Two Questions

I first had to check before I posted this blog to see if I had already made a comment about this assignment sense this was awhile back. We had to post two questions pertaining to using technology with education and then find two articles per question that could best answer the question and post it and make some notes. First of all I had the hardest time coming up with two well thought up questions. I only remember one of them now because the assignment was taken off angel and I did not write the questions down anywhere else. I was going through the library databases to find articles that would best help with my questions and was having a difficult time finding good articles. It was taking up a lot of my time trying to find good articles to use. That is one of the problems I am having now with trying to find articles for the 12 point postings for this blog assignment. It is a very time consuming project and if we need to do so many but can't find them it is hard to get the points we would like. I don't feel the database through the FGCU library is very helpful for the topic of Special Education that I would like to look up. Even when I was trying to find some information for our first test project I was having difficulty trying to find the right material. It is good in one sense that this helps us to find many resources but it all depends on what a person is looking for.

Still Learning

On to the next project. Before this class is through we are going to have to do a "movie" on Movie Maker. I have never used Movie Maker before but I found it fasinating when we were learning about it in class. We are going to have to put visuals, narration, transestion, and sound into our project. The only challenge I am having at this point is I tried to do a test show at home but I don't think it saved correctly. When I went back to look at what I had done a couple of days later the pictures were all Xed out. I know I had saved it as a pr0ject the way we were told to save it but I don't know what happend.
I am excited to learn more about this program. We still have to learn how to put the audio into the slide. I have been thinking of ideas on what I would like to do my movie about but have not come up with anything yet. I think this form of technology should maybe be used for those in 8th grade through high school but it can be used effectivly and be fun at the same time.

Another Tool For Those With Exceptional Needs

I get so excited when I find something I can use that relates to students with exceptional needs and technology. In the first class test we did, our group talked about using hand held devices for the students. I was having such a difficult time finding articles that I really liked that showed how these devices were being used in the class room. Today I found a great article and not only are these students using the hand held's but they are high school students with autism and Asperger's Syndrome. A school in Texas was trying to see how these devices would work for their student's.
They found that the main thing these devices help with were the student's social skills. They were talking with other students they may not have talked with because they had to do projects with their hand held's that required taking a classmates picture to learn their names. They would also use them to take notes in class and the other students in the class who did not have one would be very interested. It also proved to be another way to help keep the students organized and planning their schedules so they would not be as frustrated if something changed. Some students were even able to take their frustration out but writing journals on their hand held's instead of lashing out in other ways. These hand held's proved to be beneficial for those students with autism and Asperger's Syndrome.
Again another great article that shows how technology is working for those with exceptional needs. They are able to comprehend their work more and feel more like a part of their class. The hand held's are a great idea for any student when it comes to organization but I think the socialization was great for those with exceptional needs. Most people with exceptional needs tend to keep to themselves or occasionaly talk with others like them but usually they don't talk with other student's especially in school. I think the hand held's make it a more comfortable experience for these students. If you would like to learn more about this article click here.

Technology Resourses for those with Special Needs

This article opens a door to a world filled with new technology devices that can help children with special needs. This article would be helpful for educators and parents to explore to see what technologies may be available for their children. These technology tools help children who may have learning disabilities, may be hearing impaired, or visually impaired. This article was written back in 2001 so there may be many new technologies that have emerged sense then. There are so many opportunities now with children who have special needs and the educational help through technology that they can get. Some of the devices include items from interactive software to computer devices that vibrate and flash for the hearing impaired.
I chose this article because I wanted to give a resource that points others in a direction that would get them started with finding technology that can help their special needs child. Many of the items mentioned in the article can help the child comprehend what they are learning and help guide them through the educational process. Even though a child may have special needs there are many things that they pick up on and technology seems to be the growing phase for any child to easily navigate through if they have the right instructions. To learn more about these technologies click here.

Diffrent learning levels

This is an "E" posting

Throughout this semester as I have sat through each class I have learned that there is not one student that is on the same learning level as another. I have observed that this has been somewhat of a challenge for Dr. Baylen. His job is to teach us how technology can be used as another teaching tool in the classroom to help our students grow and learn. Through the years as he has taught this class he to has been observing his students to see what works best for them and what seems to be most effective. There are some projects we are doing in class that his students did not have to do a few years back unless they wanted extra points but he is seeing what works best for his students. Sense we are all on different learning levels and most of us are learning of new technologies ourselves in this class he has had to take us through each technology program such as power point, audacity, and movie maker to get those who are not familiar with these programs up to speed. After we have learned the basics we can focus on how these programs will help us as teachers in the future. Knowing these technology based programs I feel would help make the class room more interactive and a little more fun for the student. We may not use them all the time but like Dr. Baylen we can see what works best for our students and work around them.

