through speech recognition programs, users can still create text documents like e-mails, browse the Internet and access various applications and menus installed on the computer.

Journal 8 - Find the Truth About the Pacific Tree Octopus

NETS-T (1, 2, 4)

The Pacific Tree Octopus:  An unusual creature facing the brink of extinction.  This cephalopod boasts fascinating adaptations that allow it to live among the rainforests along the Olympic Peninsula.  Its existence continues to baffle scientists and students, especially students unaware of the joke.  Keith Ferrell challenges his students to investigate the Pacific Tree Octopus to teach his students how to discriminate and review sources.  He reports the amusing learning process in "Find the Truth About the Pacific Tree Octopus".  The students were assigned to research and report on two topics: "The Tree Octopus" and "All About Explorers".  Students began to collect the first data they stumbled upon, usually through Google, without asking, "Does this make sense?"  The result led to often humorous facts including "Marco Polo, Bill Gates, and Sam Walton helped finance Magellan's expedition to the Spice Islands" (Ferrell, 2011).  After presenting this information to this class, the students began to realize the flaws found in their research.  Ferrell used this opportunity to teach his students how to be critical thinkers.  They were reminded to use the 5 W's (What, Who, When, Where, Why) to assess whether information was reputable or not.

How can teachers use this lesson in their classroom?
There is no doubt that the internet holds a humongous bank of information.  The trick, however, is learning how to navigate through it.  Unlike libraries where books are generally reliable, the web does not necessarily filter out false information.  Teachers can use this lesson to show students to be selective and analytical of the information they find.

How can we save the Tree Octopus from extinction?
Don't worry.  They are in no immediate danger.

Ferrell, K. (2011). Find the truth about the pacific tree octopus. Learning & Leading with Technology, 39(1), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Learning_Connections_Find_the_truth_about_the_Pacific_tree_octopus.aspx

Journal 7 - Creating my PLN

NETS-T (5)

As a lifelong learner and future teacher, it is my responsibility to continuously pursue a practice of professional growth and leadership.  Taking advantage of the global online community via the internet, I have established, and continually add to, my Personal Learning Network, or PLN.  A Personal Learning Network is a system of connecting people to collaborate and share resources, thoughts, and ideas to expand the knowledge base of a particular field.  My particular PLN is based upon three social networking websites and/or applications:  Twitter, an online social networking and microblogging service;  Diigo, a social bookmarking website that allows users to tag, or categorize, their favorite websites; and the Educator’s PLN, a teacher based social networking site.  Each piece of my PLN offers various routes for tapping into educational resources, but in unique ways.  

Twitter is a unique in comparison to other social networking services because it allows users to microblog.  Users can post updates like other services, but it limits the users to 140 characters.  Therefore, posts are often quick and concise.  Through Twitter, I decided to participate in the New Teacher Chat (#ntchat) on Wednesday, August 3, considering my plans to be a new teacher.  The participants in #ntchat posted a link for a webinar, or web-based seminar, called the New Teacher Bootcamp.  Since I was directed to a link, the forum was different than a normal Twitter chat.  Though participants were able to chat via text, most of the discussion was led through an online voice session.  The moderator could choose who to give the virtual microphone to, and thus, the participant could actively speak to the audience.  At the same time, we were able to watch a Powerpoint presentation introducing other teachers and tools used in the classroom.  By the time I had joined the chat, it was the last week for The New Teacher Bootcamp, hosted by Edutopia.org.  I was blown away.  I was able to participate in a discussion with teachers and administrators across the global community about ideas, websites, and online services that would improve technology implementation in the classroom. I almost felt bombarded with so much information and resources available to teachers.  It was great to hear stories of how technology is being integrated NOW rather than how it COULD be integrated.  From this chat, I found valuable links and people to network with through Twitter.

Lisa Dabbs, @teachingwthsoul, was the moderator for the New Teacher Bootcamp webinar.  I later found out that she is also the founder of #ntchat and a blogger on Edutopia.org.  She shared stories and resources other teachers had given her, as well as her own.  I am also following TJ Houston, @tjhouston, for two major reasons.  He was an excellent participant in the chat, encouraging others and provided many of the links to the tools in the discussion.  Secondly, he is not a teacher.  As a director of technology, he works with teachers by helping them integrate some of the technology into their classroom and shared a few stories about how these tools were so helpful.  It is useful to get an outside perspective on technology integration in education.  Megan Palevich, @mrspal, was also one of the contributors to the New Teacher Webinar.  Following Jerry Blumengarten, @Cybraryman, was an obvious choice because his Twitter name is great, but I also used his website to find the various Twitter chats that are available.  Another great name, @ClassroomChaos, has a very cool and hilarious education blog.

Diigo is a social bookmarking site that allows me to save favorite and useful websites in an online library. This becomes a social networking service, however, because the websites can be shared with the online community.  Each account holder can tag, or categorize, the websites they are saving.  For example, I tagged a website called "Free Rice" with descriptions like "education, games, activities, multicultural".  These tags allow other community members to search for these keywords and find pages that have these descriptions.  

