What a course!! So much knowledge being shared in such a short time it was quite a ride. I am certainly glad that I was a part of this course and now believe that I have a wealth of knowledge to draw from to overcome many of the problems with often endure with some of our students with some help from Assistive Technology. This course has taught we that we need to do everything in our means to help our students learn, and that there are certainly many supporting technologies available to ensure that students can be successful in our classrooms. I have already used several strategies I have learned in this course including Inspiration - the program that frusterated me for 2 weeks. Although there may have been times of fruteration or confusion I really appreciated the fact that I was learning something that is useful in the course that I anticipate using in the immediate future with my students.
As a teacher you sometimes want someone to tell you or show you what it is you need to do. However I enjoyed the fact that in this course and being a student again over the past 2 years that I was asked to continue to further my learning and explore things that expanded my knowledge as an educator. Assistive technology certainly is an important part of education for many students today, therefore it is important that as teachers we provide opportunities for students to access this technology. Having taken this course,with its eye opening and jaw dropping videos related to AT, my only hope is that other teachers will have the same opportunites and explore AT whether in a course or through some professional development. It has truly been a powerful experience and I thank-you Barb for your wealth of knowledge.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Week 10 - Assignment #3 - Deaf-Blind Individuals and AT
This class was very relaxing and was enjoyable due to the fact that our group had spent the previous week collecting information thus we were able to produce a powerpoint project with little difficulty. As I was researching about people who are both deaf-blind, I found it difficult to imagine a life where one could not hear and see. The things that wee often stress over are so minor to what these people have overcome in their lives. It was truly amazing once again to see some of the AT that is available nowadays to help those individuals communicate with their peers.
While working on this assignment I began to realize that as things are coming to an end for me in Masters program, I am still learning each and everyday something new and interesting. It is funny how things work in real life because as I started this course I was someone who had very limited knowledge about AT other than some basic things around physical education. Now I have an unlimited amount of things to draw upon in other aspects of education I thought I might never need - that is until I was hired last week as a program support to teacher in a highschool where I just moved.
My hope is that I can incorporate some of the things I have learned in this course to my regular practice with the students I will be working with on a regular basis. I am truly glad that I am finishing up my degree with a course that I anticipate using much of what I learned right away.
While working on this assignment I began to realize that as things are coming to an end for me in Masters program, I am still learning each and everyday something new and interesting. It is funny how things work in real life because as I started this course I was someone who had very limited knowledge about AT other than some basic things around physical education. Now I have an unlimited amount of things to draw upon in other aspects of education I thought I might never need - that is until I was hired last week as a program support to teacher in a highschool where I just moved.
My hope is that I can incorporate some of the things I have learned in this course to my regular practice with the students I will be working with on a regular basis. I am truly glad that I am finishing up my degree with a course that I anticipate using much of what I learned right away.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Week 9 - On Screen Keyboard
This weeks class was quite interesting as I continue to build on my knowledge of the many things that are already available for AT without us even knowing it. The on screen keyboard that is accessible in almost all computers is a great peice of technology for those individuals with limited motor skills but are very capable of fine motor along with excellent timing. As I watched the videos of both individuals, it was truly amazing to see how they used such a device with relative ease with such limited mobility. Just watching what this technology allows these individuals to access is hard to believe unless you can see it with your own eyes.
As I attempted to use the on screen keyboard, I felt very clumsy and awkward trying to spell a simple word, once again adding to my amazement to what the individuals in the videos could due with such AT. I felt that the scanning option made it very difficult and without much practice could certainly be frusterating in the beginning. However, it certainly does open up a different world to those with no a lot of motor skills and makes me want to work on improving my motor skills so that I can share this with my students.
As we began to finish up our class we were given our final assignment - my group was assigned deaf-blind individuals. With the limited amount of time we were able to gather up some great ideas as to how and what to present about and I am looking forward to next weeks class and learning much more about technology avaible for these individuals.
As I attempted to use the on screen keyboard, I felt very clumsy and awkward trying to spell a simple word, once again adding to my amazement to what the individuals in the videos could due with such AT. I felt that the scanning option made it very difficult and without much practice could certainly be frusterating in the beginning. However, it certainly does open up a different world to those with no a lot of motor skills and makes me want to work on improving my motor skills so that I can share this with my students.
As we began to finish up our class we were given our final assignment - my group was assigned deaf-blind individuals. With the limited amount of time we were able to gather up some great ideas as to how and what to present about and I am looking forward to next weeks class and learning much more about technology avaible for these individuals.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Week 8 - Assignment #2 - version 2
Well I guess a lot of us were a little confused by the reactions I gathered as we were asked to redo our assignments. I really did think I had done a good job and the fact that I had spent a considerable amount of time working on the assignment made it disappointing to know that it was done wrong. However once I got a look at Barbs example I realized that I was way off from my design and I had a lot of work ahead of me to resubmit the assignment. So I was off to do it.
At first I became very frusterated with the fact that I could not figure out how to rearrange my web to make it flow in a linear fashion. This was complimented by the fact that we were asked to extend on the assignment with the inclusion of excutive functions from the George McKlosky article. This article had a lot of information and it was hard to decipher what information would be relevant for the assignment. I spent most of the class time trying to explore the inspiration program and understand how to remove links and rearrange my first attempt at the web of my writing process. It was not until Barb offered to send us her example as a guideline that I felt a bit of comfort with the activity.
Using the sample writing process I was able to recreate my web design and gather some understanding of where excutive functions and attention to task fit into my wrting task example. Although their is quite a bit of repitition, I was able to gather an understanding of the relevance that the process needs to be linear and that an ommision of excutive functions would not do justice to the actual process. Having finished the project, I began to run into problems trying to upload it to my blog and am trying to work out the kinks. Been quite a 2 weeks - but a learning experience all the same.
At first I became very frusterated with the fact that I could not figure out how to rearrange my web to make it flow in a linear fashion. This was complimented by the fact that we were asked to extend on the assignment with the inclusion of excutive functions from the George McKlosky article. This article had a lot of information and it was hard to decipher what information would be relevant for the assignment. I spent most of the class time trying to explore the inspiration program and understand how to remove links and rearrange my first attempt at the web of my writing process. It was not until Barb offered to send us her example as a guideline that I felt a bit of comfort with the activity.
Using the sample writing process I was able to recreate my web design and gather some understanding of where excutive functions and attention to task fit into my wrting task example. Although their is quite a bit of repitition, I was able to gather an understanding of the relevance that the process needs to be linear and that an ommision of excutive functions would not do justice to the actual process. Having finished the project, I began to run into problems trying to upload it to my blog and am trying to work out the kinks. Been quite a 2 weeks - but a learning experience all the same.
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