Technology help

The journal article that I have chosen focuses on the use of technology with special needs students. The title is "Cheshire tried new approach in special-ed". There is a group of educators who are trying to incorporate computers and technology into a class room to help special needs children with their learning. The educators are trying to find a way that the students can learn in the school right along with the others students who may not have special needs. That want to try to avoid having to send them to specialized programs outside the district. The project is more like an assistance program in the class room for the special needs child. A class room and a special needs teacher would work together with coming up with a system that could better assist the special needs student in the classroom.
Computers and computer programs used to assist the special needs student would give them access to general education curriculum. There were several things that were on display that were being tested for the classroom in the project. One of the things was a screen reader that could take classroom material and convert it into spoken words. The student could also take there own notes from an on screen duplicate text book and they can just highlight the words or passages they want to use as notes. This may be more work for the class room teacher but that is why they want to pair a classroom teacher up with a special education teacher so they can use these technologies together with the students.
I selected this article because I myself am studying to be a special education teacher and I want to see what technologies are being studied that can help the special needs students develop in the class room more. I wanted to see what is being used to have the child who may not be as advanced as some students comprehending the same type of educational material. I believe the ideas in this article would be good to use for a special education child who may need a little more help in the class room. Seeing what is being done for those students with different challenges is very encouraging to me as I continue my education and one day be directly teaching myself. If you would like to learn more about this article click here.

Children and eBooks

We did another project based on the eBooks. This time we had to oberve a child watching the eBooks. There were some questions we needed to ask the child and observe there reactions to see what books were best for the child. I chose a child that I have babysat for about three years now. I wanted to use a child that had special needs but the child from church that I wanted to observe was not available. The child I chose is six years old and is being home schooled. If she was in public school she would be in kindergarten because of her birthdate but her mom started her off in first grade. Observing her was not how I thought it was going to be.
When I first viewed the eBooks I had fun watching them. She did not have much of a reaction. She did like the eBooks and thought they were cool. She would like to use these at home and for school. I'm not sure if it was her level or the type of books but it did not seem like she really understood most of the lessons in the books even though they were on her grade level. It was neat to see her react to the Bug book though. She read along with the narrator and liked the words and facts at the end of the book.
I would use this project with my students as a one on one project. When the other students are still working on a project if the child is able to navigate on the computer eBook site on their own I would have them read an e-book and then write about something they learned from the book. This project let me get a better idea of a child's reaction to these eBooks.

E-Books Part 2

In our next project we basically had to create our own e-book. The tools we used were audacity and power point. This project was fun to do but time consuming and a little challenging at times. We had to take the second story board that we created and make a power point presentation out of it. We had to have text, pictures, and audio all incorporated.
The challenges I had were my memory disk was full and I was not aware of that and was recording my sound files and half of them did not get recorded and I had to record them all over again. I do not have power point on my computer so I had to go somewhere that did. Once I found power point putting together the presentation was not very difficult.
I enlisted my brother to help me with the pictures and one of the voices in my project. We were not allowed to use clip art or pictures from the Internet so I had to be creative in what I used. I am a terrible artist even when it comes to stick figures so I wanted to do something else that was more creative. I really did not have access to take pictures because my story focused around a second grade classroom setting and I did not have access to take photo's of a class room. In the end I found a Hello Kitty Coloring book that had what I needed along with some scrape book stickers and I put together my pictures and used a digital camera to take the pictures and download them to the computer. There was probably a more easier way to get the pictures on the computer but that is what I am familiar with.
My story was of a little girl who would not pay attention or listen in class and she had to learn why it was important to listen. After I completed the final project it was OK but even I thought it was a little boring I wish I would have done something a little more fun. When I observe a child for the other e-book project I will see what she thinks about this story.
This would be a great project however for a teacher to do for their classroom. I think a teacher that is in elementary school should make there own and present it to the class along with a quiz in the back. Our class has not gotten to the quiz part yet but we will have to incorporate a quiz eventually. This will also help the students to follow along visual and audible and let them see that any one can use technology. For those in middle or high school I think this would be a great group project for the students to create. It would help them to organize and work together to make something fun.