Final Post

I learned about technology in the general education classroom. As a special education teacher I didn't learn much about the advances and practices of special education technology, and this was a little disappointing. I had to really dig to find the value of some of the exercises from a special educator standpoint, but some things we learned were definitely beneficial upon closer inspection. I understood the thought process behind letting us figure things out on our own, and not entirely looking to the educator for a list of things to do and what not to do, but definitely feel that a little more direct instruction was necessary in order for me to feel as if I had really learned some valuable things. Thanks for working with us and being patient..!

ScreenCast

After reviewing everyone else's screen cast assignments, I think I better understand the point of the assignment. It was definitely interesting to see what everyone focused on, and it will be a good resource for the future. Its nice not to have to learn everything about every application, but instead to split the load up so that we can each really focus on our own individual parts and then teach it to our classmates and colleagues. It really was a good example of real life team work because in the work place, not all teamwork is about working together in the same time and space, but collaborating and sharing the work load.

Week 5

I wish I had more time to play around with the program because by the time I was done with my lesson, I felt like I had a good handle on it. I thought maybe if there was a little more direct instruction about the different parts of the program I would. It took me a long time to figure things out, that by the time I felt comfortable, I didn't have much time to actually work on, and make a good project. I feel much better at my SMART Board skills, but I definitely want to work on it more before I try and implement it into my classroom lessons. I think I will be able to use this in the classroom, but like I said I need more time to practice and learn.

Models of Internet Use

Internet project and Internet workshop are similar in that they have the kids independently use the computers to get a task done. This will strengthen their skill set on internet use and possibly open their minds to new, successful, and appropriate ways to use the internet as a tool. Internet project is more geared towards teachers modifying their curriculum to use computers. They can use projects that are already set up, or create ones of their own. The students use these web projects to learn something, while working collaboratively. Internet workshop is where the teacher uses the internet to enhance their curriculum. They can have the students pre-research a topic that they are going to be studying in class or further explore a topic once its been introduced. This is more independent work for the students. The teacher doesn't need to change her curriculum plan, other than to incorporate a day or week for the students to conduct their research.

Pearltree Language Tools

  The specific tools that I found would be helpful are the websites that have classroom games. You could use them in the classroom. Also there are a lot of websites that support second language learners, and there are a lot of informational websites that would help kids research a certain topic.
  For language tools, you can use many different types. As a world language teacher you could pearl different helpful websites for second language learning specific to your content areas. If you invited your students, they could have access to all the helpful and appropriate websites that they could use. The obstacles that could be present are if you have children that cannot figure out how to effectively learn the process of pearling. Also it doesn't seem like the website is very structured and it would be hard to monitor what kids would pearl. Maybe a way to get around this would be to have them only have access to the website in a classroom setting.

ThinkQuest

http://library.thinkquest.org/11799/
I chose the site "Just Because We Have A DisAbility Doesn't Mean WE BYTE!" This one stood out to me because the whole goal of the website was to educate people about different disabilities. I think that a well educated person has less prejudices and holds less stereotypes because they know better. Its because of that belief that I think the website is very important. I would share it as a resource with students, and hopefully open their minds a little to the differences in all of us. Also, I think its important for people with a disability to know that they aren't alone. Because of the nature of many disabilities, they vary greatly from person to person. This means that disabilities can be somewhat isolating, and knowing about other people out there with a similar situation is very helpful. Also, some children have a disability, and for whatever reason, they don't know much about it other than their own experiences, and a resource like this website could be very important for them being able to learn how to self disclose and/or help other people who also don't understand them. This would connect to the state standards because you could use these to enrich your curriculum, and give the students the best education possible. Similarly, this would have a relationship with NETs because NETs is a protocol for teachers to better implement technology in your classroom, and using this website, as well as other websites from ThinkQuest, would make sure you are using technology, at least in a minimal way, in your classroom.

For a student with a hearing impairment I would use a microphone or an FM system. The microphone would be easiest because I as the teacher would just wear it around my neck, and all the students could benefit. If I used an FM system, I would still wear a microphone, but the student would have a small receiver box and an ear piece, and that way, the student can adjust the volume for his/her comfort. For someone with low vision, I would place them in the front of the room so that they could see the board, and give them hard copies of whatever I was presenting so that they could see it better. Also I could provide large print books in the classroom and increase the size of the typing on my handouts to all students to make it easier for that child. For a broken arm, assuming that the right one was their dominant hand, I could provide that student with hard copies of the materials so that they could just focus on what was being said, and review my notes later. I could also assign them a study buddy who could take notes for them for however long their arm was in a cast. I could also allow for homework to be typed because maybe that would be easier then hand writing. For non-communicative autism, I would definitely want to provide them with some sort of ACC device, whether that be a Dynavox or an iPad or whatever, so they would have some sort of mode for communication.