Blog Post #12

By: Sheridan Jones.
For this weeks blog assignment, the driving question is, "What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?". To be honest, I have not thought about what technological tools that could be out there to help with special needs students. When I received this topic, I was actually able to put myself in a current teachers shoes and began to think "what if" I have a student that is blind or deaf. The videos that were assigned for us to watch were very useful and relating to what questions I had about this topic.

The first video, The Mountbatten created by The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, was relating to a device that uses audio/feedback. It can save files, transfer files to a computer, and receive files from a computer. This device is great for a student and/or teacher who does not know brail. Blind students are now not limited to what they can do not but rather be included in projects and be held to a responsibility of doing their part of the work.

The second video, Teaching Math to the Blind by Professor Art Karshmer University of San Francisco, informs us how they have created a touch-pad that blind students will be able to use to learn mathematics. Students will be able to use special (braille engraved) blocks and align math problems in a 2-dimensional way so they may learn as normal students learn. The touch-pad will keep track of the coordinates of each block students can keep up with where they have laid previous blocks. It is a foundation for blind students so that they may learn the basics of mathematics. The picture below is a touch-screen display of graphical mathematics for blind students.

This last video, iPad usage for the blind, I found the most amazing and intriguing. Apple has developed a voice-over for the iPad that enables the blind to use the iPad just as a normal person with normal vision can. Wesley (who is blind) demonstrates this in the video by using the voice-over on the iPad and telling/showing us what all he can do with it. It is amazing technology that expands the blinds capability so far. I love how Apple has created such an amazing tool that not only helps for learning purposes, but also, to help create the feeling of normality to blind students/people. 

By: Amber Harris:

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?

After watching, "Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children", the video clearly shows educators that if they utilize the technologies available they can actually change a learning experience for a child with either a visual or hearing impairment. I agree that more awareness should be given to professionals to incorporate these types of technologies for children who not only suffer from sensory impairments,but for some teachers there is a resistance to incorporating new media in their daily teaching for the benefit of all students. More teachers need to be equipped with the skills to use these technologies. As with all professional learning surrounding the use of technology, teachers cannot expect to be handed a 'how to' manual on how to use and implement these technologies.
With some research on my own, I asl found the webpage "Computer Based Assistive Technology." This webiste gives 10 assistive technologies, such as Speech Synthsis Software. "Speech synthesizers are basically screen readers. They read text that is displayed on the computer monitor, allowing students to gain independent access to assignments, books, and research. Teachers or students do, however, need to pre-scan material before they can use it. Speech synthesis allows them to access the print in textbooks, and thereby the curriculum, in a way that would otherwise be more difficult, if not impossible. It may even increase student motivation to read." (Montali & Lewandowski, 1996)
How students can use speech synthesis software:
1. Where text is available in digital form (i.e., on the computer or diskette), students can have text read to them.
2. Some screen readers can read in a variety of applications, including the Internet.
3. Some Internet sites have collections of textbooks available to be read by screen readers.
4. Students can control the pace of the reading and the reading selection, through having the computer read only the words they are having difficulty decoding or a whole paragraph or passage.
5. Students can manipulate the rate of read-back to allow for variations in the speed they process auditory information.

 by: Mallory Harris
The driving question for this post was, "What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?"

For this assignment, I Googled assistive technology in the classroom. There were some pretty interesting results. The first resource that I cam across was Bookshare. It is a website with a free online library for people with print disabilities. The website help people who have trouble reading. This website seemed like it could be very useful for me in the future because I am going to be an english teacher and some of my students may be able to get some use out of the site.
The next resource that I found was Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology. This is a website that offers information in its resources section as well as access to the QIAT list serv. The list serv is an excellent forum to keep current with new developments in AT and the latest websites and other resources.
This would be an imprtant website when working with assistive technology because it could keep me up to date with the standards.
I also watched the video assigned by Dr.Strange called Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children. The video was about the different types of assistive technologies that can be found in the classroom and listed some of the reasons why it is important to know about these technologies.


By:Tyler Mills The driving question for this blog post is, "What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?" The video that I found interesting in the blog instructions was ipad usage for the blind. It showed a man named Wesley Majerus who was blind fully operate a stock ipad. He was giving lessons and tips of how to use the ipad as a vision impaired student. Wesley demonstrated how to operate using Voice Over. The system works by simply dragging your finger over items that appear on the screen. The Voice Over systems reads out whatever your finger comes across and makes a ticking noise when your finger is over a blank area. This is extremely helpful for a vision impaired student and helps them keep up with the rest of the class.

Through my own research I came across an ability to dictate what you want your apple product to type. The process is called dictation which is available on apple products. While viewing the video Dictation on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, by Steve Dotto I got an idea of how dictation works. Dictation works by saying anything aloud and your device typing the words out for you. This may help out a student that is born with no arms or hands to type. The system can be used to type papers in microsoft word and other systems. Mentioned in the video by Mr. Dotto, the dictation can not be used in google drive. I still believe this can be a big help to a handicap person.

Blog Post #13

For this week's blog post, the assignment is to create a blog post assignment for my area of specialty and actually write about it and DO it! Since I am a Secondary Education and Biology major, I decided to create a blog post that would be very useful and knowledgeable to my field of study.

Watch this video 3 Rules To Spark Learning. What does Ramsey Musallam teach us about curiosity? What about confusion? What about questions? 