I was also granted membership into a Digital Discussion Forum (Ning) called the Educator's PLN.  Just like it sounds, the Educator's PLN is a forum for teachers to connect and collaborate by submitting posts, blogs, videos, etc.  Out of curiosity, I decided to check out what videos were available and one had caught my eye.  Considering failure has a bad reputation, I was wondering what would be said in a video called "Why you need to fail".  The video gives three major points why failure is necessary in education: 1 - It's required for learning.  2- It keeps you in the growth mindset.  3- It reminds you that everything is an experiment.  If you are not failing, you're not learning because doing what you know is fun, but it doesn't improve you.  Knowing your failures helps guide you where to practice.  The growth mindset is the opposite of the fixed mindset.  The Fixed mindset says that talent is innate and that people are naturally given skill.  The Growth mindset states that talent is derived from work.  When creating something, we have selected from a seemingly infinite amount of choices, so what says those choices are right or wrong?  We must remind ourselves that everything is an experiment, therefore nothing is really a failure, just a choice.  "If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough"

Journal 6 - Student Voices for Change

NETS-T (1, 3, 4, 5)

What happened on January 28, 2010 sparked a fuse.  The explosive?  Student voices.  Seven students from Van Meter Community School, ranging from grades 5-12, were brought before the Iowa House and Senate Education Appropriations Committee.  They were able to speak about the fantastic experiences and opportunities that technology has brought them and how it has influenced their education.  "Student Voices for Change", an article by Shannon Miller, shares the experience and describes how the movement continues through the online community via technology tools like blogging. "So what can we do to get out of your way and let you go?" asked a legislator.  This is evidence teachers are innovating the classroom learning environment.  Technology in the classroom has not only given students tools to do work, but infuses their creativity as they explore and play with these new tools.

How can I give my students a voice?
These seven students have set a wonderful example by speaking before a State Committee, but what about the average student?  Many of these students were able to expand their voice by creating blogs.  Blogs give students a voice in the online community to create a forum for feedback and shared ideas.  As a journal, students are welcomed to present their thoughts or even talk about their day, knowing that people can tune in and read their work.

What can we do to continue the change?
As teachers, we need to welcome and integrate technology into our classrooms and invite parents, students and administrators to participate.  By participating in technology integration, we spread the experience.  Developing a PLN can be a first step to tapping into the internet as a major technology resource.

Miller, S.M. (2011). Student voices for change. Learning & leading with technology, 38(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-june-july-2011.aspx

All About Me Survey

Journal 4 - One Size Never Fits All

NETS-T (2)

Differentiation is the word in the educational community.  "One Size Never Fits All", an article written by Jennifer Courduff, specifically addresses how to differentiate the use of technology to adapt to the needs of students, especially in special education.  She first suggests that teachers "learn to match specific curricular tasks with technology resources that engage students, increase understanding, and enhance learning (Courduff, 2011).   To integrate technology into the classroom, teachers participated in a program divided into 3 Tiers.  In Tier 1, teachers attended hands-on workshops to learn how to use various technology tools.  Tier 2 participated in a hybrid course utilizing face-to-face and online environments that focused on training teachers to develop e-portfolios.  The final tier, Tier 3, refined teachers' skills in technology tools while emphasizing online collaboration through social networking, texting, etc.  One of the tools being integrated in the classroom now is speech-to-text programs.  This allows students to embrace the magic of story writing without being hampered by the technical skills of writing.

Why is it important to train teachers to use technology resources, especially in special education?
As classes become more integrated and inclusive, it is necessary that teachers develop the skills that can address the wide range of learners in the classroom.  If teachers are not properly trained to integrate technology into their lessons, it no longer becomes a useful tool.  Courduff promotes a process called Tiers not Years to mark the progress of learning instead of a static time frame to give teachers enough time to fully integrate their new skills.

What kind of technology resources can teachers use now?
One of the examples in this article describes speech-to-text programs, but there are also programs that do the reverse.  For students who have difficulties with vision, text-to-speech programs allow students to hear words rather than read them.  

Courduff, J. (2011). One size never fits all. Learning & Leading with Technology, 38(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-june-july-2011.aspx

Journal 3 - Abracadabra

"Abracadabra - It's Augmented Reality", by Raphael Raphael, highlights the new ways technology is becoming integrated in the classroom.  Augmented Reality, or AR, "[adds] layers of information on the real world, usually in real time".  With the advancement of technology, especially "with the rise of touch and gestural interfaces", educators are exploring ways to capture the magic of these tools to enhance learning for students.  The Getty, for example, combines a real life picture, the internet and a webcam to create an interactive model of a 17th Century Cabinet of Curiosities.  Augmented Reality tools, such as Zooburst, also promote creativity for students as they create their own interactive versions of, what used to be, static stories.  With the growth of mobile applications, AR can drastically affect the way we interact with our world.

Why is it important to introduce AR into the classroom?
The classroom provides an experience that prepares students for understanding the world.  As the world constantly evolves, especially with the growth of technology, teachers need evolve as well.  The methods of learning have changed drastically from simple print media.  Information is no longer static.  Augmented Reality offers students a new way to access information and enriches the depth of learning.

What are some of the challenges and obstacles for AR integration?
Augmented Reality is obviously technology heavy.  Therefore, schools may not have the funding to integrate the right tools to utilize AR.  Teachers would also need proper training in order to effectively introduce AR to their students, who are sometimes even more familiar with technology tools than their teachers.  Part of teaching through AR would involve a whole new style of learning, focusing on how to navigate through applications and the internet to prevent students from being bombarded with the massive wave of information available.  However, these obstacles have always been present with any type of evolution in technology.  It is what makes it so fascinating and so magical.

Raphael, R. (2011). Abracadabra - it's augmented reality!. Learning & Leading with Technology, 38(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-june-july-2011.aspx

Paton, David (Composer). (1974). Magic [Recorded by Pilot]. [Medium of recording: Record]