Week 14

Identity principle, Practice principle and multimodal principle are three principles that I think are important for education. Identity principle gives students the opportunity to work on how to be more social, build relationships. Social training is very important for students in today’s society. Practice principle allows for practicing which every student needs in order to be successful in any content area.  Finding new ways to keep students interested and not bored is a challenge all on it’s on. The practice principle helps in keeping students on task.  Multimodal principle is important in working with students who may not always understand what it is their reading.  By using pictures, sounds, symbols, etc. can help build the students knowledge.

A simulation that we use in my special education classroom uses the multimodal principle.  The activity is to teach the student about getting around in the community.  They learn street signs and what each sign stands for. They learn about different forms of transportation.  By using the multimodal approach students are able to put pictures with words so as to know what they are seeing while in the community.

I think that it is very important for teachers to come up with new and inventive ways to keep students engaged in learning.  With technology being so advanced and changing everyday most students are easily bored in a traditional classroom lecture.  Honestly, I have seen students that are in the 9^th grade but cannot read pass a 1^st grade level but can sit and play video games for hours.  So, I think if there is a way to engage students in games that will improve their reading then I say lets start gaming.

Reference:

  Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning with technology. United States of America: Pearson Education Inc.

Week 13 Assignment

Week 13 Assignment

Technology based rubrics are great to have when working on technology projects.  Using rubrics in the classroom allows students to follow steps of what is expected on the projects and lets students have a better understanding of how to organize the project.

Using clicker assessment tools in the classroom is a great way for the teacher to get instant feedback from the class on a topic.  Using these clickers allows an entire class to be engaged in participation of the class without being singled out.  I think that I could use these clicker tools in my special education classroom for some simple visual thinking assignments.

The Kidspiration Software is great software for helping students that have a hard time with learning.  It allows students a visual aspect to help with organizing their thoughts and how things actually work.   Working with special needs children I think lessons using pictures to breakdown certain subjects could be modified enough to use this site to help in their learning needs.

References:

Inspiration Software, Inc.. (2010). Kidspiration. Available: http://www.inspiration.com/. Last accessed 27th Nov 2010.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Digital Storytelling in this chapter is a tool used to create a story from a storyboard on a paper.  Students have to use their creative thinking in this process.  They have to come up with a story and put it on paper then use a camera to make a video and then use a computer and software to edit making a desktop movie.  Students learn that what the see and hear can have a major effect on others.

Graphing calculators are a tool used to support mathematical sense making.  TinkerPlots is visualization software for elementary grade 4 to 8 to allow students to see different patterns and clusters in statistical data.  Fathom Dynamic Statistic Software is for high school students to use for making sense of large data sets.  Geometric Supposer is visual software used in supporting the learning of geometry. These are the tools mention in chapter 9 for helping students learn math.

Is it possible to learn from TV alone?  Yes, television can engage learners with important learning context. Learners can find significant information by viewing a program and work toward solving a problem or how to do something new.

Ch.7 Communication with Technology

When creating podcasts in the classroom, these audio files may be downloaded by the students to listen to independently or in a learning station in the classroom. Or, they may be heard via a website or weblog. There are many ways to create podcasts. And, they may be used in various cross-curricular learning. Here are a couple lesson ideas that you can use when incorporating podcasting in education.

Word-of-the-Day/Week

For this lesson, teachers can create word-of-the-day (or week) lists. The recording may include:

• Word (pronounced properly)
• Syllabic pronunciation of the word
• Spelling of the word
• Meaning of the word
• The word in a sentence
• Synonyms and/or Antonyms of the word

This type of lesson is very useful when teaching a new language and introducing new linguistic concepts.

Class Report

For this lesson, teachers can create a summary of class activities for students and/or the families on a weekly or monthly basis.

Alternatively, students may work in groups to take turns in creating reports or summaries of what they've learned and/or what they did in class. This may then be listened to in class and/or shared with families.

Podcasting and Web 2.0 applications are similar in using audio and video to produce a product to be made available online.  Podcasting can be downloaded to MP3 players, iPods and iPhones so that one can listen or watch at their convenience.

Yes, I own a MP3 player and I use for listening to music when I go for a walk or cleaning house.  I do have a student that uses an iPod in the classroom.  We use it for his schedule of classes.  This student is a special education student and is a visual learner.  By being able to use the iPod to see his schedule and the pictures allows him a bit of self-determination skills. 

