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
I think you will have to be very creative in the use of some of these technologies for you students. For the Voice Thread, I know very little about special needs kids so I am making a major guess but...I suppose you could find what your students really like and enjoy, then you could enlist a family member to do the voice for each student's part this would be more for the students to watch and hear. You could also do something with family members and having the student speak a few simple words about their family member.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same with voice thread part. I wouldn't know what to really do either. When I saw it I thought it was neat but with elementary level and early students I didn't think I wanted to really use it. I bet if I gave it more thought I could find a way for them to use it and be successful!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on using the blog as a textbook and showing people what you teach.I think that by doing that it would get more people involved and they would understand what is going on in the classroom and they could help. I also agree that socialbookmarking would make it so much easier on us as teachers and we could all feed off of each others ideas.
ReplyDeleteSocialbookmarking would be beneficial to any teacher. I definitely agree in that it's a great resource for teachers to use. It would also come in handy for older students who have a group project to present.
ReplyDelete