Ramsey Musallam teaches us many different lessons in this video. From a personal stand point, he shows us how being strong and with a good attitude, one can come through anything. He was diagnosed with a threatening issue that required brain surgery. It was at this point in his life where he found his true meaning for teaching after 10 years in the profession. His doctor/surgeon was very confident in Ramsey's surgery but he could not understand how or even why. His doctor told him 3 important things, which were: 1) curiosity drove him to ask hard questions about what worked and what did not work, 2) he embraced trial and error, and 3) he reflected on the information gathered and revised to save his life during the surgery. This is where Ramsey took these 3 ideas and reflected on how they are used in the classroom. Curious students become interested students, which become questions asked by the students, which ends in students learning. He took this idea and created 3 rules for his classroom that he has used ever since. Rule #1: Curiosity comes first. Rule #2: Embrace the mess/trial and error. Rule #3: Practice reflection. He encourages us to be the surgeon of your own classroom.

C4K summary for month of April

The week of 4/9/14 I had the privilege of being introduced to Alex from New Zealand and his blog page. The post I read and comment on was that of Making a Piupiu. He uploaded a Google slideshow on how to make a piupiu. I probably cannot even pronounce it correctly and definitely did not know what it was. So before I responded to his post I did a little research. Turns out, a piupiu is made from flax. Flax is a big part of New Zealand culture. It is used for so many different things from cooking, medicine, and more. Well, a piupiu is made from flax that is engraved by a shell, boiled, and woven together into a skirt. I learned something from Alex and I look forward to keeping up with his progress for the rest of this year.

The week of 4/20/14 I was assigned Memory from New Zealand to check out her blog page. Her latest post was about the life cycle of a butterfly. The assignment that was given was that the students had to create an iMovie about an animal in New Zealand that goes through metamorphism. Her video was very well explained with detail of graphics and audio. You can find her blog post and video on her webpage. I commented back expressing how good she has done with her work and to keep it up throughout her schooling.

C4T #4

This month I was assigned to the Diane Dahl who created "For the Love of Teaching". The first post I read and responded to was that of Engaging Brains. She discussed about how if teachers introduce neuroplasticity to their students they can be aware of how to train themselves to succeed in school. She included an example that I found very interesting that was very relevant in supporting her topic. She wrote, ""Why do we practice so much?" For example, here's a great story about neuroscientists investigating how learning affects the brain. Medical researchers were fascinated with how veteran cab drivers could navigate the busy streets of London so effortlessly and remember all the shortcuts without consulting a map. So they did brain scans and discovered that the cabbies' hippocampal areas, the part of the brain associated with spatial reasoning, were larger than those of other adults. All those years of driving and remembering routes had literally changed their brains. Studies of musicians have found similar results of the impact of practice, practice and more practice.". I had a teacher in high school that did something similar to what Mrs. Dahl is talking about and it changed my outcome grade for the course. It was a very hard course but with her help I succeeded. I have now taking what I learned and have tried to apply it to every course I have taken since then. It was very interesting and I will definitely use this approach with my future students and hopefully it will make a difference as it did me.

Two weeks later, I went to back Diane Dahl's blog to check and see if she has created a new post since her last one. Since she has not, I read and commented on the most previous to Engaging Brains. This post was named What Does Neuroplasticity Research Suggest About the Potential of all Students to Master the 4 cs? The brain changes in response to what we hear, what we see, and what we do. The brain creates new neuro-synapses to new experiences that occur daily. An example of this is through vocabulary and reading. Learning new vocabulary words and reading broadens our personal vocabulary in our daily lives. Neuroplasticity is transforming into the form of how us as teachers think about our students success-ability. With all students receiving the same amount of belief in them, they will all feel as if they can succeed. A teacher has to set aside the thought of "natural ability" and assumptions embedded into our society. By taking this view, we can create an enabling behavior environment, rather than a constraining one, that will help students succeed in school and work life. One thing that will make this successful is understanding two things; 1) this is not just for young people, 2) even as an adult, you have to understand you will never stop learning. Some strategies for teaching and learning this are: 1) introduce neuroplasticity to your students so that they may be aware, 2) identify students who stand out with critical skill development, 3) while teaching core subjects, for example, teach math operations and comprehension strategies,4) model problem solving strategies by thinking out loud (great way to teach students how to work and study), 5) go beyond the classroom, spread the word! I commented replying that I believe everyone is born with God-given talents but also you can do anything you set your mind too. It is society that brings your drive to accomplish goals down. I will definitely use this approach in my classroom so that my students are aware that they do not have a predestined future but rather than can create it themselves!

Project #10

A little longer than seven minutes but I thought all of the detail was essential.

C4T#3

These past two weeks I have been following John T. Spencer and his blog page Education Rethink. I have noticed that he talks about situations and issues that is school related that no one even thinks about. The first blog post that I read and commented on was This is What Happened When We Stay Quiet with the topic of the American dream minimized/absent for young students not born in the country. He states that the American dream comes with an asterisk beside the word meaning that there is something else following the word in small fine print. Students at a young age are accepting the fact they will never achieve their dreams, so why even try? It is very saddening and heart breaking to hear that the dreams of a child are crushed before they even graduate high school. The issue is so belittled that no one will even consider talking about the situation. The second video, Changing What We Can Control, Spencer discuses the topic of students experiences that are not comfortable that gives bad feedback to students. It is simple things such as locks not being on the stall doors in the bathroom. Some students who may be shy or easily intimidated, this creates uncomfortable situations. If students are not comfortable or if they have had an unpleasant situation, instead of focusing on their lesson and learning, they are focused on their uncomfortable situation. The point of his blog post, is to share his knowledge of students responses to uncomfortable situations so that teachers and administrators can beware of what is going on and help control the things that they can.