Online communication tools give students lots of advantages to learning and if there is anything that can help a student grasp the lesson than I’m all for it.  The only disadvantage for me as a special education educator is finding the time to set up and use online communication tools for each students individuals needs.  Not all students can or is able to use the tools by themselves.

References:

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R.M., & Crismond, D. (2008). Community building with technologies. In D. Prybella (Ed.), Meaningful learning with technology (pp. 140-165). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

Chapter 6 - Blogs, Wikis, Socialbookmarking and Tapped In

I currently work in a Life Skills class with the severe and profound students.  I have really spent some time trying to think about how I would use a blog with my students and I could only think about using a blog in the same since as Lisa did from out textbook.  I think blogging about what we teach to the students would help parents and others who are involved in working with special needs children.  To have other input from others about what experiences they have in working with special needs children could even give teachers new instructional strategies.

As a Special Education teacher, I think that socialbookmarking could be a great way for teachers to share the websites they use to enhance their lessons.  I know that the teachers I work with ask each other about different sites for making worksheets or to get new ideas for new task for the students, with socialbookmarking time and steps would be saved by being able to see what the other teacher’s websites they have marked and used. I really liked the Voice Thread, but again I am not really sure how I could use it with the students I have. I would really like anyone ideas they may have on how I could use Voice Thread.

Tapped In is a Web-based learning environment for professional development providers and educators. Tapped In enables providers to offer high-quality online professional development experiences and support to more teachers cost-effectively. Through Tapped In, educators can extend their professional growth beyond courses or workshops with the online tools, resources, colleagues, and support they need to implement effective, classroom-centered learning activities. Tapped In brings educators together both locally and worldwide to cultivate a community that supports each teacher as a professional.

References:

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R.M., & Crismond, D. (2008). Community building with technologies. In D. Prybella (Ed.), Meaningful learning with technology (pp. 100-135). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

Tapped In features

• Virtual buildings with public, group, and personal rooms
• Group creation and management
• Event rooms with registration, sessions
• Calendar system
• Job bank
• Guests and member access
• Student accounts
Communication:
• Text-based chat and private messaging
• Threaded discussion boards in every room
• Conversation transcripts automatically emailed
• Messages saved for someone who is not logged in
Information sharing and retrieval:
• File and URL storage in personal and group rooms
• Room "sticky notes" for posting welcome messages, agendas, etc.
• Group and member directories
• Search for members and other resources

SRI International, Tapped In. (1997). Retrieved October 13, 2010 from http://Tapped In.org

Chapter 10

Assessment activities are an important step in gathering data on students.  Teachers can use the assessment to make accommodations to help students improve their performance in their learning outcomes. Using technology to gather the data allows for a faster way to modify instruction to improve the learning outcomes.

E-portfolio is a digital collection of work stored in an electronic format.  By building a portfolio, students can show their ability to follow process, creativity in different types of product usage.  This builds their learning domain.  Teachers can assess the portfolios and see the different types of learning outcomes of the student.  Computer-based testing can be used in assessing a students learning outcomes, but I think the the validity and reliability can be questionable.  How well is the test written?  It takes time and can be a difficult task to write a good assessment, so how well is the test used from the internet, do they cover what is needed for the student in order to make improvements in their learning outcomes. Using testing from online may not always be the best route.

Assessment is required in schools today.  Teachers and students can become frustrated from the different testing’s, but in order to make for better learning outcomes assessments need to be done.  Assessments give feedback so students can improve their learning.  It gives teachers the information needed to accommodate and help each student in their learning process.

Copyright

Copyright is a law that protects the author or creator’s works. Respecting these rights of the author or creators works will keep them from being cheated out of any monetary gain.  If you were to be the author or creator you would want to have credit for your ideas and not someone else.  The best way to teach students about copyright is to lead by example.  If you respect the copyright then your students will understand and follow.

Online safety is the security of people and their information when being on the internet.  I believe it is different in away than cyber bullying, one being a bully online is there to intimate and even look to cause serious harm to another.  Ways to protect your children and yourself are to never give out personal information and us a cyber name.

I have always known about copyright but this lesson has been very interesting in learning about the different amounts of work that can be used. I always thought that if something has a copyright you could not use it for another use.  I printed the copyright cheat sheet to help me make sure that I follow the fair use rules.

I think that students need to be very aware of cyber bullying and how to be safe online.  So any way that these topics can be brought to their attention and shown how important it is to be safe and on guard while surfing the internet will be a valued lesson.